ROCKINGHAM — Sophomore golfer Kevin Tabacolde has been named the Official Richmond County Male Student-Athlete of the Week presented by Rockingham NC Self Storage.
Helping the Raider golf team stay competitive during the final week of the regular season, Tabacolde represented Richmond as the school’s only golfer at the regional event.
Closing out his second season with the Raiders as the team’s top golfer, Tabacolde notched his first career selection.
Athletic Profile
Year: Sophomore
Spring sport: Golf
Team seed: No. 1
Varsity experience: 2 seasons
“CLASSROOM CREDITS” WITH KEVIN TABACOLDE
Nearing the end of his first full school year at Richmond Senior High School, Tabacolde is an honors student balancing the weight of classroom success and playing a sport.
During the fall semester, Tabacolde earned an A in American History Honors with Morgan Tedder and Weight Training Honors with Kemp McSween. He finished Foundations of Health Science with a B and also passed Biology Honors.
Entering the spring semester with a 3.79 weighted grade point average. He’s currently taking four classes at Richmond — English II Honors, Math 2 Honors, Psychology and another section of Weight Training Honors.
“This semester I’d have to say my favorite class is math,” Tabacolde explained. “It’s always been the easiest subject for me to learn and I really enjoy having my friends in that class. Plus my teacher does a great job explaining everything.
“My proudest accomplishment is being able to maintain good grades while being a student-athlete,” he added.
“ON PAR” WITH KEVIN TABACOLDE
Mondays have been a busy day for Tabacolde and the Richmond Raider golf team this spring, serving as competition day at courses around the Sandhills.
The past two Mondays held even high stakes for Tabacolde, who was first vying for a spot to qualify for the NCHSAA 4A Mideast regional tournament.
On April 29, playing in the final Sandhills Athletic Conference regular-season match, Tabacolde shot a 90 at Pinehurst No. 7. He had a 47 on the front before finishing with a 50 on the back.
While not his best round of the season, he found out after the match that he had qualified for regionals for the second straight season.
Individual qualifiers made it based on the average of their five lowest nine-hole scores this season. Tabacolde posted a low-five average of 43.6 to make the cut.
That set Tabacolde up with a large field of golfers this past Monday at Pinehurst No. 6 for the 4A Mideast regional tournament. Overcoming a slow start and a nagging wrist injury, Tabacolde shot an 86 (+14), which was tied for 48th place.
Starting on the back nine, Tabacolde posted a 45 (+9) and improved on the front half of the course with a 41 (+5). His score of 86 tied his season-low round and his 41 on the front was his best nine-hole score of the season.
During the regional tournament, Tabacolde drained two birdies (Nos. 4 and 15) and parred six holes.
Despite his impressive run during his final nine holes, Tabacolde missed the cut for the 4A state championship tournament by nine strokes.
RAPID RESPONSE VIDEO WITH KEVIN TABACOLDE
The Richmond Observer will publish two more Official Richmond County Student-Athletes of the Week next week.
