2 x Flint Kearsley, 2 x Champions
March 6, 2015
By Sarah Jaeger
Special for Second Half
WATERFORD – Friday’s Division 2 Bowling Finals at Century Lanes ended in a repeat for 2014, as both the Flint Kearsley girls and boys teams successfully repeated as MHSAA champions.
The Kearsley girls had to defeat a familiar foe, 2014 Finals runners-up Bay City Western.
"I thought this was déjà vu all over again," said Bay City Western senior Anna Kuehne, "but I kind of hoped the ending was different."
After losing three bowlers to graduation last year, Western welcome three new members to the roster including a senior bowling with the team for the first time and a junior who had never picked up a ball until six months ago.
The Warriors came out strong with their Baker games, and Kearsley soon found itself down 69 pins after the set.
"I knew they were good," said Kearsley coach Robert Ploof. "I knew they could put up some scores in their Baker games."
But the Hornets made each frame count and never gave up. "You just got to chip away," Ploof added. "They didn't worry about throwing strikes, just filling frames, and that's what we did and it paid off."
Kearsley was able to overcome the deficit and win 1242-1212.
"You got to give Bay City Western credit though, they gave us everything we could handle,” Ploof said. “They had us, they really did. They had us."
Junior Hannah Ploof led Kearsley during the final game with a score of 238 despite battling an injury to her foot. "She's kind of a mess right now. So for what she did out there, that's pretty amazing," said Robert Ploof, also her father.
"I iced it all day, and I tried not to think about it," Hannah said. "The last match it was more like my adrenaline kicked in, so I didn't feel it."
On the boys side, Western also was Kearsley’s championship match opponent – and the last obstacle keeping Kearsley from becoming the first Division 2 boys team to win back-to-back titles.
With close Baker matches of 160-152 and 173-168, the Western boys took the lead going into the regular game.
But experience in the Finals came in handy for the Hornets.
"We only lost one senior from last year," said Flint Kearsley coach Bart Rutledge, "so we had the same team coming back."
Not only was it primarily the same team from 2013-14, but most of the bowlers had been competing together for the last six years.
"Our school started middle school bowling," said Kearsley senior Anthony Kelly, "so we've been bowling together ever since seventh grade."
And for his last game with his teammates, Kelly rolled a 226, allowing Kearsley to edge Western, 1351-1344.
"To be completely honest, at the start of the year I didn't think we had it in us. And now that it's over I wouldn't change anything," Kelly said.
While Kearsley’s boys will have one lone bowler returning next season from their back-to-back championship teams, Bay City Western does not have a graduating senior.
They already have set their sights on the prize.
"It's not the result I wanted, but it's a lot farther than I thought we were going to make it," said Dylan Brown, a junior for Bay City Western.
"Next year I think it's ours," he added. "We're a young team, we really are. Next year we'll be a lot more mature."
Click for full girls results and boys results.
Feeding 'Drive to Win,' Loy Norrix Grad Morgan Impresses with Strong USBC Showing
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
July 10, 2025
KALAMAZOO — Trevor Morgan received an unexpected bonus when he joined Scott Brunner’s Old School Scratch League at Continental Lanes several years ago.
The youngest on the team at the time, the 2018 Loy Norrix High School graduate said the fun part about bowling with those guys is that they have all bowled with or against his mom Nikki Randall McGruder, his stepdad Ed McGruder and his dad Randy Morgan.
“Now I get to hear all these fun stories involving my parents and my stepdad,” Trevor laughed.
Morgan added that teammates Brian Cooper, Mark LaBarge and Joe Gates were the guys he looked up to when he was a teen working as a food runner at the bowling alley. Another young bowler, Adam Rowlson, has since joined the team.
“These (original guys) are all guys that 10 years ago I was like, ‘Hey, these guys strike,’” Morgan said. “‘I want to be like them one day.’ And now I’m bowling against them and striking with them. Pretty cool.”
Pretty cool is also a good way to describe Morgan today.
The personable 25-year-old was one of more than 100 Kalamazoo area bowlers who have been traveling to Baton Rouge, La., for the USBC Open Championships, competing in team, doubles and singles divisions.
The tournament, from March 1 to July 28, features more than 11,600 five-person teams from around the country.
While Morgan said his team did not do well, he and Trevor Millard are currently 97th in doubles. As an individual, Morgan sits in eighth place with a 778 score.
“When I left there (May 19), I said I was hoping to stay in the top 20,” he said. “Since it’s been a month and a half, now I’m really hoping I can hold on to top 10.
