Every day, freshman Cameron Diamond steps onto the putting green. He grips his club, winds up, swings and finishes with a follow-through. The white ball flies through the air.

Diamond began playing golf five years ago and has been on the CESJDS varsity golf team since seventh grade.

At their weekly PVAC matches, JDS players are chosen to play against a player from another school. The team that wins the most holes wins the match. In addition to match play, PVAC also offers a different form of golf: stroke play tournaments. In stroke play, the school with the fewest total swings is declared the winner.

This season, the JDS team finished with a 3-1 record.

Diamond began playing because his friends golfed, and he ended up finding comfort in the sport.

“Unlike other sports, [golf] is kind of relaxing,” Diamond said. “There’s a community involved in golf, I’ve made a lot of friends through golf.”

Like Diamond, junior and team captain Alex Missner also recognizes a collective energy and sense of community on the team. Missner has been playing golf since seventh grade and has been on the team since freshman year.

“I joined [the golf team] in ninth grade because I played golf and I wanted to do a school sport,” Missner said. “I wanted to see golf in a competitive manner.”

According to varsity golf coach Brent Davis, in comparison to the other teams that he has coached, the JDS golf team has a unique dynamic. Diamond also pointed out that the players are family friends.

Even though the team only brings five players to each match, they carried an extra player this season. Davis thought that it would be interesting to see “how they interact with each other” on a bigger team.

Diamond echoed Davis’ opinion about the warm spirit of the team. When Diamond scored the team’s best score of the season, he noted that his friends on the team were there to support him.

In addition to Diamond’s achievement, Davis has seen a lot of improvement in the team’s performance even though the team finished the season in fourth place out of five teams.

Next year, the team will be losing three juniors, leaving only three returning players. Missner thinks that even if there are no new players, there will still be a team.

“It’s a fun sport to play for school,” Missner said. “It’s not crazy competitive, [and] you don’t need to be that good. If you just want to learn the sport, you can come out.”