Pennfield, Kearsley Enjoy Repeat Success
March 2, 2018
By Tim Robinson
Special for Second Half
CANTON – It was like old times for Battle Creek Pennfield’s boys bowling team at Friday’s Division 2 Team Finals at Super Bowl.
Winning the title was nothing new; the Panthers did it last year in Division 3. That made Pennfield the first school to win back-to-back bowling championships in different divisions.
The Panthers’ opponent in the Final was familiar, too. Pennfield and Coldwater are both members of the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference.
This season included, however, the first wins over the Cardinals in coach Rick Hinds’ career at Pennfield, and the Panthers took three of four matches – two during the regular season and the third Friday.
“It was tight all season,” Hinds said. “One of our wins was by one pin. We see them a lot.”
But it was a little nerve-wracking for the Panthers after a strong start.
Pennfield won the first Baker game 223-137, by an 86-pin difference, and as it turned out the Panthers needed all of them.
Coldwater made a furious comeback, winning the next Baker game by 25 pins and taking the regular games by 54.
But Pennfield’s strong start held, and the Panthers won by seven pins, 1,264-1,257.
That came in part due to a strong performance by freshman Carson Dyer, who was put in the lineup and finished with strikes in each of his final four frames.
“I plugged him in, and he finished,” Hinds said.
Senior Nick Hohnberger played a key role, having only one open frame during qualifying, while senior Sean Young and junior James Ruoss carried the team during a semifinal win over top seed Tecumseh.
“The competition was stiffer in Division 2,” Hinds said. “Nothing against Division 3, but the schools are bigger and a lot more competitive. I was told we were the smallest Division 2 school to win it. That’s a really good thing.”
On the girls side, the Division 2 trophy will find plenty of company at Flint Kearsley.
The top-seeded Hornets won their fifth consecutive Division 2 title and sixth in the last seven years by beating Tecumseh 1,186-990 in the title match.
Kearsley led by just 10 pins after the Baker games, then won by nearly 200 pins in individual play.
“What happened was I have girls who have experience and knew what to do when we got to the Finals,” Kearsley coach Rob Ploof said. “We filled a lot of frames in the first individual game.”
With the outcome determined, Ploof asked for volunteers among his starters to sit so senior Mary Wheeler and freshman Allison Robbins could get a chance to bowl in the Final.
Without hesitation, junior Alexis Roof and sophomore Imari Blond volunteered.
“They wanted to let our seniors finish,” Ploof said. “I preach all season long it’s about the team. I quote Bo (Schembechler, the late University of Michigan football coach) all the time. It’s the team, the team, the team. No one cares how you scored, as long as you win.”
Kearsley held off Sturgis in the quarterfinals.
“They gave us a run for our money,” Ploof said, “but Emma Boychuk, a senior, struck out in the 10th and won us the match. I give her a lot of credit.”
In the semifinals against Carleton Airport, senior Karlee Griffin led the way, with senior Barbara Hawes making a solid contribution as well.
The Hornets then knocked off Tecumseh, a team that gave Kearsley fits at the beginning of Ploof’s tenure. The first year his team bested the Indians was 2012, the first year Kearsley won the Division 2 title.
Ploof said his program has a strong feeder system at the elementary and middle school levels.
“When they get to the varsity level, they’re ready,” he said.
And for the fifth year in a row, the Hornets finished with a win.
“It never gets old,” Ploof said. “Never.”
Click for full boys results and girls results.
After Late Start - for Great Reason - Vicksburg's Butler Revved to Attempt Repeat Run
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
December 16, 2025
VICKSBURG — After winning a state championship last year as a junior, Jordon Butler was excited about his final bowling season as a Bulldog.
He had an unexpected delay in getting started this winter, but it was for a good reason.
Butler was a left guard/nose guard for Vicksburg’s football team that made school history, advancing to the MHSAA Semifinals for the first time.
Meanwhile, Vicksburg bowling co-coach Ed Mullins had to regroup.
“It threw me off because our state champion was on the football team along with another good bowler, (senior) Brett Hess,” he said. “We pushed out our tryouts another week. We almost had to do a second week if they had won their last game. Fortunately for us, we didn’t have to do that. Unfortunately for the football team.”
The Bulldogs did fall to eventual Division 4 runner-up Hudsonville Unity Christian, 45-17, in that Semifinal matchup. But Butler is now a part of Vicksburg athletic firsts in two sports. He not only contributed to that program-best football playoff run, but last winter became the first Vicksburg male bowler to reach the MHSAA Finals – and win the Division 2 singles title.
