Two years ago, the Pembroke Academy golf team included six participants, not even enough to field a complete lineup each time out.

Though the team’s day-to- day performance is still a work in progress, PA coach Mike Desilets said he’s seeing some encouraging signs.

“The scores are high, but our numbers are high, too,” he said. “We’re very young. We only have two or three seniors, and we have more (golfers) than the last two years combined.”

In fact, there are 21 Spartans competing for playing time this season.

Sophomore Lucas Connor and junior Jamison Syphers, who each shoot in the low 80s, lead the current squad. Though the team is a long shot to make the state tournament, Connor and Syphers are likely to represent Pembroke at the Class I individual championship in October, said Desilets.

Juniors Billy Bouchard and Kaitlyn Labbay, who played last year with Connor and Syphers, consistently score in the top five for PA as well.

Freshman Emerson Brooks has shown plenty of promise, as have many of his classmates, said Desilets. That list includes Thomas Graziano, Stephen Henning, Kent Keeler, Stephen Lang, Jack Poirier, Matthew Serafin and Jake Steinbeiser.

Also contributing are seniors John Andrews and Neil Innarelli, juniors Zachary Cogswell and Adam French, and sophomores Jorden Bonanno, Kinsey Brassaw, Nathaniel Chagnon, Joseph Darby and Abigail Kinney.

With the amount of youth on the team, Desilets said his expectations are high for the future.

“Right now I’m just trying to get as many kids as I can into matches, so next year they’ll all have a year of experience under their belts,” he said. “I don’t know how often we’ll get a group this big, so hopefully the freshmen can keep us strong for the next couple years.”