Legacies Created, Grow with D2 Winners

March 7, 2015

By Sarah Jaeger
Special for Second Half
 

WATERFORD – Flint Kearsley can add another championship to its school bowling history. Muskegon Reeths-Puffer can add its first.

After Kearsley won its second Finals team title in as many years Friday, junior Chad Stephens took home the singles title Saturday at Century Lanes in Waterford. Reeths-Puffer senior Kayleigh Gonzalez, meanwhile, claimed her school’s first bowling title in her first Singles Finals appearance. 

"It's pretty great, back-to-back titles as a team and coming back and winning singles," Stephens said. "It's pretty incredible."

To claim his second championship of the weekend, Stephens in the Final faced Charlotte senior Collin Fox, no stranger to competing for an MHSAA title. 

"I think he's a great quality bowler," said Charlotte coach David Jackson. "He finished third last year. I think he was in the final eight the year before. I kind of thought he'd go all the way today."

However, Stephens jumped to an early lead with a 226 to Fox's 179. While Fox came back with a 207, Stephens finished the set with a 187 to win with a total of 413 to Fox's 386. 

While the end result may not have been to Fox's liking, he will take with him a memorable moment from the 2015 Singles Finals. "Picking up the 7-10," said Fox. "That's probably the highlight. I guess it's a good way to end senior year."

"I'm sorry to lose him," Jackson added. " I kept telling him to fail some test so he could come back and bowl some more. He wouldn't listen."

The toughest match for Stephens may not have been the Final but rather the Semifinal, where he had to take on his teammate, Kearsley senior Anthony Kelley. 

"I don't really like facing a teammate," said Stephens, "but on the lanes it's just business. You have to work hard for this game no matter who you're bowling."

"I had to continually remind them to take it seriously because after this you've got one more match to bowl somebody," said Flint Kearsley coach Bart Rutledge. "So you can't let up and let the emotion go."                 

Emotions were high in the girls singles competition as well. The final match pinned Muskegon Reeths-Puffer’s Gonzalez against Tecumseh junior Kayla Wild.

While both left some open frames during the first game, Gonzales was able to put a string of strikes together and take the lead 210 to 175. 

"I knew that I had a little bit of an advantage because I had a 210 the first game," said Gonzalez. "So as long as I kept at a steady pace with her, I knew I was ok."

Pace she did. Gonzalez finished with a 182 while Wild had trouble covering some of her spares, throwing a 175 for her last game. 

"I thought I bowled well all day," Wild said. "I was surprised when I missed that many spares the last game. I know my thumb started to hurt, but that's not an excuse. I could have got them."

While she may have appeared calm after claiming the Division 2 singles championship, Gonzalez was in shock. 

"I was kind of surprised," said Gonzalez, who will attend Muskegon Community College next year and bowl for the Jayhawks. "I didn't think I'd actually win. I was just happy to get into the top 16."

"This was the third year in a row we were able to come for Team (Finals)," said Reeths-Puffer assistant coach, Marc Vanderstelt, also Gonzalez's stepdad, "but the first chance for Kayleigh as an individual in the three years she's been on the team. She just did a phenomenal job." 

As for the runner-up, Wild, this was only her third year bowling. Being a junior, she is poised to come back stronger for her senior year.

"You know when you get to that top 16 anything can happen," said Tecumseh coach Ken Richard. "We'll work on her spare shooting and the mental game to pull it off." 

Wild's hope is to do what Kearsley's Stephen did this year: "A state championship, either team or individual, or both would work."

Click for full girls results and full 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.

These are logos for the Made In Michigan series and the Michigan Army National GuardThe 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.

Morgan wears his 300 ring earned when he was 12, and his 800 series ring from 2018.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.

The DDS team, from left: Alex Hale, Antar Howard, Morgan, Collin Rickey and Jared Edgerton. 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.”

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.)