It’s been an odd spring for East Lyme High School first-year athletic director Kevin Marcoux, who formerly coached the Killingly High boys’ golf team in addition to his AD duties at the school.

Killingly won two Division III state championships under Marcoux (2016, 2018) and was the runner-up three times, with the team taking nine of the last 10 Eastern Connecticut Conference tournaments and 10 ECC division titles in a row.

“Golf’s the sport where you get to know these kids,” Marcoux said recently, asked about his first spring in quite some time without coaching. “Golf is ... you’re out there on the golf course with them. I take pride in getting to know the kids. The thing I enjoy the most is watching their growth. They come in as a freshman and turn into a superstar player, student-athlete.”

It’s not difficult to engage Marcoux in a conversation about golf.

He formerly took his Killingly teams to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, every April vacation, with an engaged community helping sponsor the players. And Marcoux, a past champion at the Norwich Invitational, plays frequently himself out of Quinnatisset Country Club in Thompson.

He played a round in Florida this spring with former LSU quarterback Josh Booty, who had careers in both professional football and baseball.

Of course, if there was a spot to be for golf in the ECC besides Killingly, it’s East Lyme, where the Vikings, under coach Rudy Bagos, are 6-0 overall, 2-0 in ECC Division I. The Vikings have a nearly impenetrable top four, three of whom — Tyler Moore, Jack Bucko and Sebby DeCosta — were first team ECC all-stars last season.

Marcoux, who has followed the careers of the East Lyme players from afar before this year, has a new challenge for them now.

When he packed up his office in Killingly to move it to East Lyme, he brought the ECC’s perpetual golf trophy with him. It is a trophy which originated in 1964 and has the name of every league champion since then engraved on it.

“The school that wins gets to keep the trophy, keep it for the year,” said Marcoux, who has challenged the Vikings to keep the trophy in East Lyme when the league championship is held May 30 at Great Neck Country Club in Waterford.

“The visual is a powerful motivation.”

Heck of a raffle prize

Stonington sophomore Brady O’Neil, who stepped in at No. 1 singles and led the Bears to the Class M state championship last season, told an interesting story during last week’s match against Lyman Memorial about how he first came to play tennis.

When he was 11, O’Neil won a free tennis lesson at Mystic Indoor Sports.

“It was a rainy day,” O’Neil said. “We thought we were going to get a little exercise in. I ended up loving it. I was always a basketball/soccer guy and we just won a free lesson. I went in to Mystic Indoor and this guy took me. His name is Stefan Jones and he took me in.”

O’Neil has remained with Jones as his coach, now traveling to Old Saybrook Racquet Club, where Jones is on staff.

The Bears are now 8-0, with O’Neil playing second singles following the return of senior Tucker Callahan from injury. O’Neil was last season’s ECC singles runner-up.

Winner, winner

Norwich Free Academy’s Chris Amy won the boys’ shot put (56 feet, 5 inches) and discus (159-9) and Ledyard’s Jamel Kearse Jr. took the long jump (20-3.5) and triple jump (37-7.5) at last Saturday’s Wildcat Relays at Old Lyme.

Also winning multiple events were NFA’s Fernando Flores (110 hurdles, 4x400 relay) and teammate Oliver Aubin (4x100 relay, 4x400 relay).

NFA’s Hannah Graham won the girls’ shot put (33-2) and discus (113-10), while Old Lyme’s Serena Mazzi and Gabrielle Field each contributed to a pair of relay wins in the 4x400 and sprint medley.

This week, 22 schools will compete at the Tetlow Relays at Ledyard, including locals Bacon Academy, East Lyme, Fitch, Griswold, Ledyard, Lyman Memorial, Montville, New London, St. Bernard, Stonington, Waterford and Wheeler.

v.fulkerson@theday.com