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There is some poetic justice to this
story. The fact that Christie Sitko, the girl who likes to take a swing
at just about every sport imaginable, should particularly excel at the
one sport, where a near perfect swing is critical.
The eldest of two
children in the family, Christie Sitko has been immersed in a sporting
environment virtually since the day she was born. And not just with the
reliable old standard athletic ventures.
At the tender age of
three or four, Sitko first strapped on the skis, making her way down the
hill in Lively, following the footsteps of her father who raced alpine
courses in his day.
“I did it for a couple
of years, but I was chicken and got scared”, she explained. On to
slightly more traditional ventures as the talented Grade 12 student at
Lively District Secondary takes up both hockey and soccer throughout her
elementary school days, suiting up as a member of the Lady Wolves for
four years.
Showing certainly above
average talent but sensing her limitations, Sitko opts for the shotgun
approach in high-school, much to the delight of a variery of Lively
Hawks’ coaches.
“I wanted to play
basketball and I wanted to play football and I wanted to try volleyball
and I wanted to be on the soccer team”, she points out with a smile. “If
I would have kept going with (rep) hockey, I would have been near the
bottom of the “AA” caliber…so I decided to play everything instead.”
By this point, she had
already been introduced to what would easily become her summer passion,
again following a family tradition to the Lively Golf Course. “Golf was
always kind of part of our family (except for her mom and dad) – my
grandparents are at the golf course almost every day.”
Picking up the clubs
initially at age nine or ten, Sitko showed steady improvement, the
result of both playing a great deal and enjoying the on-going guidance
and support from a whole slew of family members.
Sitko has now captured
the SDSSA high-school golf championship in each and every year of her
secondary school career. A real student of the game, she has an easy
time explaining the gap that exists between the elite player and the
rest of the field.
“It’s consistency – they
can sometimes hit the drive just as far as I can, but where I will hit a
good drive on about 80% of the holes, they will hit a good drive on two
or three holes a round.”
But while she has
dominated on a local level within her age group, Sitko is extremely
aware of the incredible talent within the female golf community, strewn
across the province.
In fact, given that only
six or seven Ontario universities even field a women’s golf team, Sitko
knows that playing the sport at a post-secondary level may not be in the
cards.
No problem – there are
certainly other sports. “I do like hockey and I don’t want to give up
hockey completely.” Spoken like a consummate multi-sport athlete.
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