On Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, North Penn seniors Andrew Lombardo and Ron Robinson were recognized for committing to continue their golf careers at the collegiate level.
“I’ve been coaching for nine years, and I’ve got to say these last four years have been just been the best years of my coaching career with these two guys on the team,” coach Dave DiValentino said. “These guys have been the rock on our golf team the past four years. I was looking through all the golf stats for the past 50 years back to the 70s and couldn’t find anything to match these two guys over the past four years. It doesn’t happen a lot that one golf coach has two golfers playing D1 golf from their team in one year. I am super proud of these guys.”
Andrew Lombardo – Colgate University (Golf)
Major: Undecided but possibly Mathematics or Economics
Final list of colleges: Colgate, Lafayette, Bucknell
Reasons for choosing Colgate: “I chose Colgate primarily because I liked the campus a lot – it’s a very beautiful campus and also I really like the coach.”
What was the progression that led you to competing in golf at the collegiate level? “I didn’t really think that I wanted to play college golf until about 10th grade. Before 10th grade, I really just played for fun. I would go out for weekends with my dad. When I started having hip problems, I decided in ninth grade that maybe I’ll try golf for a year and see how it was. I actually was planning to play on the soccer team, but I really, really liked golf, and after ninth grade, I started to get more competitive with it. I started having more problems with my hips, so it made my decision easier, and I decided I wanted to play golf over soccer for the rest of high school and possibly into college.
“High school golf was the first competitive golf that I played. That basically showed me that golf is really fun. There’s a good balance between competitive golf and just having fun. In college, I want to keep having fun while being competitive.”
Coach Dave DiValentino says: “We were at Pinecrest for tryouts, and coach Heller and I were sitting there looking at who’s signed up to play. We look up and see Andrew, and he’s wearing nice pants, Titleist shirt, Titleist hat, Titleist bag. I said, ‘Come here, what grade are you in?’ He said, ‘Eighth grade.’ I said, ‘Do you go to North Penn,’ and he said, ‘Yes.’ ‘What are you going to do next year?’ He said, ‘Soccer.’ I said, ‘Let’s talk about this.’
“We had a conversation, we ended up talking to his dad, going over the pros and cons of soccer and golf. He ended up coming out for the golf team, and I couldn’t be happier. From that moment when we saw him dressed in his golf outfit and the way he talked to us as an eighth grader, we were like ‘What did you shoot?’ He said, ’80.’ From that moment, I said, ‘These next four years are going to be amazing.’”
About Andrew:
Favorite food: Pasta
Favorite movie: The Hangover
Favorite music: Drake
Ron Robinson – Monmouth University (Golf)
Major: Business
Final list of colleges: Monmouth, La Salle, Temple, Lafayette
Reasons for choosing Monmouth: “The reason I chose Monmouth was because it’s a beautiful campus, and it’s a very good academic school. From everyone I talked to, they loved Monmouth.”
What was the progression that led you to competing in golf at the collegiate level? “I knew I wanted to play college golf since 10th grade.
“Golf is a real individual sport, and coach D taught me that golf is more of a team sport. With it being a team sport, it makes it a lot more fun.”
Coach Dave Valentino says: “We were at Freddy Hill over the summer, and he comes up. He’s a baseball guy before golf. He comes up in his baseball cleats, baseball hat. He steps up, and he’s ripping balls on the range. He’s a big guy for ninth grade. We said, ‘Are you going out for the golf team?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘Maybe you should dress a little more like a golfer,’ so comes back the next time in a golf hat, golf shirt. He turned his mentality around. He came back and he got serious about golf. Again, he’s doing amazing things with the golf team.”
About Ron:
Favorite food: Chicken Parmesan
Favorite movie: Blades of Glory
Favorite music: Lil Yachty
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