By Jeffrey Preval

The last tournament of the season can be regarded as the most important especially after following a team’s home tournament. This is very true, for the struggling Pride men’s golf team, who has not won one all season.

In September, Pride head coach Bob Schwab named Mike Ciccarelli, Jason Paul, Dave Alonso, Chris Spinks and Sean Dugan as his starting five that would give the Pride the best chance of succeeding. Unfortunately for Schwab that plan has not worked out, as the roster has become an enigma forcing Schwab to shuffle the lineup for strategic purposes and to give opportunity to bench players. Currently, Schwab has Dave Alonso, Mike Ciccarelli, Blake Gianniny, Jason Paul and Chris Spinks as his magical five and according to Schwab that list probably won’t change in 2005.  

But before the days of spring, the Pride last week attended the John MacDonald Classic. The Classic, which was at the 6,374-yard Galloway National Golf Course in Absecon, N.J. was hosted by Temple University and honors the profound personal contribution of over 30 years of service given to Temple. 

“Alonso has had a pretty good year last year but started to go down a little bit, but he has worked his way back this year,” Schwab said. Below Alonso is Ciccarelli, who was Schwab’s number one starter in the beginning.

“He has been fooling around with his swing and his scores are showing it,” Schwab said of Ciccarelli.

Speaking of dropping, two spots under Ciccarelli is Paul, who Schwab calls a puzzle that has all the ability to be the number one starter. Proof of this was in the practice round at Temple, where Paul shot a 73, with 72 being the lowest score of the tournament. Unfortunately Paul followed with an 85 and a 78 in his next rounds. According to Schwab, Paul said he didn’t know why he dropped off.

One under Paul is Spinks, who by shooting a first round 83 and a second round 88 for a 171 final score at Temple, earned the worst score out of the five Pride participants. Schwab, who thought Spinks “has been playing pretty consistent,” just thought he had a bad tournament.  

When the Pride showed Sunday, Oct. 24. to face some very competitive teams and universities in Loyola, Iona, Seton Hall, Temple and Connecticut, they knew that the course was difficult and that it would be a challenge to compete. In the tournament, the Pride finished seventh at the par-71. Alonso led the Pride by shooting a 74 first round a 78 second and a total 152 score for a seventh place finish. Ciccarelli finished in a tie for 23rd place with an 84 first, a 76 second and 160 total. Ciccarelli was followed by Gianniny’s 80 first round, 82 second for a 162 final good for 30th place. 

Meanwhile, Connecticut’s Jason Parajeckas (72-72-144) who won the individual title by birdying the first playoff hole, in the midst of Iona’s Paul Selvaggio (76-68-144), who shot a tourney low 68 on Tuesday to put both players at two-over-par to force a playoff. Meanwhile, by shooting a 295 first, a 309 second and a 604 final score as a team, Loyola won the tournament for the second straight year to hold off Iona’s (307-303-610). To round out the top five, Seton Hall shot a total 622, Temple a final 626 and Connecticut a 626.  

After the winter break, the Pride will be back in action when they will participate in the George Washington Invitational on April 2 and 3 and will hope to enter the spring better than they did the fall.