D4 Champions Make Saturday Count
June 7, 2014
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – It was better to be the hunter than the hunted Saturday in the MHSAA Division 4 Final at the Bedford Valley Golf Club.
White Pigeon was third after the first round Friday and trailed first-place Charlevoix by seven strokes, but made it up in a big way Saturday to win the second MHSAA title in school history – the first came in 2002 – by nine strokes over the Rayders and Lincoln Alcona.
Meanwhile, the same happened in the battle for individual champion. Junior Joel Sneed of Leland was third after the first day and trailed by four strokes, but shot a 1-over-par 73 to capture the title by four over Sam Wagner of Pentwater and Noah Schneider of Jackson Christian.
Schneider had a three-stroke lead after an opening 70 but ballooned to 81 on Saturday to open the door for Sneed, who grabbed the lead when he chipped in from a bunker on the 11th hole.
“Kudos to Noah,” said Sneed, who was fourth as a freshman and 11th last year as a sophomore. “He started out really, really solid, and I kind of expected him to be nervous at the beginning.
“It’s hard to play with the lead – I’ve been in that position before, but not in the state tournament but other tournaments – and it’s really, really tough to play with a four-shot lead. You feel like with every shot that you lose, ‘Geez, there’s another one gone.’ “I thought I was in a good spot.”
Sneed had solid rounds of 74 on Friday and 73 on Saturday. He had 16 pars and two bogeys on Friday and 13 pars with three bogeys and two birdies Saturday.
White Pigeon was similarly consistent with a 328 on Friday and 326 on Saturday. Its top four players each shot between 76 and 87 both days.
“We’ve been preparing for this for a long time,” White Pigeon coach Mark Olsen said. “The kids have really gone with the strategy of hitting the fairways and the greens – you can keep your score under control doing that - and it worked.
“They deserve the credit and followed the plan to the letter, and good things happened.”
The Chiefs broke it open when Riley Olsen, Andrew Mann and Jordan Olsen each birdied a hole simultaneously on Nos. 14, 15 and 16.
“When I birdied 16, I hit that putt, and I knew it was in,” said Riley Olsen, who led White Pigeon with rounds of 81 and 76 for a 157 total. “I fist-pumped, and our crowd went crazy. It was awesome. It felt great.”
Riley Olsen said he received some solid advice from his older brother Chase, who was on White Pigeon’s runner-up team in 2009.
“The par 5s out here are real tough – they have water and bunkers – so Chase said, ‘Why hit drivers and risk getting yourself in a bunker and then hit a long club and risk it again?’ So I hit hybrids and irons and made a couple of birdies on par 5s too, so it worked out perfect.
“I could not be happier with my game plan.”
Mann, who said he struggled a week earlier in the Regional, was second for the Chiefs with a 158 total after rounds of 76 on Friday and 82 on Saturday.
“I didn’t play very good at the Regional, and I learned a lot from it,” he said. “I wasn’t hitting good shots, so this week I worked really hard during practice, and it turned out great.
“It feels really, really good. I’m so proud of my team. We wanted to win, and we won.”
Freshman Jordan Olsen, younger brother of Riley and son of coach Mark Olsen, added rounds of 84 on Friday and 81 on Saturday for a 165. Like his older brother, he heeded some pre-tournament advice.
“Riley gave me some strategy for different holes and told me just to keep calm and have fun,” Jordan Olsen said. “Riley and I compete against each other in every practice every day, and we strive to beat each other, and that’s how we got better and how we got to where we are today.”
Coach Olsen said the addition of Jordan Olsen to the team this year was instrumental in it becoming a complete team.
“We did not even make it to the Regionals last year,” he said. “When my younger boy Jordan came into high school, that really strengthened the team, but I still didn’t think we would be this caliber of a team because it takes four.
“We had three all-state kids in 2009, but we didn’t have a fourth. This year, we had four that have been playing solid intermittently, and now we have them playing together. You have to have four playing together.”
The fourth this weekend was junior Christian Ryall-Shoup, who had back-to-back rounds of 87 for a 174 total.
“It’s crazy,” Jordan Olsen said. “We weren’t even expected to get to state this year, and the fact that we won is mind-blowing, especially as a freshman.
“We were hoping to get out of Regionals, and we won state.”
After the first round, Charlevoix led with 321, while Auburn Hills Oakland Christian was second with 327 and White Pigeon was third at 328.
“A 328 here is an awesome score, and we bettered it (Saturday),” Mark Olsen said. “This course is going to bite you. If you hit it into the trees, it’s a one- or two-stroke penalty every time. Our guys hit fairway to green, punch out of trouble.
“We have three basic rules: When you’re chipping, you get on the green; if you’re in the sand trap, you get out of the sand trap; if you’re in trouble, you get out of trouble safely and if they do that, they’re back to playing golf.”
