The numbers are impressive. A 34-match regular-season winning streak. Two CIF-SS regional tournament triumphs. Four consecutive Trinity League championships.
During the past few seasons the Mater Dei girls golf team has become one of the best in California. One thing, though, is preventing the Monarchs from joining the truly elite programs, such as Torrey Pines and Palm Desert.
The Mater Dei girls have never qualified for the CIF state championship.
That might be about to change.
First-year coach Derek Uyesaka said this team has the potential to be the best the school has fielded. The Monarchs return four starters from last year’s team that posted a solid nine-hole stroke average of 204.5 while playing on one of the most difficult home courses in high school golf, Santa Ana Country Club.
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“At the end of the season, this could be the best team in Mater Dei history if the chips fall our way,” said Uyesaka, who previously served as an assistant golf coach at Mater Dei for six years. “The girls are driven. … They are motivated to do the best they can. All we can do is keep trying to put ourselves in a position to try and be there (state).”
Uyesaka takes over for Ollie Matin, who retired in June after he led the Mater Dei boys golf team to its first CIF State Championship appearance.
“My goal every year, because we have been blessed to be a good team,” Uyesaka said, “is to get to the ultimate prize, which is making it to the CIF State Championship.”
Mater Dei’s success is not a product of what some call “Catholic school recruiting.” A lot of hard work has gone into the results. For several seasons, the Monarchs used Athletic Republic workouts which included weightlifting, cardio work and nutrition.
“That helped us a lot, especially during CIF with our focus and our endurance (walking 18 holes),” junior Kristy Harada said.
This year, Mater Dei is going in a different direction with its fitness routine, employing its own personal trainers instead. The girls also have a state-of-the-art practice facility on campus that provides computerized swing analysis and an area to work on their short game.
“What we strive to do is get the girls ready to play at the next level,” Uyesaka said. “We are a college preparatory school and we have a college preparatory golf program.”
That is what has been key in luring some of the best junior golfers in Southern California to come to Mater Dei, Harada said.
Count Harada and her senior teammate Jakeishya Le among them. Both were steady performers for the Monarchs last season.
Harada’s nine-hole stroke average as a sophomore was 39.2. Since then, she has shaved three or four strokes off that, Uyesaka said, mostly because of her work on the practice green.
It was Le’s 2-over-par 73 at Talega Golf Club that helped the Monarchs advance to the WSCGA So Cal Championships for the second year in a row. Her stroke average in 2013 was 38.1, making her the Monarchs’ leading returning scorer.
During the summer, Le, an All-County first-team selection last season, qualified for the USGA U.S. Girls Junior Championship in Flagstaff, Ariz. That, Uyesaka said, was the fist time a player teed off at the prestigious tournament since he started working with the program as an assistant coach.
“It was a great experience,” Le said. “I was honored to be there. I’ve worked hard, and I guess that is where it shows … getting there.”
For the Monarchs, though, there’s only one place to be at the end of the season.
“State,” Le said. “That is all that we are going for.”
Contact the writer: ddottore@ocregister.com