“I bowled in a higher division with a lot of PBA pros bowling. It’s pretty cool to look at the list and go, ‘Hey, I beat some of these guys who were on TV this past year.’ I didn’t get to see them, I didn’t get to bowl against them, but I’m ahead of them.”
Growing up bowling
Continental Lanes has been Morgan’s second home since he was 2 or 3 years old, when his dad took him bowling but would not let him use the bumpers.
“He’d run down there and put his finger on the second arrow (of the lane) and say hit my finger,” Morgan said. “I tried every time to hit that finger. Sooner or later, I got better at it and was able to do it.”
Not only did he get better, but he bowled his first sanctioned 300 at age 12, becoming the youngest to bowl the perfecto in the Kalamazoo area, a record that still stands.
Things have changed quite a bit since then.
Although he had no sanctioned 300s in high school, his current total is more than 20, including eight two seasons ago and seven last season.
“This past year, I shot 299 then 300 in back-to-back games, which was pretty cool,” he said. “But I don’t have one yet that tops that first one. That is a memory that will never be forgotten.”
Morgan still has the special ring signifying his very first 300 game, although now it fits just his little finger.
He also has a ring for his first 800 series, an 801 bowled Sept. 13, 2018.
He has added more since then and recorded five of them last season when he threw an 846, his highest to date.
Besides his scratch league, one of the few in the state, Morgan also competes on the DDS team of former high school friends Collin Rickey, Jared Edgerton, Antar Howard and Alex Hale at Continental.
Friends since elementary school, Morgan became ordained so he could officiate Rickey’s wedding last month.
“I met Jared through Collin,” Morgan said. “They bowled together at Gull Lake High School and were a part of my team Saturday mornings as a youth team.
“Antar we knew from bowling tournaments like Michigan Junior Masters. Alex went to Gull Lake, and I got to bowl against him for two years. A group of 25 (to) 30-year-olds bowling every week is a fun one.”
As for DDS, “We are the Dumb Dumb Squad,” Morgan said. “My stepdad Ed named us that 10 or 15 years ago, so we’ve just lived up to the name and keep doing it.”
Dream Team
At Loy Norrix, Morgan competed in the MHSAA Division 1 Boys Bowling Singles Finals three of his four years, but his team did not qualify.
“My senior year, I lost in semis,” he said. “I led qualifying, won my first match, won my second match, lost to Matt Buck from Rockford by five pins. At least I lost to the eventual winner.”
In spite of that defeat, Morgan was named to the 2018 Detroit Free Press Dream Team with Genesee’s Luke Cantrell, Wyandotte Roosevelt’s Gabe Cassise, Adrian Madison’s Isaac Solis, Davison’s Brandon Kreiner and Lowell’s Carson Clark.
Morgan said the banquet was nice, “but the fun part was that everybody who was part of the Dream Team was there.
“Those were all people that I actually bowled Michigan Junior Masters events with, so we all knew each other. I still run into most of those people today when I bowl tournaments.”
When bowling became too stressful during high school, Morgan took out his frustrations on the golf course, something he still does.
“I was never very good (at golf), never made states (in high school). I never did anything great,” he said. “I used golf as ‘I know I’m not good, so let me get better' as opposed to bowling where ‘I know I’m good; how can I get better?’
“Golf was always my fallback. A lot of times I took the entire summer off from bowling.”
Although Morgan had several bowling scholarship offers from colleges, he said he attended Kalamazoo Valley Community College but soon decided college was not for him.
Instead he started working for his uncle, Mark Randall, who owns BoxDrop, which sells mattresses and furniture with stores in Battle Creek – where Morgan works – and Kalamazoo.
He and Caitlyn Ankli live in Kalamazoo with their two corgis, but Morgan still has a fleeting thought.
“I still have that kid desire to go give it a whirl on the PBA Tour,” he said. “I understand just as much as everybody else that life happens and I’ve built a life, I have bills to pay.
“I can’t just take 10 weeks off from work and say, ‘I’m going to bowl.’ Do I want to? Sure. If I had the time, I would certainly give it a whirl.
“At this moment, I’m pretty content with where I’m at: bowling two nights a week, a lot of little local pop-up tournaments to keep in the swing of things. I still have the drive to win.”
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Trevor Morgan poses for a photo with his third-place medal at the 2018 MHSAA Finals, and at right Morgan bowls this summer. (2) Morgan wears his 300 ring earned when he was 12, and his 800 series ring from 2018. (3) The DDS team, from left: Alex Hale, Antar Howard, Morgan, Collin Rickey and Jared Edgerton. (Bowling and ring photos by Pam Shebest; all others courtesy of Trevor Morgan.)