- The Fresno Bee
Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 | 10:01 PM
School: Clovis West
He's qualified because: The Golden Eagles' Central Section Division I championship was his fourth in five years with the program. Only this one was different in that their two-stroke victory against Stockdale at Sunnyside Country Club was crafted without a senior.
They'll be back: Clovis West played with two juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen. Among them, junior Camille Orito is a Bee first-team All-Star and sophomores Keila Takeuchi and Ai Enkoji are second-teamers. At this point, nothing surprises Shipley: "I knew the girls, knew they'd continue to improve and knew they'd have a chance at winning the Valley championship. I was never 100% confident, but knew we'd have a chance to win if they did the right things, and they did."
All about getting better: The Eagles' signature under Shipley, a three-time Bee Coach of the Year, is year-to-year progress.
The 12 players in this year's program, including junior varsity, averaged 8.8 strokes improvement from last year. Example: Freshman Katie Horsford, four months removed from Kastner Intermediate and in her second year of "serious" golf, fired a team third-best 86 as its No. 6 player while securing the team title over Stockdale.
"The biggest thing we really try to do is set a solid culture of improving," says Shipley, whose daughter, Jennifer, starred at Clovis and Fresno State. "The girls know they come in at a certain level and are going to get better. I think we've developed an expectation of succeeding. We don't go out to win anything in particular; we're really going out to get better, learn the game and learn to manage the course. Do things better and you're going to achieve success."
