East Brunswick girls golf team looks to defend GMC championship

When Mark Motusesky took over as head coach of the East Brunswick High School girls golf team, the Greater Middlesex Conference team could barely fill out a lineup.

Entering his tenth season at the helm of the program, Motusesky is no longer worried about having enough girls to step onto the green. Instead, he is focused on capturing the program’s fifth consecutive GMC Tournament title.

“We were struggling because we still weren’t getting a ton of girls playing and buying into being really good golfers,” Motusesky said. “Then, it just slowly evolved trying to encourage girls start playing.”

This year, the Bears will look to continue its reign as GMCT champions without their best golfer in school history.

Sayaka Carpenter, who was named the Home News Tribune Girls Golfer of the Year the past four years, helped transform the Bears into the GMC powerhouse it is today.

For her career, Carpenter captured three Central Jersey Tournament individual titles and three GMC titles. Last year, she finished fourth at the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions and took second-place at the South Jersey Sectional,

While Carpenter undoubtedly cemented her legacy on the green, it was her work ethic that paved the way for future golfers at East Brunswick.

“If Sayaka wasn’t practicing on the course, she would go to another course where she had a swing coach and those kids knew what she was doing and it got them involved,” Motusesky said. “We always had girls who put the time in but now they are starting to put more and more time in.”

Senior Sophia Hu and junior Alexandra Caro have duplicated Carpenter’s practice regime and will use it to lead the rest of the lineup.

The two lettermen will lead by example, but in different ways as they have different styles of play on the course.

Caro uses her strength and is powerful off the tee to put herself in great positions, while Hu’s major strength is consistency with few mistakes made in the short game.

In the GMC Tournament and in the Central Jersey Golf League Tournament, Hu and Caro both shot in the lows 40’s to help the Bears claim the conference title and finish third in the Central Jersey tournament.

“I think they have a very good temperament about them,” said Motusesky of his top two golfers. “They are never too high or never too low. I think both of the two girls are both even keeled for the game of golf so they’ve been improving every year.”

Mental strength on the golf course can be the deciding factor as to how the Bears handle losing its’ premier golfer to graduation.

Motusesky believes his team’s commitment in the classroom is a testament to how hard the girls work in everything they set their mind to.

“We have like 25 high honor seniors in the school and three of them are on our team,” said Motusesky. “They really do a great job handling athletics and academics.”

The Bears will need to play smart and disciplined to repeat as conference champions as the rest of the GMC teams see an opening to capture the title without Carpenter in the East Brunswick lineup.

With no clear favorite in the GMC this season, Sayreville, Metuchen, J.P. Stevens and South Brunswick are all hopeful they can dethrone the Bears as conference champs.

Last year, J.P Stevens finished second at the GMC Tournament just three points behind East Brunswick, who clinched the title with 178 team points.  South Brunswick finished third with 198 points, and will be looking to avenge its lost to the Bears on April 3, when the two perennial teams tee off in the season opener.

Seniors Jessica Cortez, Alexandra Lazar and Eula London alongside junior Afhika Jalagam will make up the rest of the lineup.

“I think we can compete with any team in the GMC,” said Motusesky. “I think it’s a realistic shot to repeat.”

A fifth conference title in five years would be a huge accomplishment, especially for a team that had its’ coach searching the hallways trying to convince girls to join a decade ago.

“The scores continue to get better,” said Motusesky. “We went from shooting a 240, to 210 and when Sayaka came in we were shooting like 168, which I would have thought would be unheard of when I first took over the program. We made a lot of strides over the past ten years and that’s good to see.”