Bill Mondrella remembers it like it was yesterday, even though it was about five years ago.

The Lemont girls golf team was practicing at Cog Hill when Mondrella, the coach, noticed a young girl putting by herself. He walked over to the fourth grader and saw the name on her bag: Sarah Scott.

He remembers his first words to her clearly.

“Please tell me you’re from Lemont,” Mondrella said with a laugh.

Lucky for him, she was and still is. Now a freshman in high school, Scott has continued to follow in the family tradition of high-quality golf. Very high quality.

Scott tied for third at the Hinsdale South Regional with a 75 and tied for fourth at the Lockport Sectional with another 75. She closed out the year in sixth place at the Class 2A state tournament with a 145, going 3-over par on Day 1 before closing 2-under on the Day 2.

Plainfield East sophomore Taylor Miller, last year’s Herald-News Girls Golfer of the Year, had an outstanding season, finishing 17th at the 2A state tournament. Lockport senior Angela Kwak finished just ahead of Scott at the regional and sectional tournaments. But it was Scott who finished better than any girls golfer in the Herald-News area at state.

With all of that considered, Scott was considered the best of an excellent group of choices for the 2025 Herald-News Girls Golfer of the Year.

“I’m really grateful for the title,” she said. “It’s such an amazing honor and exciting.”

Again, the talent has been apparent for a long time with Scott, evidenced by Mondrella’s story. She grew up with her father teaching her how to golf and his enthusiasm helped push the entire family. Sarah is just the latest in a long line of talented Scott golfers for Lemont.

Her oldest brother, Ed Scott, was an outstanding golfer in high school and is now in his second year as a Division I golfer for Navy. Her other brother, Joey Scott, qualified for state all four years at Lemont and will golf collegiately for Iowa next year.

Playing alongside those two definitely helped Sarah develop, but it had to come with a lot of nerves and pressure, right?

“I never felt super nervous,” she said. “I’ve played competitive golf my whole life and competed in summer tournaments. Obviously, that very first shot, I was a little nervous, but it’s nothing I’m not used to. At this point, I just know how to control that and play the game.”

Those calm nerves were on full display in the postseason. As mentioned, she wound up tied for third at regionals behind Kwak, but considering where she finished compared with where she started, and it gives even more credit to the kind of season she had.

“Her first hole at the regional, she got an eight at four over par,” Mondrella said. “She hit two out of bounds on the first tee. For the remaining 71 holes she went plus 5. After one hole, I thought, ‘Oh boy, here we go,’ but it didn’t even faze her.”

In addition to her skill set, Mondrella was impressed by her attitude.

“I think what impressed me most was her attitude and how nice she is,” Mondrella said. “She’s a really good person. Every coach we went against said their girls really enjoyed playing with Sarah. She’s a talker, she’s friendly, she’s very nice. I knew I was getting a good golfer, but I got an amazing person and personality too.”

Perhaps the best highlight of that was Scott’s response when asked about future goals.

While many athletes mention wanting to win state or play in college, both things she says she wants to do, Scott emphasized the No. 1 priority for her was helping her teammates get better.

“I want to set an example for my teammates,” she said. “That’s a big goal of mine. There’s no seniors on the team, so we’ll all be back next year. With the motivation, we can perform even better next year and maybe make it to state as a team.”