It doesn’t matter now that the Permian girls golf team didn’t accomplish one of the goals it set out to complete in September.

Since the season started, the Lady Panthers hoped to lift a District 2-6A trophy three weeks ago. That didn’t happen as they fell to Wolfforth Frenship by 16 strokes.

By finishing second at the district tournament however, Permian still advances as a team to the Region I-6A Tournament.

The two-day regional tournament starts today at Rolling Hills Country Club in Arlington with the Lady Panthers competing against more than a dozen other teams.

The Lady Panthers will have to play its two best rounds of golf of the season to claim a top-three spot that automatically qualifies them for the state tournament in May.

That’s a tall task as Permian will be tested against some of the best golfers in the state from the Metroplex.

“I think it’s a great experience,” Permian senior Briana Venegas said. “Going there for the past three years, I’ve loved the experience because you see how good everybody here is. You’re playing against everybody’s best girls.”

Getting back to the regional tournament was a goal Lady Panthers’ head coach Rodney Roman set out seven months ago. Now the team just has to go out and compete.

“Our goals and expectations are set high for them,” Roman said. “We don’t control what the other teams do. It still doesn’t change our expectations and those standards of us to go and represent our district and represent Odessa.”

The Lady Panthers have a diverse team — whose ages not only differ but their strengths do as well.

 Roman has focused on his team’s short game primarily though to help stay with the Metroplex teams. He wants his golfers to limit mistakes and understand the situation entering each stroke.

“We’re going to get in trouble, but we’re playing for that one stroke,” Roman said. “It’s going to take a lot of consistency and two days of playing very good golf.”

Permian’s two lowest scores at the district tournament came from Venegas and Emily Serrano — who both finished in the top six.

“We just have a lot of confidence going in,” Venegas said about the regional tournament. “These girls have a lot of confidence going into it.

“That’s really where everything counts and matters and that’s where you really show out. They’ve progressively gotten better and they’re not scared of a challenge. I know we’re going up against some really good girls, but our girls are really good too.”

Serrano said in the week of practice before the Region I-6A Tournament that she hasn’t been scoring as low as she’s hoped this season. There’s no better time than now for Serrano to accomplish that.

“I think that’s the best part of it — getting to show those other teams that haven’t seen us what we can do and why we made it to regionals,” Serrano said about the task ahead of the Lady Panthers. “It challenges me because I see what things I need to work on and it’s nice getting to see how some of these other girls think and how they get around the golf course, so then maybe I can bring that home and work on that too.”

And even though Roman feels Permian is in the toughest region in the state, he doesn’t expect anything less from his team than to rise to the occasion.

“These girls know the standard of working hard and actually getting there,” Roman said about his team. “We’re going to go out there and compete.”
