MUKILTEO — In the Harbour Pointe area of Mukilteo, plenty of people play golf. Little wonder, then, that nearby Kamiak High School is a perennial state power in both boys and girls golf.
Little wonder, too, that some of the school’s top golfers come not only from the same neighborhoods, but sometimes from the same families.
This year, for example, the Knights have two sets of siblings — senior Renee Kwak and her freshman brother Alvin Kwak, and freshman twins Jane and Alex Kim. The four of them together are a big reason why Kamiak expects to contend for boys and girls championships at the upcoming Class 4A district tournaments, and perhaps even state titles.
Alvin Kwak, the No. 1 player for the Kamiak boys, competes not only in Washington Junior Golf Association (WJGA) events, but national tournaments, too. He is likely to contend for district medalist honors, but so is his sister Renee. After all, she is already a three-time district girls champion, first as a freshman at Mill Creek’s Jackson High School and the past two years at Kamiak after the family moved to Mukilteo.
Jane and Alex Kim also could do very well in the season’s remaining weeks. Despite being just a freshman, Jane Kim has continued to challenge Renee Kwak for the team’s top spot, and if anyone can snap Kwak’s string of district titles, it might well be Kim.
Alex Kim, meanwhile, is one of four talented freshmen on the Knights boys team. He is fourth on the squad, with only a single stroke separating the team’s third, fourth and fifth players.
But the most talented freshman boy at Kamiak, and likely in the Western Conference, is Alvin Kwak.
“He’s a fabulous player,” Knights boys coach Tom Lowery said. “He is incredibly powerful. He’s built like a bull and he hits the ball a mile. In addition to that, his irons are amazingly accurate. … He’s hungry, he’s motivated and he has some serious aspirations.”
A month ago, Lowery was exchanging texts with Alvin Kwak during the Masters tournament. “I said, ‘Alvin, you have to promise me one thing. When you get there (to the Masters someday), you have to get me two tickets,’” Lowery related. “And he said, ‘Deal, coach.’”
Because of the talent on his team, and because so many of his players have personal swing coaches, Lowery likes to kid about his own coaching duties. In a recent e-mail to rival Wesco coaches he wrote jokingly, “Since so many of you have asked, here are some of my favorite drills. The first one is the ‘Good shot drill.’ The way this one works, I stand behind Alvin at practice and when he hits it I say, ‘Good shot.’
“I do that one every single day,” he added with a chuckle.
More seriously, Lowery knows his team has a chance to do well in the postseason. “I don’t have any specific expectations,” he said. “But every time I’ve put a goal or a challenge in front of my team this year, they’ve exceeded it. Every time I set the bar, they jump over it. So I’m really excited to see how we do and what’s going to happen.”
According to Alvin Kwak, the Knights boys are hungry. “We really want to win every match,” he said. The team won state championships in 2007, 2008 and 2012, and in 2012 “everybody shot in the 70s,” he added. “And everybody on varsity right now can shoot in the 70s.”
“I feel like we have a good chance of winning districts and maybe even state,” Alex Kim said. “I feel like we could do really well because we have a lot of good players.”
On the girls side, the goal is a top-three finish at state, said Renee Kwak. Because Bellarmine Prep and Eastlake are both talent-laden teams, “it’s hard to predict what our chances are,” she pointed out. “But we’re hoping to bring around four or five girls to state.”
One of them is likely to be Jane Kim, a player who has “improved drastically this year,” Renee Kwak said.
Indeed, Jane Kim is a gifted player who enjoys hitting practice balls with her brother and some of the other Kamiak boys. “She just slides right up next to them and she’s hitting balls crisply,” Knights girls coach Vic Alinen said. “Not as far (as the boys), but as accurate. She’s a laser.”
And along with Renee Kwak, she gives the Kamiak girls a terrific 1-2 punch. Renee Kwak, who finished in a tie for 20th at last year’s 4A state tournament, “continues to lead our band,” Alinen said. “It’s a good band and she’s our leader.”
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