San Lorenzo Valley senior James Dahlen capped off his final year on the boys’ golf team by helping them win back-to-back Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League regular season championships during the 2025 spring season.
Going into last week’s end-of-the-season league championship, the Cougars’ top shot golfer still wasn’t quite finished adding more hardware to the book shelf.
After falling behind big in the front nine holes, Dahlen clawed his way back to finish with a 7-over-par 77 to capture the SCCAL Championship at Pasatiempo Golf Course in Santa Cruz on April 29.
“It was cool winning and coming back from a struggling round,” Dahlen said. “I was not playing too great. It was some of the best six holes I’d played in a while and it was an intense moment.”
Dahlen handled the nerves like a champion by finishing strong on his final six holes, and shot a 35 on the back nine to edge runner-up Nick Bjorn (80) of Aptos and third place finisher Kaden Dunten (81) of Harbor.
On the 13th hole, Dahlen birdied and pulled to within three strokes of Dunten who was leading at the time.
“We were neck-to-neck the whole time,” Dahlen said. “I knew I needed to step up and after that I just played really good golf.”
Aptos’ Colby Culbertson (83) placed fourth, while SLV senior Luke Fontell (84) and Soquel’s Peter Robeloth (84) tied for fifth. Other Cougar finishers included senior Keenan Buntz (88), sophomore Garret Dahlen (89), junior Tanner Brewer (90) and sophomore Lochlin Bischofberger (97).
Scotts Valley’s Seamus Drees shot a team-best 86 for the Falcons, while teammate Adrian Creamer shot a 97.
Dahlen said winning the individual league tournament was the cherry on top of a successful SCCAL title run at SLV, which finished with a perfect 10-0 record in league action this season.
“It’s probably gonna be one of my bigger golf accomplishments that I have made, so far,” he said.
SLV and Aptos along with Dunten and Robeloth—the top two finishers not on a winning team—automatically qualified for the Central Coast Section Regional Tournament at Laguna Seca Golf Ranch, which took place Tuesday.
Dahlen shot a 5-over 76, followed by Buntz (85), Garret Dahlen (85), Brewer (89), Fontinell (90) and Bischofberger (107). Dunten shot 2-over 73 and was the lone SCCAL golfer to advance to the CCS Championships at Laguna Seca Golf Ranch on May 13 at 8am.
It was the program’s second consecutive SCCAL championship under head coach Luke Dahlen. He said they came into the spring season with high, but tempered, expectations to repeat as league champion.
Dahlen mentioned how Santa Cruz had returned its entire roster, and it was the same group that handed SLV its lone loss of the season in 2024. Then there was Soquel with a young talented team and Aptos as the perennial powerhouse.
Plus, the Cougars lost three starting players due to graduation. Dahlen said they had their work cut out for them but all they needed was a boost of confidence to become the team to beat once again.
“Golf is such a funny sport where it’s so much in your head, in your mind and confidence is everything,” Luke Dahlen said. “They just were confident.”
James Dahlen added that this year’s run for the SCCAL crown was a tad bit more special just because the Cougars weren’t expected to finish atop of the league standings, let alone a perfect record.
“Somehow we pulled it off and it felt pretty good to win this year round,” James Dahlen said. “The back-to-back is pretty sick.”
James Dahlen and senior Keenan Buntz automatically became the 1-2 punch for SLV, the lightning and thunder, as Luke Dahlen put it. Yet, the Cougars also had a solid No. 3 player in senior Luke Fontinell.
“[Fontinell] had an 8 handicap but he was shooting under bogey golf and just throwing that consistent score all year long that keeps the team score low,” Luke Dahlen said.
Brewer, who was SLV’s top JV player, made the transition to varsity but after that it got pretty murky for the Cougars, who still needed two players to compete as a full team of six.
Luke Dahlen lured a pair of baseball players in sophomores Lochlin Bishcoffberger and his son, Garret, to join the squad. SLV’s skipper said that made all the difference.
“Lochlin would be up and down majorly, Garret was pretty solid and Tanner Brewer was also right with Garret,” Luke Dahlen said.
Buntz earned medalist honors as he shot a 37 in the season-opener against Aptos at Pasatiempo, and the Cougars pulled off a miraculous 234-235 victory on March 11. The win would skyrocket their confidence level to the moon and they never looked back.
In the teams’ second regular season meeting, Fontinell posted his lowest score of the year with a 4-over 35 at Boulder Creek Golf and Country Club on March 27. James Dahlen medaled as he shot a 1-over 32, while Bischofberger birdied on the final hole that gave SLV another tight victory against Aptos.
In the final match of the season, James Dahlen and Buntz each earned medalist honors as they shot 4-over 35 against Scotts Valley on April 22. Luke Dahlen said it wasn’t a walk in the park, though, as the Falcons showed up strong with five players shooting under 40.
After hearing the Cougars were trailing, it came down to Brewer and Garret Dahlen to save the unblemished record. They responded in walk-off fashion with four birdies on the final three holes, including one on the final hole to edge Scotts Valley, 188 -191, en route to a perfect season.
“I’m gonna look back at this for a lot of years and I’m just gonna smile, giggle a little bit to myself and just think ‘Wow, that was a special time in history,’” said Luke Dahlen, who is stepping down as head coach following this season. “A special moment that I got to be a part of just watching these kids do their thing.”
And the future is already looking bright for SLV, which is looking to build on what is already a solid substructure. James Dahlen said the current freshman continue to progress and word on the street is more students want to join the golf team.
“There’s a good group of kids right now that will be just as good as our team in a couple of years and I think SLV’s gonna be one of the top dogs for a good while longer just with the coaching, the kids we have and the foundation of our golf team.”
