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Mater Dei’s Ollie Martin is the Register’s boys golf coach of the year for 2014.
Mater Dei’s Ollie Martin is the Register’s boys golf coach of the year for 2014.
Damian Dottore. Sports. HS Reporter.

// MORE INFORMATION: Associate Mug Shot taken August 24, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Almost from the first nonleague match, Mater Dei coach Ollie Martin said he got the feeling this boys golf season had the potential to be different than any other at the school.

He could see how focused the Monarchs were on every shot, even if they were just hitting balls on the range. They were extremely competitive, too, he said.

Now, just qualifying for the CIF-SS postseason tournament wasn’t enough. It was time to finally win a championship because there wasn’t going to be “a next year” for the coach. Martin was retiring at the end of the season.

“We all said that were going to do it for him,” Mater Dei junior Marcus De La Rosa said. “Every shot counts. We all said this is his last year, and we want to do everything we can.”

The Monarchs really couldn’t have done much more. They made history, sending their coach off into retirement with the school’s first CIF-SS boys golf championship, a trip to the CIF State Championship and the Register’s coach of the year award.

“I got that feeling that Marcus was really trying to do something special for me,” Martin said.

The Monarchs, though, reached their historic level of success as a team. De La Rosa, Issei Tanabe and Jacob Biss led the Monarchs at one time or another during the postseason.

Tanabe fired a 2-under-par 69 at Sierra La Verne Country Club to lead the Monarchs to the CIF-SS Western Regional team championship, the school’s first Southern Section championship in boys golf.

De La Rosa shot a 1-under-par 70 at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs to help the Monarchs qualify for the SCGA So Cal Championships for the first time. And in the SCGA tournament, Biss carded a 1-under-par 71 at Brookside Golf Club in Pasadena to help qualify for the CIF State Championship, which was another first for the school.

“We had a lot of talent and a lot of potential. I didn’t know that we could make history,” Martin said. “I don’t think you can go out better than this. It was the ride of a lifetime for a coach. I had a blast.”

Contact the writer: ddottore@ocregister.com