Ransom’s Ragan, SLAM’s Giovine are the Miami-Dade Golf Coaches of the Year
Ransom Everglades’ boys have surged to the top in Miami-Dade County over the past couple of seasons with a young, talented group of golfers.
The same goes for SLAM Miami Academy’s girls’ team, which continues to push the top teams in the state for championships.
For the second consecutive season, their coaches - Dave Ragan for Ransom Everglades and Pasquale Giovine for SLAM - are the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade Golf Coaches of the Year.
Ragan guided the Raiders to another dominant season in which they secured multiple tournament championships including Youth Fair Invitational and district championships.
Ransom, which also won the Westminster Christian and Cardinal Newman Invitationals, and the Wolverine Classic, finished a Dade-best eight-place at the Class 1A meet to cap the season after finishing sixth at regionals.
The trio of freshman Cole Durham, who is this year’s Dade Boys’ Golfer of the Year, eighth-grader Axel Monssoh and senior Hugo Stenstrom, led the Raiders with numerous top performances at both nine-hole and 18-hole events.
Giovine, who is also now SLAM’s athletic director, guided the Titans to a state runner-up finish in Class 2A. SLAM finished second only to Plantation American Heritage at state and regionals, but have a young team hoping to match or top one of the state’s all-time best in the near future.
The Titans won their district championship and had one of the most consistent squads throughout the season.
SLAM was led by sophomores Marley Pedrique and Ashley Balcom. Pedrique earned Dade Girls’ Golfer of the Year honors after winning a district individual title and finishing a county-best third at state and runner-up at regionals.
