Oct 3, 2006

J.C. Notebook

A new breed of Colts: Canada College women's golf inaugural season successful one

By Vytas Mazeika

The moment Canada College added a women's golf program, it solved a dilemma for a pair of Archbishop Mitty High teammates.

"I'd been trying to find a J.C. that had a golf team, and the closest that I could find was Modesto," Kimberly Bedolla said. "And then Julianne was like, 'Oh yeah, Canada in Redwood City. They have a golf team they're just starting up.'"

"Our moms talked about it at prom," said Julianne Rotherham, Canada's first-ever female recruit.

Chosen to helm the women's program - along with the men's - was Rick Velasquez, who has taught at Canada for the past 10 years and coached at Notre Dame-Belmont for the past five. His expectations at the very beginning were quite simple.

"To get a golf team," Velasquez said. "To get enough players to get a golf team. We're just very happy to get six. And next year, as the word gets out that we have a golf team, we'll be able to find some more players. There's some very good golf players on the Peninsula."

The roster is not quite a bunch of misfits, but it does have a quirky quality about it. There's the Mitty teammates, Bedolla and Rotherham. There's the sisters, Johnna and Sorrell Regan. There's the veteran, 59-year-old Susie-Q Conklin. And there's the pro in the making, Dodisa Delasin.

Those are Velasquez's six adopted daughters.

"He's very caring," said Sorrell, 21, the older of the sisters. "We always have our suntan lotion. He's always around and squirts it in our hands before we play. 'Make sure you get the ears.' He always takes good care of us. I think it's because he has all sons. And since he coaches girls in golf, he like adopted all of us."

Father to three sons, Velasquez has formed an accomplished family at Canada. Two weeks ago, the Colts won their first-ever golf tournament in the Central Valley Conference. Dodisa, 20, sister to the LPGA's Dorothy Delasin, broke the course record at the Lemoore Golf Course to set the pace.

"It was icing on the cake," Velasquez said of the team's victory.



The Delasins

Dodisa found out about Canada golf through her brother.

"They also told the coach that my brother has a sister, me," Dodisa said.

Arsenio Delasin, 17, is a member of the men's team that tees off in the spring and, like his sister, attended El Camino High. Their other sister, Divina, 25, played for Foothill College, which deactivated its women's golf program in November 2004. The Delasins aspire to join Dorothy on the pro tour, with Canada a steppingstone for them.

"I believe in the team," Dodisa said. "They know what they need to do, and they will achieve that goal. I work hard, and they work hard too."



Susie-Q

The Colts pack a 1-2 punch atop the leaderboard thanks to Conklin, or Susie-Q, as her teammates call her. Velasquez found the elder member of the group through a mutual teaching professional friend and didn't hesitate to recruit Conklin, who is taking online and computer classes.

"Well, it's been 42 years since I have been in school, but it was kind of fun being recruited," said Conklin, who represented Canada in the 1975 Commonwealth Matches and came to the United States in 1975. "It's kind of fun to start over again. I'm just a competitive person and I just love the game of golf."

A painting contractor for the Painter Sisters ("Me, myself and my shadow," Conklin said), the Sunnyvale resident qualified for match play at the USGA Senior Women's Amateur in 2004 and relishes teeing off against younger competition.

"I get out-hit by these people all the time, but I play my own game," Conklin said. "It's all upstairs."



The Regans

On the other end of the age spectrum is Johnna Regan, 17, the youngest member of the team. She found out about the team by reading a flier at a local golf shop she and her sister frequent.

"I made sure you don't have to be at least 18," said Johnna, who works at Half Moon Bay Golf Links. "And then I told my sister and asked her to join, so we could have more players."

Both sisters live with their father in San Mateo now, though Sorrell went to high school in Pace, Fla. Johnna took private, independent studies in San Carlos. A full-time job at Starbucks keeps Sorrell from practicing with the team, but Velasquez can count on the sisters to play at every tournament - as long as he tells them to show up 15 minutes earlier than the rest of the team to account for their lack of punctuality.

"If you're not here, you're letting the team down," Johnna said.



Mitty teammates

But as long as you show up, the team has your back.

"The first time you play, you get kind of nervous," said Bedolla, 18, who's only been playing for a year and now wears a Canada cap instead of a San Francisco Giants one. "But then you warm up to everyone."

Rotherham, 18, a self-described chatterbox, enjoys the camaraderie on the course. It's a good thing the golfers all get along, because 3-hour van rides to and from Fresno are commonplace.

"By the time we get home it's 7:30, 8 o'clock," Rotherham said. "And that's on a good day too. If we don't get food after. It's hard when you don't get home until 9. And God forbid we have homework."

Both Mitty graduates will attend West Valley College next semester, cutting down on the long commute. Rotherham lives within "walking distance" of West Valley while Bedolla has to leave by 7 a.m. every day to miss a good chunk of the traffic from Berryessa, on the border of San Jose and Milpitas. They only need to take 12 units at Canada to stay on the golf team, and no doubt Velasquez hopes the time saved on commuting is spent improving their golf game.

"I think next year we're going to be really good because we're going to have this whole offseason to work on short game, which is really important," Rotherham said.



Raising the bar

Last Thursday, Canada hosted a Central Valley Tournament at the Moffett Field Golf Course. It was one of 10 league matches, and the Colts tied for first with Fresno City. Canada may still win outright after an appeal, as Dodisa was penalized two strokes for using her cell phone on the course.

The Canada players each have a card that allows them to play at Moffett whenever they want, instead of passing through three security points. On Mondays, they also practice at the Menlo Country Club.

Coaches have told Velasquez that the freshman team has a shot at NorCal Regionals, but the Colts want to reach state.

"Nothing wrong with raising the bar," Velasquez said.

And next year, expectations will be higher. As the only J.C. women's team in the Bay Area, Velasquez gets to tap the PAL and the WCAL high school talent for what he calls kids who did not get into their college of choice and have the potential to earn a scholarship to play golf at a four-year college.

Velasquez can pick players from San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Monterey.

But only one team will be the first.

"We're going to have our picture up on the wall in there," Johnna said. "A nice team picture. It will be cool. Everybody will walk by."



E-mail Vytas Mazeika at vytas@dailynewsgroup.com.