Though the Revere High School’s (RHS) golf program has existed for several decades, the middle school club is a new addition to the program. The idea of the club itself has been in the back of the coaches’ minds over the last several years, and the 2024-2025 school year is when the program could make it happen. John Bernatovicz, head organizer of the club, detailed the steps the program took before they took an interest in making the middle school club.

“Coach Archer has held a summer golf camp at Fairlawn, which attracted a wide variety of student athletes ranging, I believe, from third grade to twelfth grade. That was the infancy and the start of the middle school golf program. Last year, we [made] the off-season program available to some middle school golfers, and I believe based upon that, we had some interest in the program [and] we had interest [in] creat[ing] the club,” Bernatovicz said.

Even before Bernatovicz joined Revere, however, teacher and the Revere High School (RHS) Junior Varsity men’s golf coach Jed McKnight wished to create a middle school program that encouraged students to learn the game at a younger age and that would set them up for success in the high school’s programs.

“My biggest goal [when I started working at the middle school] was honestly to create a middle school feeder program so that kids would know golf existed. . . . [I] wanted to make sure that kids started in middle school so that they knew [they could] transition into high school [golf],” McKnight said.

As of right now, the Revere Middle School (RMS) Golf Club—open to all students at RMS—is called a club as it has only existed for less than one year. As Bernatovicz describes, it takes a few years before it becomes a team.

“It’s the middle school golf club because it’s the first year that we had it; the middle school requires you to have three years of club designation before it becomes an actual team,” Bernatovicz said.

Not only did the middle school program come to life, but it allowed middle school students to have access to instruction from professional golfers, their coaches, open golf and a few true golf matches that the student athletes could try out.

“We offered the student athletes access to professional golf instruction through Professional Golf Association (PGA) teachers at Fairlawn Country Club. The student athletes also [had] . . . formal training from the two middle school golf coaches—myself and coach Mike Riley—and then we had open golf for the student athletes to play golf at Fairlawn Country Club and at Mud Run [Golf], and then lastly, we had three golf matches,” Bernatovicz said.

Bernatovicz himself is the head organizer for the RMS Golf Club. Though some may consider him a coach, he is not formally compensated. As the head organizer, Bernatovicz coordinates advertisements, promotional material, tryouts, matches and coaching experiences among others.

“I’m the head organizer. . . . I guess I would be the coach, but it’s not a formal paid-for role, and I basically coordinated the advertising and promotion and marketing of the golf club. I then supported the registration of the student athletes with their parents through Final Forms and all that goes with that. I then also organized the tryout and then coordinated the PGA-led instructor-led sessions at Fairlawn, and then helped to coordinate the open golfs and the instruction. And then I was the coach representing the team at each of the three matches that we held throughout the season,” Bernatovicz said.

Unlike the RHS golf teams, the middle school club does not actively participate in many tournaments; however, that does not stop Bernatovicz from allowing the most skilled golf players in the club to partake in some matches throughout the season.

“The students that represent us at the matches were the ones that scored the lowest in the qualifiers or were selected by myself and the other coach to play in the matches. I’d say there was a wide variety of skill levels from the student athletes, [but] we did not have any cuts. We did not make any cuts if you showed up and tried out. We got you in to be able to play and be a part of the program, but we selected the student athletes [for the matches] based upon their skill level to participate in the matches. . . . There were five to six student athletes at each match,” Bernatovicz said.

Another difference between the club and the RHS teams is the number of students who participate in the club. All students who signed up for the club were admitted into the middle school program, dissimilar to the high school. The RMS golfers have a shorter season and fewer matches compared to the high school teams.

“We didn’t have any cuts. There were no cuts for the student athletes. That’s a big distinction. . . . We end[ed] up having more coaching and practice than we did actual events. The high school varsity team plays in roughly twenty events, and we played in only three. . . . Our program ran for six weeks, and the high school program ran for roughly ten weeks,” Bernatovicz said.

The skill level was not the only difference between the RMS golf club and the RHS golf team. In the former, students were not divided by gender and, out of the 26 student athletes who showed up for tryouts, only one was a girl.

“I do work with both girls and boys, but regretfully of the 26 student athletes, we only had one girl on the team,” Bernatovicz said.

Though there was a small turnout of girls this year, Bernatovicz hopes to change that and encourages any middle school girl to try out. Bernatovicz plans to use several methods to encourage more middle school girls to attend tryouts, including conducting sessions with the different grade levels and encouraging other girls’ sports coaches to promote the club. McKnight helps promote the club as, due to his position as a middle school teacher, he can more easily reach the middle school students.

“We’re hoping to change that next year. I would love to see as many girls as we had boys. . . . I will also be going to the middle school in the spring and doing some sessions with each of the grades through the principal’s office and in coordination with Coach McKnight, who’s a teacher at the middle school. Just more awareness. My plan is to talk to some of the other girl sports coaches that [are at] the middle school to encourage them to let their student athletes know that golf is an available sport to them. As an example, if there’s a spring sport or a winter sport like basketball, . . . I don’t want to take those students away from that sport, but if they’re interested in golfing in the fall, then I want to make sure they’re aware of that,” Bernatovicz said.

Eighth graders Abraham Pietrocini and Ajay Deo are members of the RMS golf club. Over the six weeks that the season lasted, they spent their Mondays and Thursdays golfing. According to Pietrocini, the club would “start off putting” and during Thursday practices the coaches would, according to Deo, “split [them] up into groups” to work on different swing and playing styles. On Mondays, golfers would “just go out and play” regular holes according to Deo.

Now that Revere has achieved its goal of creating a middle school golf program, the next steps are to ensure the club turns into an official team. Not only would it open up an opportunity for a full-time RMS golf coach, but it would also ensure that middle school golfers have access to the sport. Fostering an environment that enables students to play golf or indulge in their interests serves as a key motivator for the middle school program’s coaches.

“Ultimately, I’d like it to become an official team, not a club. If the numbers continue as they have, I assume that the school board and the athletic department would justify the investment of a full-time coach or a coach for that program. . . . But maybe more important than that is providing access for student athletes at Revere Middle School to see if they have a gift and a passion for the game of golf. If they don’t, then we can teach them a lifelong game, and they can pick it up at whatever point in their life that makes the most sense for them. . . . My plan and intention is to continue to foster the availability of golf to as many student athletes as we possibly can. If it grows, we’ll make the instructor-led program available to most if not all student athletes,” Bernatovicz said.

Though the RMS golf program has only existed for a year, Bernatovicz and Riley plan to continue developing the program and establishing golf’s role in the Revere school system.