Lee-Scott's dominant run produced incredible talent

For this week’s bit of sports history, we look at one of the most dominant athletic programs in Alabama Independent School Association history: the Lee-Scott Academy golf dynasty from 2006 to 2017.

During the 12-season span, the Warriors captured the AISA Championship 10 times, kicked off by a three-peat between 2006-2008 and ending with six consecutive titles from 2012-2017.

Coached by Charlie Richardson, who remains at the school to this day, the Lee-Scott rosters featured an incredible pool of talent that arguably had not been seen before or since in the state, regardless of sport. A bevy of NCAA D-I athletes trace their origins back to their days at Lee-Scott, including two notable standouts: Davis Thompson and Turk Pettit.

Thompson, the son of former University of Georgia golfer Todd Thompson, competed with the state title teams until his graduation in 2017. He went on to play for his father’s Bulldogs in college, winning SEC Player of the Year honors in the 2020-21 season and taking a pair of NCAA Regional victories in 2019 and 2021.

Pettit also had a highly decorated high school tenure, taking AISA Champion honors in 2016 and 2017. Also the son of a collegiate golfer (his father having played at Huntington College), Pettit went on to Clemson University, where he became an All-ACC and All-American player while capturing the 2021 NCAA Championship.

Pettit currently plays on the Asian Tour, while Thompson is on the PGA Tour following a meteoric rise that culminated in his ranking as the No. 1 amateur prospect in the world in 2020.

Both Thompson and Pettit were multi-sport stars at Lee-Scott (Thompson also won a championship in basketball, while Pettit quarterbacked the Warriors on the gridiron) and have gone on to successful professional careers.

It is rare to get one athlete as remarkable as Davis Thompson or Turk Pettit in a coaching tenure, but Lee-Scott was lucky enough to close out a run of unprecedented dominance with two rare talents at the same time. As the anniversary of the program’s most recent championship approaches, it is worth taking a moment to appreciate the greatness that it had a hand in producing.

— By Eamon Smith, The Auburn Advance