Andrew Villescas improving his driving skills at the range. photo by Marissa Villescas
Spartan golfer is invited to compete overseas in Brisbane, Australia.
As the school year ends, students make plans to occupy their time over the summer. Sophomore Andrew Villescas, will be planning a trip overseas to Brisbane, Australia, to compete in a state-wide golf tournament.
Villescas was invited by Down Under Sports to represent Colorado on a 2016 State Conference Team. He will leave from Colorado to Los Angeles on June 24th, and from there all the players attending the program will fly to Australia together. They will visit Australia for nine days and while there, the boys will have two days of practice and then play in a tournament in hopes of winning a medal. From there Villescas will fly from Sydney, Australia, to Waikiki, Hawaii, for three days to partake in another tournament. Villescas isn’t the only Spartan that was invited to attend the program. Sophomores Roger Nakawaga and Jessie Aldridge also received an invitation to attend, but declined the offer due to other commitments.
Villescas first started playing golf at the age of three because his dad enjoys golf so he wanted to bond over something with his son. When he embarked on his golf journey, Villescas was taking lessons at the First Tee of Denver but, at eight years old, those lessons were completed and he then started taking lessons at the Player’s Club. This is where he began to compete in competitive tournaments throughout the summer. From there he played in Rocky Mountain Junior Golf, which is a competitive golf league along the western hemisphere of the USA; Arizona, Oregon, California, Washington, and Colorado golfers can participate. Boys’ golf coach and CCT teacher, Stacey Fornstrom has been coaching Vallescas for the last two years. “He was fourth on Varsity in scoring average which made him a second team all-city selection,” explained Fornstrom. This means he was in the top ten for players in the DPS league. As the years have passed, Villescas skill has continued to improve and as of now he is able to drive an average of 288 yards.
As well as being a star on the course, Villescas still manages to keep up his grades. He stated, “Keeping up with schoolwork at times is very difficult, having practice ending at six every night, and needing to get up early the next day is stressful, but I make it work.” He is successful right now in school with a GPA of 3.8. In the future, Villescas hopes to attend Hawaii Pacific University in Mu’oli for a major in Physical Education. Once that is accomplished, he dreams of making a career out of golf and moving forward to be in the PGA Tour.
Along with playing golf, Villescas plays on the varsity lacrosse team here at TJ. He has been playing on the school’s team for the last two years and says he “enjoys playing both sports.” Villescas plays the position of starting defense. This season their record was 11-4 and they placed 17th in 4A and 2nd in conference. Sadly they didn’t make it to the playoffs, but next year they hope to be in the top 16 to be able to qualify for playoffs.
Over the years Villescas has had time to immensely improve his game and find where he wants to go in life. With hard work and dedication to the sport, he has the potential to go far in the world of golf.
