After a strong league campaign in which the Palo Alto High School boys’ golf team (14-1, 12-0) finished in first place, the team prepares for the upcoming Santa Clara Valley Athletic League tournament with great expectations.

According to senior captain John Knowles, the team is motivated and hitting its stride as the tournament approaches.

“The team is doing great,” Knowles said. “The passion of the boys is unmatched, and it’s just incredible to see a group of guys come together and pursue excellence. We have play-offs coming up and so we need to do well in our league tournament to move on to CCS [Central Coast Section playoffs]. I’m looking forward to throwing up some low scores in the coming weeks.”

Two of the standout stars on the team this season have been freshmen Ahmed Ali and Joonsung Ha, both of whom posted team-best scores of 35 in the recent rivalry match against Gunn High School. According to Ha, despite his individual success this season, his main goal is still to contribute to the team however possible.

“The goal for me is to try to get to NorCals [the individual competition for top Northern California players],” Ha said. “[However,] I think my role in the team is to just play the best I possibly can. It’s a great experience playing on a team because golf is an individual sport. I hope that our team can win the SCVAL  [league] tournament and I hope that I can [consistently] shoot even par.”

The other senior captain, Alex Hwang, added that the team still has an eager eye on the upcoming CCS tournament.

“We’re doing super well and haven’t lost a match yet, but everyone knows our real competition comes at CCS,” Hwang said. “Our goal is to advance past CCS, which we haven’t done in a long time.”

The first SCVAL tournament match will be played against Los Gatos High School, Saratoga High School, and Gunn at 12:30 p.m. today at Santa Teresa Golf Course in San Jose.