MACES has many different sports, such as Football, Girls basketball, Wrestling, Soccer, etc. But there is a sport that isn’t as talked about as these other sports, which is golf. According to Britannica, “Golf, a cross-country game in which a player strikes a small ball with various clubs from a series of starting points (teeing grounds) into a series of holes on a course.” The winner is the person who got the ball in the hole with the least amount of hits. At MACES, Mr. Nunez, a middle school science teacher and the golf coach, teaches his players to hit under seven strokes. This semester Mr. Nunez is preparing this season’s boys golf team for upcoming games.
Mr. Nunez is getting the boys golf players ready for the upcoming season. Returning players senior Aren Campos and junior Carlos Aguilar are ready and prepared to compete against other schools this semester.
This semester there are some new boys golf players who are quite excited and ready to play for this golf season. Argeniz Orozco and Joseph Garcia are some of the new golf players who are ready for this golf season. “I believe this season will go well,” said senior Argeniz Orozco. “I need more practice.” He explains that he sees himself doing well in this upcoming season, he needs to practice more to be able to do well.
“I’ve been wanting to play golf. I’ve never played golf before, and I knew the energy would be something new for me.” said Orozco. He also plays football, a game which requires lots of energy and lots of strategies; while golf is a quieter, less physically demanding sport. “I literally started playing two weeks ago and I’m loving playing golf,” Orozco, a senior, said.
Joseph Garcia, a sophomore, is in a similar position as Argeniz. Garcia is also a basketball player, a sport that also requires lots of energy and strategies. “I have been playing golf for six months,” Joseph Garcia, a sophomore, said. “I became interested in playing golf after my dad took me to go play a round with him.” Garcia sees golf as a fun hobby and wants to continue to play even after high school and into college.
Both students created strategies that help balance their academic and athletic commitments. “I balance class time with this sport by keeping track of my game schedules, setting aside time to study and making sure I can get to the things I missed out on due to games or practices,” said Garcia. “I plan on balancing my time with golf and class the same way I always have balanced my sports, which is to give myself two hours of work time at home,” Orozco said. Both of these players are prepared for both playing and for catching up on their work.
“I encourage everybody, if they can, to play golf at some point,” Orozco said. “It is not a very physical sport, so people can definitely jump into it. At the same time, it’s still a very mentally taxing sport,” he continued. Orozco is a positive player. He believes that people can enjoy sports that don’t require lots of energy. “When I play golf, I just think about the sound of the club hitting the ball,” Garcia said.
Silence is key when playing golf, so players focus on playing, and let their minds and bodies relax. According to Golf & Health, “When you step into a green space, there’s a number of things that happen with both your physiology and your psychology. Your parasympathetic nervous system kicks in – the system that’s associated with relaxation – and your stress physiology actually changes.” With this information from Golf & Health, it shows that golf has its benefits to the players relaxation. When Garcia plays golf, his mind and body relax, he feels at peace, and his stress melts away. His only thought is hitting the ball into the hole.
In the end, Orozco and Garcia show that golf is more than just a simple sport; it’s a way for people to relax and for them to concentrate within silence. Although golf isn’t talked about as much as the other sports here at MACES, students who play golf find it as a way to alleviate their stress. So while golf isn’t as physically active as other sports, it offers mental benefits that these two student athletes deeply value.
