Tale of two golfers - Carson's Chirila, Steele are college bound

Playing some competitive skins games helped John Chirila and Toby Steele elevate their golf skills to new heights together at Carson High School this spring.

Now, they're making plans to go their separate ways.

While Golf definitely figures into Chirila's plans as he prepares to move on to St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., Steele is focused more on academics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Either way, both had fond memories as they reflected on their successful four-year varsity careers with Carson's golf program. Both were senior leaders for the Senators, who finished No. 1 during the Northern 4A conference regular season before slipping to fifth place at the zone tournament, and both wound up with individual qualifying berths to the state tournament in Las Vegas.

Chirila finished second in the Northern 4A individual Cup points during the regular season and shot 76 to finish second on the zone tournament leaderboard at at Ruby View Golf Course in Elko. A week later, he shot 1-over par 73 in the final round to finish fifth overall at the 4A state tournament in Las Vegas.

Steele also earned a ticket to state when he shot 81 to finish ninth at the zone tournament. This was a breakthrough season, according to Steele.

"Basically, this year is when I actually started playing," he said. "I wasn't too bad, but I wasn't too good, either."

Then the two took a moment to share a good laugh.

"Playing with John had to be good ... I can't lose my money every day," Steele said. "We always plays skins or whatever, that sort of thing."

"Our practices were pretty competitive," Chirila added, laughing. "It's like 800 bucks he owes me ... just joking."

The one major disappointment came when the Senators finished tied for fourth place as a team at zone and lost a sixth-man tie-breaker to Reed for the right to go to state. A total of nine strokes separated the top six teams in the tournament.

"I'm sure if everybody had known that, they would have tried a little harder to make up three strokes. Even I could have made up three strokes," said Chirila, whose 1-under par 71 at Eagle Valley East was the difference in Carson's two-stroke triumph against Sacramento-area power Jesuit on April 24.

"We had a great team this year. I think it's been the best golf team we've had in a long time and that made it fun because we had a whole bunch of really good guys who got along really well."

Chirila, who represented Nevada at the Junior Worlds in San Diego last July, signed his letter-of-intent with St. Mary's on May 24.

"I'm guaranteed a starting spot coming in as a freshman, so the coach said he really needed me, and academically it's real good," Chirila said. "That's the school I really wanted to go to."

Chirila plans to pursue health science in college - "I want to become a physicians assistant," he said. "My freshman goal is to pass chemistry."

Steele was also a standout on Carson's soccer team - he was Northern 4A Division II Midfielder of the Year - and intends to try intramural sports at Colorado. However, he faced a longshot to even walk on and play golf at Colorado - a program that was ranked No. 29 in the nation in the Mastercard/College Golf Foundation Rankings and No. 33 in the Golfweek poll.

"It was like I needed 20 to 24 rounds of 75 or better (to walk on)," Steele said.

The classroom will be No. 1 with Steele when he shows up in Boulder this fall.

"I've been accepted into the honors program," he said. "The campus is really nice, the people are nice and it's not too far from the ski resorts."

Steele expressed some lofty goals down the road when asked about his major.

"Behavioral psychology," he replied, "profiling, that sort of thing. I want to be like one of the head profilers for the FBI ... I'm shooting high."

Just like those skins games.