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An accomplished boys golf program will be missing when the CIF-SS Division 1 and 2 team championships tee off May 19 at courses in Long Beach and Victorville, respectively.
Servite, co-champion of the Trinity League, didn’t make either field of 20 schools.
“This was a gut-punch,” veteran Friars coach Dane Jako said. “I almost retired after this one.”
Servite didn’t qualify for the team championships, coaches and section officials said, for a few reasons.
First, the seven-time section champion lost a league tiebreaker with co-champion Santa Margarita for the Trinity League’s sole automatic playoff berth in Division 1.
After both teams went 8-2 in league, the Eagles won the tiebreaker on the first day of league finals.
Secondly, Servite’s power rating of 3.513 fell just above Edison’s 3.492 for the seventh and final at-large bid in the field of 20 teams in Division 1.
For the first time, the section used in-season power ratings from iWanamaker to construct its playoff brackets.
Servite finished ranked No. 21 in the section, or the last team left out of Division 1.
Finally, as an at-large candidate, Servite couldn’t start Division 2 because of the section’s practice of having automatic playoff entries lead a division.
Apple Valley, an automatic playoff entry with a 4.131 power rating at No. 24, received the top seed in Division 2. The division also features 20 teams.
No. 22 Chaminade (3.764) and No. 23 Northwood (3.833) also came up empty as at-large candidates.
“We recognize that may be a flaw in this year’s system but we wanted to stay consistent with how we did it with the girls,” section commissioner Mike West, who oversees boys golf, said for the practice of starting divisions with automatic qualifiers.
“Pretty much all the other sports, by and large, have done the same thing. That whole thing may be a discussion but that’s how we went this first year.”
Four other Trinity League teams earned at-large bid to the team championships, leaving Servite as the lone member not to advance.
Orange Lutheran (Division 1), Mater Dei and JSerra (Division 2) and St. John Bosco (Division 5) each received at-large spots and will compete May 19.
Servite’s resume includes winning the Sierra Nevada Invitational.
“It’s difficult to grasp, as a group of student-athletes who have poured their time, energy and heart into this sport, why success on paper and on the course no longer seems to translate into opportunity,” Servite co-captain William Gim wrote in a letter to the section.
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