St. John's University Athletics
2006-07 Men's Golf Season Preview
9/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
With four letterwinners returning to the 2006-07 St. John???s men???s golf team, head coach Frank Darby feels that the sky is the limit. As he enters his 12th season as head coach of the men???s golf team, Darby has recruited some of the best local talent around to compliment a core group of returning veterans.
"This is our year," said Darby. "This team is capable of winning every event we play in. We can???t wait to get on the course and open our season."
The Red Storm will be led by All-BIG EAST selection Keegan Bradley, who closed out the 2005-06 season with a third place finish at the BIG EAST Championship. The junior is coming off a hot streak this summer where he won the Wyoming State Match Play Championship and qualified for his first professional event, The USGA Public Linx Championship.
Senior Joe Yastrub will also lend leadership to a group of young players. Like Bradley, Yastrub made the most of his summer by competing at local events in the New York area. He advanced to the USGA Open Sectionals and qualified for the New York State Open.
Working the Massachusetts golf circuit this summer were junior George Zolotas and sophomore Kevin Velardo. Both golfers qualified for the Massachusetts Open as well as many amateur golf events. Sophomore Casey Calmi also returns for the Red Storm after being sidelined with an injury last spring. The trio had a solid first season at St. John???s combining for seven top-15 finishes.
While rookies Mike Ballo Jr. and Dan Mallicone may be new to St. John???s, they are no strangers to the game of golf. Ballo hails from nearby Stamford, Conn. while Mollicone is from Rhode Island. Ballo qualified for the USGA Junior Amateur this summer after finishing second at the Connecticut High School Golf Championships. Mollicone took home The Burke Memorial Championship most recently and was named to the 2006 All-State men???s golf team.
"I am really excited about our newcomers," said Darby. "I think they will be a great addition to the talent we already have. I look forward to coaching this group of guys and seeing what we can do this season."
The Red Storm???s fall season will open at the Rutgers Invitational on Sept. 16 in Piscataway, N.J. The team will then play host to a dozen other schools from across the nation when it hosts one of its annual events, The McLaughlin, on the Red Course at the Bethpage. St. John???s will then travel to Florida for the Mission Inn Classic before heading home to host the Tillinghast at Fenway Golf Club on Oct. 16-17. The final two events of the fall schedule will be the Roadrunner Intercollegiate Classic on Oct. 23-24 and the BIG EAST-MAC Challenge in Orlando, Fla. at Orange County National Golf Club on Nov. 4-5.