Elite Example
Nationally Ranked Reagan Girls Golfer Helps Team
Take Trophies
By Amy Morgan
Earning a national position as a top-ranked youth golfer could count as a part-time job. Ronald Reagan High School senior Lydia Portlock estimates she spends 30 hours a week honing her skills. Her hard work has paid off. At the start of September, she was 80th in the nation on the Junior Golf Scoreboard and 24th among golfers in her 2025 cohort eligible for college teams. Ranking numbers become increasingly important in high school as they are a determining metric for college recruitment, Lydia said.
Her talent as a varsity starter helped Reagan take home the State trophy her freshman year, a National trophy sophomore year, and second place finishes in both arenas as a junior. Individually Lydia was named District runner-up and Regional runner-up her sophomore year and District Champion her junior year. Lydia’s been Top 10 in the State and first-team All-State and All-District for the past three years, as well as Academic All-District for three years. She also was named a THSCA Super Elite Athlete in 6A Girls Golf, an award voted on by Texas coaches that considers character as well as performance. To add academic icing to the athletic cake, Lydia’s ranked in the top 10% of her class at Reagan and takes a rigorous class load that includes GT English, perhaps inspired by her mother who teaches 5th grade at Wilderness Oak.
Other than golf tournaments with the team, Lydia’s favorite Reagan memory was seeing the solar eclipse with her fellow students in April 2024. “I volunteered with Key Club (a service organization that’s part of Kiwanis) to hand out the glasses. It got so dark but was over so quickly!” Lydia also appreciates her Reagan coaches.
“I feel really grateful for Coach Russell Aki and Coach Stephen Martinez,” she said. “They have been good guiding forces in my life.” Coach Aki is particularly adept at tailoring his coaching to each player’s personality. This summer Coach Aki was honored by NEISD as Coach of the Year.
While technically golf’s competition season is in the spring, in the fall Lydia will play a handful of tournaments with the Reagan team facing girls they’ll meet at State. She also plays a full Junior Elite schedule against the best peers in the country outside of school, noting that she came in 3rd
overall at the Arizona Silver Belle tournament in December 2023.
“My parents are really supportive,” she said. “Dad’s good about coming to lessons and encouraged me to work out. There are girls who don’t play as much of a competitive schedule – it’s really determined by what your parents are willing to sacrifice and pay for.”
Lydia started playing golf because she thought it looked “interesting and fun” and “wanted to learn how to swing a club” at 11, an age she said is later than many of her fellow competitors who first began at 6 or 7. She started lessons at Dead Solid Perfect Driving range in fifth grade and was playing tournaments by age 13. Soon all she wanted to do was play the sport. Golf tournaments never shut down during Covid, and Lydia started playing 18 holes competitively by 8th grade.
She joined the Club at Sonterra when it became apparent she needed a home course to develop her skills, although Reagan’s teams practice at Canyon Springs Golf Course.
Not surprisingly, Lydia aspires to play golf in college. She’s committed to playing for Yale after hopefully another Reagan championship season in spring 2025.