“It’s never been much of a struggle for me to switch over mentally (from football to bowling),” Butler said, adding, “But my body’s definitely aching still from football.”
The aching definitely disappears once Butler picks up the bowling ball. Then it’s total concentration.
Since winning last season’s singles title, he has a new goal:
Getting the entire team to the Finals.
While the Bulldogs did not qualify as a team last year, teammate Xavier Hart was there as well.
“My friend dressed like a bodyguard in a suit and sunglasses,” Butler laughed. “He was there the whole time.”
Catching up quickly
Butler’s mother, Danielle Wiggins, was instrumental in his high school bowling success.
When he started bowling his freshman year, “She said if I was going to do it, I had to get some practice in,” said the reigning Finals champ.
That is when his career got a boost.
“I was bowling and there was an older gentleman next to me,” Butler said. “He had a bunch of balls on the rack, and he saw me bowling. He asked me what grade I was in and if I was trying out for the team. I was like, ‘Yep.’ Then he asked me to choose any ball I wanted. I chose one, and he said, ‘It’s yours now.’ I was like, ‘Sweet.’”
Butler started bowling with that ball his freshman season. Then former teammate Isaac Adams, son of the co-coach, gave up bowling and gave his ball to Butler.
“So I had two,” the senior said. “Then I just started buying bowling balls. I have six now.”
Butler started out teaching himself by trial and error, but then “Coach Ed and Coach (Chris) Adams, they taught me how to keep my hands under the ball and then they told me to work on slowing down and speeding up my speed.
“Now I’ve got great speed control and can control how many revs I put on the ball. I listen to the coaches.”
Rolling next to Olivet
One unexpected bonus emerging after that MHSAA Tournament was a bowling scholarship from University of Olivet.
“When you win the D2 state championship as a junior, you’re going to get noticed,” Olivet men’s varsity bowling coach Brandon Grice said. “I had seen some video, and one of my current bowlers (Nick Suemnick) who bowled against (Butler) at state Finals reached out to Jordon and reached out to me and hooked us together. He said, ‘Hey you really need to get Jordon at Olivet. He can help us.’”
After they met, the Grice said he knew Butler was a “great talent but an even better person. He is a better human being, great personality; he’s a leader.”
Another plus is that the senior plays multiple sports, including baseball in the spring as well.
“I love athletes,” Grice said. “I love coaching athletes in bowling because they have a little bit different mentality, and he’s got that mentality that I want.
“When I did his signing, to have the entire football team there for a bowling kid spoke volumes about him as a person, as a teammate. He’s exactly what we’re looking for as far as a culture fit at Olivet. He’s that kid.”
Before heading to Olivet, Butler has one more season of high school bowling, and Mullins is excited about this season with so many trying out for the team.
“Chris (Adams) and I have discussed it,” Mullins said. “If we had the opportunity to have two varsity teams, we would.
“We have some talented young kids here, and it’s getting difficult to choose or figure out who’s going where and when.”
The coaches have the hopefuls narrowed down to eight.
Besides Butler and Hess, seniors are Brady Gibson and Emmett Bostocky. Hart is the lone junior, Carson Bowling and Anthony Foote are sophomores and Chase Williams is a freshman.
Butler was a shoo-in to make last year’s team when he threw a non-sanctioned 300 on the first day of tryouts. That is his only perfecto so far, but he did bowl a 299 in a summer bowling league.
“It definitely made me a lot more confident,” Butler said. “I knew I could bowl that high, but I just had to actually do it.”
As for the effect of Butler’s Finals title on this year’s team, “I think, we’re going to be more disciplined,” Mullins said. “I’m trying to get the kids to Regionals.
“What they do beyond, is really, really up to them. I feel our job is to get them to Regionals and qualify (for Finals).”
Added Adams, “From my perspective, I want to try to keep it as stress-free and pressure-free as we can.
“There are two or three kids who have stated they want to take the team to state, but outside of that, I don’t want to put more pressure on any of the kids.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Teammates and friends surround Vicksburg’s Jordon Butler as he signs his commitment to bowl collegiately at University of Olivet. (2) Vicksburg boys bowling co-coaches Ed Mullins, left, and Chris Adams. (3) Butler, right, and “bodyguard” Xavier Hart take a photo after Butler won the Division 2 singles championship last season. (4) Olivet men’s bowling coach Brandon Grice. (Top and championship photos courtesy of the Vicksburg athletic department. Vicksburg headshots by Pam Shebest. Olivet headshot courtesy of University of Olivet’s athletic department.)