Ryan Nichols ’19

The Westborough High School Boys Golf Team wrapped up one of their most successful seasons in school history in late October. The team owes a lot of their praise to their new coach Sandra Robichaud. While this season was her first year as the coach of the boys’ team, she has had plenty of coaching experience as the head coach of the girls’ golf team dating back to 2002. Though it is the same sport, there are some differences which affects the way Coach Robichaud coaches.

One of the biggest differences Coach Robichaud cites is, “The boys do medal play while the girls play match play until the district finals if they advance.”

This means Coach Robichaud had to prepare the team with a different strategy and mindset, rather than the way she had been prepping for the past sixteen years. Because she is so knowledgeable about the game of golf, Coach Robichaud had no problem helping the team improve their individual games.

Coach Robichaud not only had the daunting task of taking over as the head coach, but also had to deal with an increase in talent; the boys were forced to move into the Midwatch A league due to school size increasing. The team had to drastically step up their level of play to compete and advance as the end of the season approached.

To ensure that the team had confidence in their golf skills, Coach Robichaud made sure that the boys worked hard during practice to improve what they needed to.

In addition to working on skills, she also remarks, “I wanted to create a competitive atmosphere for practice so that in matches the players would be able to handle their match when it got difficult.”

When the team finished with a record of 8-8, they had high hopes for their run in the playoffs. The team chose to not participate in the league match in support of a teammate who had faced a tragedy–offering support to the family instead–the way that Coach Robichaud had taught the team. With full hearts and high hopes for the District Tournament, the team placed second lead by senior captains Ryan French and Kevin Flahive.

The golf team’s successful year can directly be contributed to the coaching of Coach Robichaud who offered an immense amount of knowledge about the game, and  also taught the boys about composure in the big moments of what can be a very slow, methodical game. For years to come, the team will definitely be in good hands.