More than a dozen Cariboo characters headed down to the 2024 Canadian National Disc Golf (Harvest Huck) Tournament Sept. 13-15, with one coming home a champion.
While most of the Cariboo competitors did not bring home big titles, the one exception was 14-year-old Cariboo disc golfer, Emma LeBourdais.
"No one else was even close to winning," reported Matt LeBourdais, Emma's dad.
Emma secured her spot as the top female junior disc golfer at the tournament, making her the national champion in her division.
She said she didn't always love disc golf, but it seems she has had a change of heart.
"I kind of thought it was a pretty stupid sport," she recalled of her first impression of the game, which combines frisbee and golf. She used to help carry her dad's bag while he played and walked around the course during his games with his friends. Then she said she started playing in 2021 and then got more into it in 2022.
Nowadays, the 14-year-old is willing to admit she has come to enjoy the sport.
"It's actually pretty fun," said the national champ, who usually plays with her dad and his friends.
Thursdays are a regular game night, but they play "whenever" as her family lives closest to the Esler disc golf course, which is her favourite. She also enjoys the Boitanio Park course, but the two courses are very different, she explains, with the Boitanio course being wide open and the Esler course requiring you to "play the angles" with lots of trees.
While Emma plays more than other teenagers she knows, she said her friend Maya Robinson came with her to the nationals, and they play together fairly often.
"That was super fun playing with her as a caddy," said Emma. This isn't Emma's first time as a champion either, she won the 2023 BC Juniors and then the 2024 BC Juniors as well, before taking the national title for FJ15 - or female junior under 15 division.
She will now head down to Langley for another tournament on the Sept. 27, 28 weekend in order to compete in the BC Women's Series Championship. Emma is aiming to take part in one more sanctioned tournament to get an invitation to the World Junior Championships in Emporia, Kansas, next summer. The competition would be a very different field of play from Canadian nationals, and she said there are a lot more young people playing down there.
Angie Delainey, Emma's mom, said she's hoping the schools in our area start clubs and get more young people playing the fun, accessible sport.
As for the other Cariboo competitors, they may not have come home champions, but they had fun at nationals.
Held in Clearwater, B.C., the Harvest Huck national competition drew disc golfers from across the country to compete, arriving days ahead to practice the Clearwater course.
The event drew 400 competitors and their companions to the community, with Lucas Robinson, Farley Savard, Emma LeBourdais, Angie Delainey, Tara Dzenis, Matt LeBourdais, Gabriel Holmes, Nick Lamb-Yorski, Owen Powers, Byron Turner, and Aaron Nelson all making the trip to compete.
Maya Robinson, Mary Forbes, Jeff Robinson, and Mark Savard, all went to the competition as caddies to support the players.
The event included multiple divisions and took place over three days at three venues across Clearwater: Clearwater Ski Hill, Wells Gray Golf and RV and the former Lacarya which is now Civilia Golf Retreat.
Participants arrived for days and up to more than a week ahead of time to practice on the different courses for the national competition.
