The Live Oak boys golf team won league titles in 2023 and 2024. With graduations, a young crew faced challenges in 2025. The players learned and improved during the season and finished strongly, winning four of their last six matches.
The team’s overall record was 7-8, 6-8 in Blossom Valley Athletic League, Santa Teresa Division competition.
Sophomore Sawyer Drago was the medalist (i.e., had the lowest score) in eight of the 15 matches this season. He represented the Acorns at the BVAL Tournament on April 30.
“Sawyer works hard at it,” Live Oak coach Mark Cummins said. “He hits the ball a long way and he has a very good short game. He has potential at the next level.”
Drago’s statistics were consistently solid all year. He averaged a 3.8 on par 3’s, a 4.9 on par 4’s and a 5.8 on par 5 holes. His best was 38 and his average 9-hole score was 42.8. Only once in 14 matches did he have a score higher than 46.
Live Oak’s lineup had major contributions from several others. Junior Maddux Young was often second-best to Drago in his scores. Other stalwarts included senior Steven Apolinar, junior Jack Spinella and younger brother freshman Jesse Spinella and sophomore Kolston Primeau.
In addition to those above, the Live Oak team also included freshmen Lucas Lovato, Mateo Lovato and Liam Henderson and juniors Seth Henderson, Zach Lang and Josh Paulson. Lang and Lucas Lovato made top six contributions in some of the matches this past season.
In team competition, six scores for each team are added to provide a cumulative total and decide which school was the match winner.
“Sawyer is our No. 1,” Cummins said. “He was the medalist in nearly all of our matches. He is also the most experienced returning player from our championship teams. He played three or four last year.
“Maddux developed into our No. 2. Colton was our No. 3. Steven is a senior and he had never played golf before. We welcomed him and he was a great contributing member.”
Live Oak has two players from the Spinella family. Both are contributing week in and week out. Younger brother Jesse is just a freshman.
“Jesse Spinella and Jack Spinella played with their father,” Cummins said. “They showed a lot of improvement.”
The Acorns began the year with a 277-286 win over Lincoln. The highlight of the early part of the schedule was back-to-back wins over Prospect, 257-258 on March 19 and 248-272 the next day.
The late-season surge included two wins over Silver Creek and victories over Leigh 233-235 and Lincoln 244-249.
“The last couple years, we had strong players and depth,” Cummins said. “The last two years were very special. This year we finished strong and they are a great group of student-athletes. The entire team has GPAs over 3.0. The average is about 3.5. And they all have great attitudes.”
In the BVAL tournament, Drago represented Live Oak. He played well but did not finish high enough to advance to the Central Coast Section Championship Tournament.
“Sawyer shot an 87 for the round,” Cummins said. “Forty-four on the front nine and 43 on the back nine. He had four pars and one birdie, finishing in 39th place at Santa Teresa Golf Course. He gained great experience at the tournament and will carry that into next year as our top returning player.”
The senior Apolinar is the only player set to graduate. The future is very bright for Live Oak.
“With 11 of 12 returning, we’re very excited about next year,” Cummins said.
