Steve Kline coaches two sports at Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
They are two completely different environments in boys’ basketball and girls’ golf, but not because one is indoors and the other is outdoors.
Of course, any competitive setting ultimately has the same paramount objective: winning.
Kline has been successful at achieving that since his days as a student at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, where he played basketball under then-head coach and Hall of Famer Tim Ortelli.
He is now passing the torch to the next generation of the Panthers on the hardwood as their freshman boys’ basketball coach, but Kline’s varsity-caliber guidance has contributed greatly to the development of Bridgewater-Raritan’s squad, which posted an 18-9 record this past winter to punctuate the program’s best campaign in a decade.
Kline’s spring endeavor is a complete flip of the switch from the extreme intensity of boys’ basketball, but his expectations are also sky high as skipper of Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s girls’ golf team.
There is still mutual respect between everyone on a given basketball court, but Kline does not have to worry about drawing up a scoring play on the fly, adjusting his team’s half-court or transition defense, or navigating fast-paced natural contact amongst players on either side of the hardwood.
Even though girls’ golf is competitive – just like any other high school sport - the genuine camaraderie between coaches and players on both teams on any given match day is what sets it apart from a typical athletic activity.
One key commonality for Kline during the winter and spring, however, has contributed to his success as the Panthers’ girls’ golf team's leader.
As he had on the basketball court, Kline has the services of Bridgewater-Raritan head boys’ basketball coach Gene McAteer and volunteer freshman boys’ basketball coach Matt Lynch of the golf course.
In the spring, both of them contribute a large amount of time as Kline’s volunteer assistant girls’ golf coaches.
“Basketball is obviously a different sport since you pass the ball to each other and run plays, but golf is less intense more organizational,” explained by Kline, who is a Bridgewater-Raritan High School Class of 2005 graduate, and ironically, even played against McAteer’s Watchung Hills Regional High School boys’ basketball squad as a member of the Panthers before McAteer took over at Bridgewater-Raritan. “Having Coach Mac and Coach Lynch host practice when we are at a match really helps our program run, so our girls have somewhere to go if they’re not playing in a match. We carry 12 girls on the team this year, so when six play in a match, the other six go and practice with Coach Mac and Coach Lynch, who are volunteers. It makes things work, and it’s nice that we don’t have to just send kids home because of not being supervised.”
“It’s great to have our basketball guys involved with that.”
With the regular girls’ golf season now at its conclusion, Bridgewater-Raritan has really hit its stride despite a few early setbacks.
The Panthers followed up a season-opening victory at North Hunterdon Regional High School with three rivalry-match losses: once to Ridge High School (previously ranked No. 7 in New Jersey), and twice to eventual Somerset County Tournament champion Pingry School (currently ranked No. 2 in New Jersey).
In the three weeks since, however, the Panthers have not fallen.
On Senior Night against Hunterdon Central Regional High School (0-9, 0-9), while the outcome for Bridgewater-Raritan (7-3, 7-3) was never in doubt, the Panthers celebrated their graduating Class of 2026 seniors by posting their best team score of the spring to date: a 175-277 victory over the Red Devils Monday, April 27, at the Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater.
Following each golfer’s completion of the ninth and final hole at the Raritan Valley Country Club, which has a course par of 36, the following six seniors of the Bridgewater-Raritan High School Class of 2026 were honored: Ciara Decarlo, Riya Desai, Samantha Eng, Amaya Lee, Veronica Scansaroli, and Megan Tracy.
“We shot a season low and had all of our senior girls play and contribute – even one that was hurt,” praised Kline of his team’s result and notably Scansaroli completing the last 100 yards of the ninth hole, where the seniors’ families and supporters from Bridgewater-Raritan were all waiting just off to the side at the end of the match.
“It was a beautiful day and a good turnout by the families, and it was very special.”
Most importantly, even factoring in Scansaroli’s injury, all six of Bridgewater-Raritan’s seniors were represented on their home course on their special evening.
Junior Yashvi Shah (34) shot a two-under par to lead all scorers, which factors in a team’s four lowest scores (strokes) amongst its six golfers who compete in a given match. Decarlo (42), Lee (47), and Desai (52) rounded out the Panthers’ scoring results in what proved to be each of their personal course bests of the season in matches played at the Raritan Valley Country Club.
Even though their results were outside of their team’s top four results on Monday afternoon, Tracey (54) and Eng (64) also produced scores that were their best and second-best, respectively, of the 2026 season.
Shah’s result was also her best this season at the Raritan Valley Country Club, but second overall only to her three-under-par 33 back on April 14 at Ridge. The same was true for Desai, who collected a season-best score of 44 at this same course in the Panthers’ upset victory at the state-ranked Red Devils, 178-202, at New Jersey National Golf Club in Basking Ridge.
“We have a mixture of girls who have been with us since freshman year and ones who have picked it up this year,” Kline went on to say of his senior players. “Sam Eng even came over from softball and has some ability from softball. It transferred over, and she has played well.”
“Golf is kind of hard to be a real team sport, but our girls have done a good job blending together, being friends, and being teammates.”
Since defeating Ridge two weeks ago, following Bridgewater-Raritan’s 202-233 home victory on Tuesday afternoon against Watchung Hills (3-7, 3-7) to conclude the regular season, the red-hot Panthers will now head into the postseason with six straight victories.
Ridge, which was the only team from a public high school to defeat Bridgewater-Raritan in a regular-season dual match this season, will also be amongst the squads competing against the Panthers next at the NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section A, Girls’ Golf Championships 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 5, at Stanton Ridge Golf Club in Whitehouse Station.
“We’re looking for a top three finish [at sectionals] if possible,” previewed Kline of the remainder of his team’s goals in 2026, particularly a big result at sectionals, where the top 12 public schools in each of the state’s four sections (North A, North B, South A, South B) will launch their bids to qualify for the overall state championships.
“Hopefully we just play our best golf, have a good day, and take it from there.”
Regardless of what happens at the state sectional championships, where the top two (2) teams from each section will advance according to NJSIAA Girls’ Golf Tournament Regulations, Shah will represent Bridgewater-Raritan at the NJSIAA State Championships.
According to the above tournament parameters: “The top fifty (50) individuals in the state based on the I- Wanamaker Rankings will automatically qualify for the State Championships. An individual who is in the top fifty (50) and on the team that qualified will count as one of the fifty (50) individual spots available.”
The NJSIAA Girls’ Golf State Championships will be contested at 11 a.m. Tuesday, May 12, at the Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater, coincidentally the Panthers’ home course.
“Yashvi went and shot a 34 on the front nine [against Hunterdon Central], which was two-under par,” praised Kline of Shah’s result, which Bridgewater-Raritan hopes will foreshadow a big performance in a complete, 18-hole, high-stakes setting at the state championships.
“The season goes quickly, but it’s fun, and good things are going to happen in the next two weeks.”