Despite a wet, rainy morning on Sept. 19, junior high students from across the area gathered at the golf course in St. Paul to take part in the first junior St. Paul Athletics Association championship of the 2017-18 school year.
“The weather was awful,” said Racette coach Gilles Gervais. But, the rain stopped just in time to allow the students to hit the course, and vie for the championship title.
Despite the unruly weather, the day went very well, said Gervais. Often, it’s hard to find students to compete in golf, and often it’s a mixture of students who “live on the golf course,” playing against students who are trying out the sport for the first time.
“Some schools are just trying it out. But, that’s the whole idea, to promote the sport,” says Gervais. For Racette, this proved especially true. The boys’ team came in first place with a score of 67 after an 18-hole scramble.
Gervais says the boys who make up the team (Liam Boyko, Colin Pastiney, Logan Gratton, and Reid Fedoruk) spent a lot of their summer holidays playing golf.
For the Racette girls, who came in third place after a tie-breaking chip-off against Glen Avon School, it was a different story. The girls on the Racette team had hardly ever played the sport, and Gervais says he had to “beg and choose” students to give it a try.
A total of eight boys teams and seven girls teams took part in the championship event. Gervais offered special thanks to the supervisors from the participating schools for giving their time to the event, and also thanked the Tin Cup restaurant for feeding athletes, and the golf course for accommodating the event.
Boys (18-hole scramble)
1st – Racette Junior High (67)
2nd – Ashmont (77)
3rd – Glen Avon (86)
Girls (9-hole scramble)
1st – Mallaig School (49)
2nd – Glen Avon (53)
3rd – Racette Junior High (53)
*Glen Avon girls beat Racette in a closest to the pin tie breaking chip-off, held on the ninth hole.
Cutline: Mallaig girls photo - Ry-Anne Dechaine, Kiera Dubeau, Natalya Langevin, Lyric Ouellette
