IRVINGTON, NJ — The Irvington High School golf program has thrived for the past few years. In fact, IHS girls have shown a strong interest in the sport.
Though there are more girls than boys in the program, girls-only matches have been difficult to arrange.
But that will change, as the Super Essex Conference and Union County Conference have joined forces to form a girls golf league next spring.
In May, Irvington High School athletic director Dr. John Taylor and Mount St. Dominic Academy athletic director Lorenzo Sozio approached the Super Essex Conference about the idea of creating a girls golf league with the Union County Conference. Both conferences have few girls golf teams, which prevented them from creating their own separate leagues.
The SEC approved the proposal in the spring. Last week, the UCC approved it as well.
The new league has 10 teams, with five teams from each county. In addition to Irvington and MSDA, the other Essex teams are Newark Academy, Millburn and West Essex.
The Union County teams are Scotch Plains–Fanwood, Westfield, New Providence, Oak Knoll and Kent Place.
At IHS, Taylor was instrumental in reviving the golf program. Girls in particular have shown a big interest in golf. This past season, the turnout was great, with 24 players – 19 girls and five boys. Taylor noticed that girls golf has been limited in terms of resources, so creating a new league is a big step.
The Irvington golf team, under head coach Tom Larranga, has its home course at Weequahic Park in Newark. Larranaga expressed his excitement about the new girls league.
“I loved the idea when Dr. Taylor pitched it to me last year, and I think it’s fantastic that it has been approved,” he said. “In Irvington, our golf team is predominately made up of girls, and most of the time we are going up against boys. Even when we played in the state tournament the past two years, our girls have had to play from the boys tees, which really makes it tough on them. It blows my mind how good some of these young kids are.
“Schools like Newark Academy, West Essex, West Orange, Cedar Grove and Glen Ridge have kids that are breaking 40 consistently, which is extremely difficult to do. It’s great for our girls to get a look at the distance these players have and the precision with which they play around the greens. But it also puts us behind the 8-ball when we play against those schools.
“Over the past two years, Dr. Taylor has gone out of his way to get us ‘girls team’ matches, specifically against Jeff Reilly and his terrific Southern Regional team, and our ladies have loved it,”
continued Larranaga. “I think this SEC/Union county girls league will allow our girls more opportunities to continue to get better, build relationships with the girls from other schools and most importantly, continue to grow the game. I applaud Dr. Taylor and the rest of the ADs in the area that pushed to make this happen.
“We lost a great deal of talent to graduation this year, but I’m excited to get this golf season going and continue to build a strong golf program here in Irvington.”
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