Young Gateway golfers look to make impact this season

By: Michael Love
Sunday, August 22, 2021 | 10:01 AM

Paul Doonan sees a youth movement with his Gateway boys golf team.

There is just one senior, with two juniors, eight sophomores and five freshmen on the Gators roster.

“We’re very young,” Doonan said. “We graduated four or five kids from last year’s team who really carried the load. I only have one kid who has played more than one year of golf.”

Junior Jonah Marincic, Doonan said, came into his freshman year with golfing experience.

“The guys know they are young, and it’s a hard game to master,” Doonan said. “They want to learn. I want them to grow in the game and appreciate all that the game has to offer so they can enjoy it the rest of their lives. For me, that’s what I can hope for.

“I also hope to see them able to compete with some of the other schools in the section and win some matches.”

Gateway got out on the course last Monday on the first day of practices for PIAA fall sports teams.

The team didn’t practice Tuesday, and rain washed out Wednesday’s plans.

“I had only seen the kids one day out of the first three days,” Doonan said. “We got off to kind of a slow start.”

The Gators, weather permitting, were to scrimmage Greensburg Salem last Thursday at home at Murrysville Golf Course.

Doonan said Marincik and fellow returnees in junior Jovani Colarusso and sophomores Gavin Green and Noah Colberg and were to be featured in Thursday’s lineup.

Sophomore Hayden Hines, Doonan said, has had a delayed start because of injury and recovery. The hope is for the returning starter to be back as early as this week.

Hines, Green and Colarusso currently are pulling double duty with school or travel hockey in addition to their golf pursuits.

Gateway was to open Section 4-AAA play Monday against Woodland Hills at Murrysville before Tuesday’s nonsection match against Connellsville at Pleasant Valley Country Club.

The Gators are slated to take on Central Catholic on Thursday at Edgewood Country Club.

Franklin Regional, Plum and Penn Hills also are opponents in Section 4.

Franklin Regional is the defending WPIAL Class AAA champion, while Central Catholic qualified for the six-team championship event and placed fifth.

Depth in numbers fuel Gateway girls

Senior Paula Metro paces the Gateway girls golf team as a two-year letter winner.

Sixth-year coach Andrew Estok likes how his team, which features three seniors, seven juniors and two freshmen, is shaping up.

Of the 12, nine return from last year. Metro is joined by second-year letter winners in seniors Julia Schirm and Rebecca Whealdon and juniors Abigail Sech, Emily Sommer, Jayla Chase, Lindsey Storey, Riley McDonnell and Sarah Harper.

With senior Hannah Kessler and freshmen Alyssa Castelli and Bailey Steele as newcomers, Estok said he loves the depth of the team and being able to work with everyone on making progress.

“This is the most girls on a team that I’ve had thus far,” Estok said.

“That is exciting. It’s nice to have that number of 12. There was a year that I had to make sure I could field enough girls to go to a match with them having other obligations and things like that.”

Estok said that a number of the girls on the team also are members of the band and work to balance both opportunities with equal determination.

“Last year with covid shutting down sports and other activities and then opening up to just sports, band wasn’t one of those things that got opened back up, some of the girls wanted to find something they wanted to try. Now, there’s a nice group of them that do both. They’ve been playing instruments for a long time, and I want to make sure they have the opportunity to do both band and golf this year. That is important.”

Estok also is hoping to continue to grow the program by expanding the influence to the younger grades in elementary and middle school.

“How do I gain the interest in the community to beef this program for years to come,” Estok said.

“I want to get those younger kids involved somehow into the game of golf prior to them coming to high school.”

Gateway was to open its season Tuesday at Section 3-AAA foe Hempfield and hosts section rival Franklin Regional on Thursday at Murrysville Golf Course.

The Gators also will face Connellsville, Indiana, Norwin and Penn-Trafford in section matches.

Gateway is hoping to make improvements in the section after going winless last year.

“Last year was a building year, but things are looking up for the team,” Estok said.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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