Amador Valley varsity boy’s golf team attended the De La Salle Invitational at Diablo Country Club and came home with an empowering win. Our team had not won this specific tournament in more than 20 years, which is just one reason this accomplishment deserves praise. This large-scale win has inspired our team to play just as well as the season continues and has shown other competitors they have what it takes.

“Our monumental win has given an indicator to the rest of Northern California that we are serious about competing and getting to the state championship. To win this tournament gives our team confidence that we can hang with the better teams, and if we play our best we can beat them,” said Coach Neil Bello. 

After losing to De La Salle the previous week, they decided to up their game for this tournament and display the work they’ve been putting in so far this season. Being able to practice attentively is an important part of determining how the actual games will play out, along with confidence in oneself and one’s teammates. They all put their best effort into practice and kept their heads held high which paid off in the end.

“We put our hearts into practice and made sure that everyone was doing the right thing. I don’t think we necessarily expected to win, but we definitely were ready to play our best,” said Captain Faiz Lodhi (‘22).

The weather conditions at the invitational were far from ideal. It was also difficult to tell what to expect because in previous years, De La Salle had always won. Amador clearly had their skills and mindsets in the right place even with difficult circumstances. The team managed to work through it all and pull off an incredible win.

“The conditions were really tough, but we adapted really well to be able to win. We practiced really hard and I think that it was well deserved,” said Varsity player Maddox Yi (‘22).