This 2022-23 Golf season, Malvern Prep’s varsity team accomplished a feat they hadn’t done in 7 years…winning the Inter Academic league championship. Winning three out of six invitationals and placing second in two others this year’s team was very hard to beat. The team bolstered 4 All Inter AC team selections and 2 Second Team All Inter AC selections.  The squad this year featured a super young corp group of guys who hope to have set the tone for the Inter AC for years to come. 

Going into the season, 22-year tenured Coach Gary Duda ‘88  knew the age of his squad and the benefits and repercussions that could bring.

“…going into the season. I knew we were young. We only had two returning seniors…”

Those seniors being Will Aprahamian 23’ and Dylan O’Connor 23’. With O’Connor out with a back injury early on in the season, Duda knew not only a big leadership role was going to be thrust onto Aprahamian, but rounds to be made up in O’Connor’s absence.

“We had a kid like Will Aprahimian who was our senior captain along with Dylan. He finished fourth in the league. So coming from nowhere last year, for him to do that negated, Dylan’s not being here for us. So that was great.

In the senior leader’s eyes, Aprahamian ‘23, remembers this ultimately successful season as having its fair share of ups and downs.

“I would say we started off good, but then we kind of hit different marks throughout the season, we had dips, but we also progressed. I would say three fourths through the season was when we really hit our stride and the players that we knew would play the best were actually doing the best.”

As he leaves Malvern after graduation he knows the strength in the talent coming up and how they could improve an already great team.

“We have a really young team, but a lot of really good talent. So the more that they practice and become more familiar with each other, building relationships will help them”

This respect for the younger members of the team is reciprocated throughout the squad for the older guys. 1st team all Inter AC selection Davis Conway ‘26 shared similar feelings about their captain.

“He did all you could do as a captain, brought everyone up and helped the team out a lot”.

Second team all Inter AC selection Thomas Ploszay ‘26 echoed the same points and felt confident in the leadership and coaching for next year.

“Captains and coaches definitely stand out to me as a good starting point for next year”.

Next year will provide another strong Inter AC golf league and  according to Coach Duda and Will the team will definitely face the same kind of adversity and challenges as this year.