SACO — Jacob and Jordan Laplume, twin brother and sister, seem inseparable. The 17-year-old high school seniors drive to school together. They work at the same restaurant. They hang out together by choice.
And for the second straight year they’ll spend most of the high school golf season together as the top two players on a strong Thornton Academy team.
Jordan is Thornton’s No. 1 player and team captain. She’s been in the Golden Trojans’ top five since her freshman season. Jacob also has been on the varsity for four seasons. He saw some regular-season action his first two years and moved up to No. 2 as a junior.
Thornton Coach Jeff Camire said he has no plans to split up the Laplumes at the top of his lineup but admits he initially worried about the pairing.
“I said, ‘You need to be honest with me: Can you play together? You’re brother and sister and I can’t have you nagging each other,’ ” Camire recalled.
Camire laughs about it now. It turns out the “twin thing,” works for the Laplumes and for Thornton.
“During matches, against other teams, I honestly think the match between me and her is more fun to keep track of,” said Jacob, the older twin by two minutes. “It’s always a competition to see who wins between us. You know, she wins more than me but …”
“We’re both really competitive with each other because we’re both really consistent, I think,” Jordan quickly added.
The Laplumes grew up playing golf together, learning the game from their father, George.
“He’s still the only one to give us lessons,” Jordan said.
Their mom, Lisa Laplume, also plays a bit.
Jordan has become the unquestioned leader on a team that expects to contend for the Class A title, which it won in 2015. Thornton was seventh in 2016 but returns its top eight players and added a talented transfer at No. 4, Jan Berger.
Golf is Jordan’s primary sport and she hopes to play in college. She also enters her senior season as one of the top contenders to win the girls’ individual title. She’s placed in the top five at the state tournament each of the three previous years and was third in 2016 behind since-graduated co-winners Bailey Plourde (Lincoln Academy) and Erin Holmes (Greely).
“I want to have a good record this year. I want to win team states, that would be a great accomplishment, and maybe even win individuals this year,” Jordan said. “I’ve worked really hard these past four years so winning individuals would be like a dream come true for me.”
At 5-foot-7, Jacob is 5 inches taller than his sister. He’s a baseball-first guy, a fleet center fielder who would like to play in college. But he takes his golf seriously and like his sister, routinely shoots around par. He was a first-team SMAA Central Division pick and finished seventh in the boys’ individual tournament as a junior, his first year competing in the event.
“Last year was my first chance out of my high school golf career to get a chance to qualify for myself. I got the chance and I did qualify and I finished seventh. So this year I’d like to beat that,” Jacob said.
He’s also proud of his sister’s accomplishements and glad she’s the team captain.
“My other friends who don’t golf ask me, ‘Is your sister better than you at golf?’ and I say, ‘Yeah, she is,’ ” Jacob said. “She’s the captain, she’s the (No.) 1 man on the team. I’m the (No.) 2 for a reason and she deserved that. So I’m not going to get mad because she’s the captain. She deserved it.”
Thornton is off to a 3-0 start, which includes a 13-0 win at its home course, Biddeford-Saco Country Club, against defending Class A champion Gorham.
The team includes a strong No. 3 player in sophomore Armand Ouellette. In the opener against Westbrook (also a 13-0 sweep), Ouellette’s nine-hole score of 35 was two strokes better than the Laplumes, who tied each other with 1-over 37s.
Ouellette said, “it’s not about what spot we’re playing in,” and agreed that Jordan is the right person to be Thornton’s team leader.
“She sets the best tone in practice. She brings intensity to practice every day and matches, obviously,” Ouellette said. “And she doesn’t flame out too often where some of us on the team can be more emotionally volatile.”
Steve Craig can be reached at 791-6413 or:
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