Dave Menke and the Xavier Prep boys golf team learned a hard lesson in just how difficult it came be to make a deep run in the CIF-Southern Section team postseason last year.
The Saints made it to the Division 3 sectional of team play last year and won the regional, giving the school its first-ever CIF-SS title. But that was also the end of the team’s season. The format for advancing to the next level, the CIF-SS SCGA team qualifier, left the Saints out of the picture and scratching their heads. At the same time, Woodbridge of Irvine, advanced to the SCGA qualifier despite playing in Division 4, a lower division than Xavier.
If it sounds confusing, it can be. That’s because winning a division is no guarantee of advancing, but a system of season-long scoring and strength of schedule can promote even a team in a lower division past a champion in a higher division.
This year the Saints are in Division 2, one tier higher than last year, and Menke is focused on hit team putting up a strong performance Tuesday at El Dorado Park Golf Course in Long Beach.
“I told the team that we have an opportunity to do something that probably no one has every done. That’s to win D-3, and then a D-2, and then a D-1,” Menke said. “That’s kind of where our head is at and what we are trying to accomplish.”
While each of the seven divisions to be played Monday or Tuesday is considered a CIF-SS team championship, not every division winner advances to the CIF-SCGA qualifying tournament. That’s because each division is ranked, meaning the best teams through the year are in Division 1, then Division 2 with the next group of ranked teams and so on.
Fourteen teams will move on to the CIF-SS SCGA team qualifier, which in turn will produce four teams to play in the SCGA high school championship with teams from the CIF’s Los Angeles, San Diego and Central sections.
But of the 14 teams from the Southern Section, a majority are guaranteed to come out of Division 1.
“The top 10 finishers in Division 1 will advance to CIF-SS SCGA Qualifier,” CIF-SS regulations state. “The other four top finishers based on adjusted team handicap from the CIF-SS championships at each divisional will fill the remaining spots. (winning the championship from Division 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 does not automatically qualify you for CIF-SS SCGA). All 14 teams could hypothetically advance from Division 1.”
Menke understands his team, the champion of the Desert Empire League, is in better shape to advance this year being in Division 2. Yucca Valley, which won the Desert Valley League and will play Monday in Division 6 at Bear Valley Country Club in Victorville, can win a CIF-SS championship but has virtually no chance of advancing to the SCGA event even with a divisional win.
“If we don’t win D-2, we have an opportunity to shoot a score and if that score is better than at least 10 teams in D-1 (which has 22 teams) I wouldn’t think they would be able to look us over,” Menke said.
The Saints will know for sure how the Division 1 schools perform, since Division 1 golfers play in the morning at El Dorado Park on Tuesday, with Division 2 playing the same course in the afternoon.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Xavier boys golf team looking for Division 2 win and deep postseason run
Reporting by Larry Bohannan, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
