Last Thursday, the very first SDSSAA (Sudbury District Secondary Schools Athletic Association) banners of the 2024-2025 season were doled out.

Yes, I’m aware: as of that morning, local high-school student athletes had all of an even dozen days of classes under their collective belts.

But given the virtually never-ending array of activity that is encompassed under the SDSSAA Master Schedule, one which started on September 13th and is likely to run until mid-June of 2025, best get started early.

The race for the title in the boys and girls individual high-school golf championships could not have been much more contrasting affairs.

Lockerby Composite senior Lea Lemieux became the fourth female ever to “four-peat”, joining the likes of Kelley Walker, Kate Somek and Christie Sitko – and she did so in style, yet again.

Her round of 75 at the Lively Golf Club made for an 18-stroke win over Lia Gallo of Lo-Ellen as the Western Michigan University commit overcame a brief shaky start (by her standards) to easily outdistance an encouragingly large field of 30 female golfers.

“The first five holes were pretty rough,” said Lemieux. “I wasn’t playing well at all – but I bounced back and had four birdies after that. I played a really good stretch where I was four under through nine holes.”

It was just the latest feather in the cap of the teenager who has been a fixture on local youth and junior golf circuits for the past decade or more, a young woman who was intent on leveraging her performances over the course of the past few years to an post-secondary opportunity south of the border.

“I put in a lot of work this winter,” said Lemieux, her 2023-2024 off-season sprinkled with trips to Florida and South Carolina to compete against golfers who can play essentially year-round. “I kind of got a head start on the season and was feeling pretty good about my game.”

Solid showings at Junior Nationals, the U19 provincials and a third trip to the Ontario Summer Games were accompanied by a crack at the Ontario Women’s Amateur Championship where Lemieux carded a personal best score of two-under par at West Haven Golf & Country Club in London.

“It was nice to see my hard work from the winter pay off,” said the 17 year-old grade 12 student at the home of the Vikings.

As for the prep work to get ready for her freshman season of NCAA play, Lemieux beelines to an area of the game where so many will devote hours and hours of practice time. “I am working on my accuracy with my irons, hitting more greens, but also spending a lot more time on my short game because that’s where I will gain the most strokes.”

If the girls championship was something of a foregone conclusion, the battle in the boys bracket was anything but. In fact, it was a pair of golfers (Logan Remeikis of St Charles and Ethan Burton of Lo-Ellen) who would tee-off on a playoff hole, the latter claiming his first SDSSAA crown, though neither would have necessarily been considered a definite favourite coming in.

For as much as both were clearly capable of winning, both needed things to go their way behind them.

“I knew that I could compete with just about anyone there,” said Burton, a 17 year-old senior who joined fellow Knights’ Ryan Di Salle, Max Jouppi and Will Church in finishing second to St Charles (Carter Baron, Colton Nowoselsky, Liam Judd, Peyton Goudreau) in the team event, trailing the Cards by three strokes in the end.

“There were obviously some better players than me but I got lucky and ended up taking it,” added the young man who picked up the game around the age of six or seven but seldom if ever competes in events much outside of the Sudbury region.

“It was pretty exciting.”

Ironically, while Burton more than held his own relative to his own expectations for his game, others falling short may have opened the door for the well-grounded young golfer to rise to the top this time around.

“Honestly, it was a pretty average round for me,” suggested Burton of the round of 76 that he carded. “I started out really, really well for about 14 holes and then fell apart at the end – but I was lucky enough to hang on.”

“I think the nerves definitely got to me.”

While his full-time membership might be at the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club, Burton admitted he also takes well to Lively. “It’s a pretty short course wit a lot of scorable holes,” he said. “I couldn’t miss any greens today; I always had a putt for birdie.”

“I tended to miss a few of those, but I was pretty happy with how I was playing.”

As for the NOSSA Championships that are set for October 2nd at Stone Ridge Golf Course in Elliot Lake, Burton is not about to put any undue pressure on himself.

“I think I am just looking to win with the team at NOSSA,” he said. “I don’t think I stand a chance against some of the guys out there – but our team has a chance.”