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2006 Women's Golf News
Cunerty Annouces His Retirement With Over 600 Coaching Victories In Three Sports
Saddleback head coach Bill Cunerty announced to his colleagues at the 2007 men's state championship tournament that he is retiring from coaching and teaching at Saddleback. Cunerty joined the Saddleback College staff in 1980 as an assistant football coach and head men’s golf coach. He spent three seasons as the head football coach (1995-1997), posting a record of 25-7 and winning the National Championship in 1996 with a perfect 11-0 record. On the golf course, Cunerty earned a record of 506-47 in 26 years as the men's golf coach and a 94-7 record in nine seasons as head coach of the women's golf team.
In addition to six state titles in men's golf, Cunerty has guided the Gauchos to 24 conference titles and two conference runner-up finishes. Saddleback finished as the state runners-up six times and placed third at the state championship seven times, meaning his Saddleback men's teams have finished among the top three in the state 19 times in the past 26 years.
As head coach of the women's golf team, Cunerty has guided the ladies to six conference titles and three conference runner-up finishes in the nine years since the program was started in 1998. His women have qualified for eight consecutive playoff appearances. Three of his players - Selby Schriber in 1998, Karlie Ward in 1999, and Carling Cho in 2003 - earned individual state champion honors.
Longtime Saddleback instructor and coach Nick Trani will take over the women's golf team for the 2007 season.
Gauchos Win Conference Title With 13-0 Record
Saddleback struggled on the first day of the conference championship at Los Serranos Golf Course but bounced back on the second day to pass the three other colleges, winning the conference championship tournament to remain unbeaten in Orange Empire Conference play.
Sami Freitas shot rounds of 86 and 80 over the two different Los Serranos courses, finishing 20-over-par for the tournament. Although she finished just short of earning the conference's Player of the Year award, Freitas earned first-team all-conference honors along with Gaucho teammates Debbie Shelgren, Kathy Campbell, Teresa Gonzalez, and Connie Gonzalez. Bill Cunerty was named as the conference Coach of the Year for the seventh consecutive season.
Saddleback (13-0) will now compete in the Southern California Regional championship on Monday and Tuesday, November 6-7, on these same Los Serranos courses.
The Saddleback women’s golf team finished second in a four-team conference match at Oak Creek Country Club on Wednesday, snapping a string of first-place finishes and keeping the Gauchos in second place in the conference standings at 10-5.
Saddleback, which shot a team score of 324 a week earlier on the same course, saw individual scores elevate this week and settled for a 338. Santiago Canyon won the match with the team score of 325 while Irvine Valley placed third (344) and Santa Ana was fourth (362).
Connie Gonzalez was the only Gaucho golfer to lower her score from a week ago, dropping eight strokes to post a team-low 82 on Wednesday. Lana Cox (83), Brittany Ruble (86), and Korri Broadhead (87) each posted higher scores this week.
Although Saddleback was not able to catch Santiago Canyon (13-2) in the conference standings, the Gauchos were able to separate themselves a little farther from Irvine Valley (6-9) and Santa Ana (1-14) with nine regular-season matches to play. The Gauchos host their final conference match on Wednesday, October 17.
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