Kearsley Boys Sent Coach Into Retirement with 4th-Straight Championship
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
February 27, 2026
WATERFORD — Flint Kearsley boys bowling coach Bart Rutledge said he thought for years that he would retire once his son Trent graduated.
That actually happened last year, but Rutledge decided to come back for one more.
“We had six seniors coming back, and I knew them since they were freshman,” Rutledge said. “I didn’t want to hand them off. I wanted to finish it with them.”
Kearsley certainly finished it, sending Rutledge off to retirement with the best gift possible.
For the fourth straight year, Kearsley won the Division 2 team title, sweeping New Boston Huron in what was the third meeting in four years between the teams in the championship match. Kearsley won all three.
“The feeling gets better every single year,” Kearsley senior anchor bowler Jameson Vanier said. “I don’t know how to describe it.”
Rutledge said Kearsley was consistently solid as a team all year, not placing below third at any tournament all season. However, the team also didn’t win a tournament until its last one of the regular season.
“It took a while to get the communication going and everything,” Rutledge said. “There could’ve been a little bit of a letdown (from last year). It’s tough. It’s hard doing back-to-back, let alone four.”
Kearsley was seeded second out of the qualifying block and then beat Three Rivers in the Quarterfinals and St. Clair Shores Lake Shore in the Semifinals.
Kearsley then ran into the familiar New Boston Huron foe in the Final, although Chiefs head coach Larry Collins said his team didn’t initially think it had advanced past the qualifying block.
Collins said his bowlers were at a nearby Culver’s for lunch and he planned to stick around and support neighboring school Carleton Air[port, which was the top seed out of qualifying.
Much to his surprise, Collins found out his team had qualified by 22 pins as the No. 8 seed, and had to call back his bowlers from Culver’s to get ready for the Quarterfinal match.
“I stuck around to watch Airport, and next thing you know we are bowling Airport,” Collins said.
New Boston Huron then knocked off Airport in the Quarterfinals and Tecumseh in the Semifinals to earn another crack at Kearsley.
After a five-game thriller last year, Kearsley was in control from the start this time, winning 176-138, 205-149, 190-128.
Despite another loss to Kearsley, Collins wasn’t unhappy at all with how his team competed.
“This one is special,” Collins said. “We weren’t expected to do much this year. We lost a lot of seniors from last year. We thought we were dead. Kids were at Culver’s getting lunch and all of a sudden they made the announcement that they made the cut and came flying back over. We shot 980 in the last game (of qualifying) and it vaulted us ahead. We got to bowl Airport in our region and in our league, and that’s a phenomenal team. Our boys just stepped up and said that we weren’t going to lose to them again.”
D4's Best Win in Dramatic Fashion
March 4, 2017
By Dick Hoekstra
Special for Second Half
LANSING – It took the third highest series of bracket play to do it, but Bronson sophomore Brandon Hyska eliminated three-time reigning champion Kyle Tuttle of St. Charles 482-456 in a Quarterfinal match and went on to capture the Division 4 individual championship in boys bowling Saturday at Royal Scot Lanes.
In the girls Final, senior Kendra Schuitema of Ravenna bowled strikes in frames 5-10 and an extra frame to pull away from senior Paige Kortz of Napoleon and also earn an individual title.
Hyska, the No. 2 seed after morning qualifying, rolled his best series of 487 in the first round of bracket play to set up the match with the No. 7-seeded Tuttle.
“He was making good shots so I had to keep making good shots,” Hyska said. “We were both striking. It was a high-scoring match. I knew he would put up a good fight. So I knew I had to put up a good score to beat him.”
Tuttle was disappointed, especially after his St. Charles team lost by just 13 pins in a team Semifinal a day earlier.
“Qualifying was a grind after starting off with a 154, but I slowly came back from that,” Tuttle said. “That was a good match (with Hyska). I missed a spare on a 10-pin in the first game. I could have won in the 10th, but I 2-8-10ed. That’s what it came down to was bad shots. But he bowled well with a 482.”
Hyska then defeated No. 3-seeded sophomore Korey Reichard of Vandercook Lake 318-268 in a Semifinal and No. 1-seeded senior Chase Elkins of Grass Lake 453-377 in the Final.
“I got off to a good start, and had a 50-pin lead,” Hyska said. “So I had to stay clean, make strikes and spares, and throw good shots.”
Hyska felt he could be a contender after throwing the best score of 1206 of the six Division 4 regionals the previous weekend. He also had the experience of making the final 16 as a freshman a year ago before losing in his first match of bracket play.
“I knew I had a good chance to come out here, do what I can do, and shoot good scores,” Hyska said.
Schuitema, on the other hand, never expected her success.
“I was a champion at Regionals last year, but I never thought I would be a state champion,” she said.
She placed fifth at her Regional this year and came into bracket play as the No. 7 seed after morning qualifying.
“Coaches just kept saying you can beat any girl here,” Schuitema said. “I didn’t believe it, but I did it. What a way to end up senior year.”
She defeated No. 10-seeded Melissa Steinbis of Bad Axe 369-313, and then No. 2-seeded Mackenzie Johnson of Vandercook Lake 419-402. Johnson’s series was the third best of the day, but Schuitema managed to throw her best series to beat her. Then she overcame a 10-pin deficit to edge Jennifer Stratton of Hudson by just eight pins at 360-352 in a Semifinal and recorded her second-best series of 410 to earn the title.
Schuitema started to believe she could win it all with the Semifinal victory. But it wasn’t until the sixth frame of her second game, which was the second of her seven straight strikes, that she felt she had it won.
Kortz, who held a slim 172-167 lead after the first game of the Final, qualified fifth and defeated the No. 12 seed Victoria Ivey of Beaverton 367-323, No. 13 seed Chasta Ganski of Rogers City 373-348, and then No. 1 seed Shaierica Gould of Flint Beecher/Mount Morris 364-305 to make the Final.
“I was mainly focusing on not showing my emotions, and getting my spares, because the lanes are getting harder,” Kortz said. “I got a couple bad breaks that were mentally tough. At the end, she found out what line to shoot. I was still struggling to find the line.
“I wanted to leave it all on the table my senior year. I made it to state two previous times, but never made the cut.”
Elkins finished fourth in a Regional won by Hyska, but secured the No. 1 seed Saturday by 27 pins after morning qualifying. He defeated No. 16 seed Drake McFarland of St. Charles 482-318 with his best series of the day, and then won two super close matches. He edged No. 9 seed Cody Johnson of Sandusky (who was coming off a spectacular 526 series) 469-461 in a Quarterfinal and No. 5 seed Chase Castro of Beaverton 413-407 in a Semifinal to reach the Final.
“I actually missed more opens in those two games than I did all day,’ Elkins said of the Final. “I think the nerves got to me, and the adrenaline. But I’m happy with my performance today.”
Click for full girls results and full boys results.
PHOTOS: (Top) Bronson sophomore Brandon Hyska with his supporters Saturday. (Middle) Ravenna senior Kendra Schuitema stands with her supporters at Royal Scot.