White Pigeon went from a first-day score of 328 to 326, while Charlevoix jumped from 321 to 342 and Oakland Christian went from 327 to 341.
Riley Olsen said he wasn’t concerned about his team’s position after the first round.
“It was definitely a calming thing,” he said. “We knew the teams ahead of us were definitely thinking about it – you could tell by their scores. Both teams went 20 shots worse.”
Coach Olsen also was pleased with the position his team was in after the first day.
“We set out with the idea that we’re the hunter, so we started out trying to put the pressure on them and see what happens,” he said. “The other teams didn’t respond very well, and we just kept the gas pedal down, and it just worked out really well.
“I’d rather be the hunter than the hunted; I know that.”
PHOTOS: White Pigeon’s Riley Olsen follows a shot during the second round of the MHSAA Division 4 Final. (Middle) Leland’s Joel Sneed watches an approach on his way to claiming the individual championship. (Click to see more at HighSchoolsSportsScene.com.)
Charlevoix Golf Playing to Add Championship to Awe-Inspiring Comeback
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
June 3, 2026
The final chapter in Bryce Boss’ high school golf career will be written this weekend at the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West.
Boss will be playing in his third Final after leading Charlevoix to a Regional title last week. Now a senior, he will tee off with hopes of winning an individual and team championship.
“Bryce has a great chance this spring,” said coach Doug Drenth. “He's such a great leader for us and is doing such a great job. He's such a great example for Charlevoix. It’s pretty cool to see how far he's come.”
With Boss in the lineup, Charlevoix finished fourth at the 2023 Final. The Rayders finished sixth in 2024 current teammates Joe Gaffney, now a senior, and Maxwell Drenth, a junior, joining Boss in the lineup.
Charlevoix didn’t qualify for last season’s championship rounds, finishing eighth at the Regional. Gaffney and Drenth were unable to golf that day and missed the majority of last season after the team was part of a horrific car crash that April 27. The team was on its way to spend the night at Crystal Mountain, returning from the first day of a two-day tournament at Arcadia Bluffs. Coach Drenth was driving the team van.
Boss and now-junior Landen Whistler were able to come back from the crash and play in the Regional, along with seniors Jackson Crouse and Emmett Bergmann and now-senior Keane Helstrom.
“It’s more about the guys who really missed out last year, their recovery and their comeback,” Boss noted about this weekend’s opportunity. “Especially for guys like Coach, and for Joe, and for Maxwell, who really missed out last year on everything because of the accident, and now we're making a comeback as a team.”
And what a comeback it has been.
Boss endured scrapes, a concussion and bruised ribs in the crash. He and Whistler were able to return to school a few days after, but others, especially Coach Drenth and Gaffney, were not as they suffered near-fatal injuries.
So far, the comeback on the golf course has included Northern Shores Conference and Regional championships for the Rayders with Boss, Gaffney, Whistler and Max Drenth scoring in both. Boss was crowned conference and Regional champion while leading the Rayders back to the Final.
The team shot the lowest round in school history at the conference meet.
“Sometimes when you talk about hard things, you can gain some therapy,” acknowledged Drenth, now in his ninth season at the helm of the Rayders. “But I would say that we're all looking forward to moving on in life. I'm grateful that we're here, and we're looking forward to just being back to ‘normalish.’ I feel like we are looking at hope and what we can achieve. So I'm looking forward to moving on.”
Part of the moving on for the Rayders included adding Helstrom and freshman Blake Boss to the regular lineup.
As his final chapter is revealed this weekend, Boss believes even better Charlevoix golf teams will materialize after he graduates. Max Drenth, who was hospitalized more than a week after the crash, and Whistler will be among those back next year to carry on the program’s success.
“Maxwell and Landon are going to do awesome,” Boss said. “Blake just realized this year that golf is really a sport that he wants to do, so hopefully that'll lead him to practicing more and getting better. And then we have two or three incoming freshmen. I don't know if they'll be great their freshman year … (but) they'll end up being some of the better players Charlevoix has ever had.”
More than a year after the crash, Drenth – who also coaches the girls and boys cross country teams – continues to battle the physical side of recovery. He was hospitalized during the immediate aftermath for two months, undergoing multiple surgeries and physical therapy. He also journeyed to Florida for specialized physical therapy, with funds provided by the Charlevoix community through a GoFundMe effort that was part of a tremendous amount of support the program received.
“The biggest part of his recovery is the fact that he's always so positive and happy and hopeful about everything,” Boss said. “There was a lot of fear from everybody for him, but he truly believed he would recover and be back to almost normal, again. I think that optimism is what led him to recover so well.”
Still facing occasional hospital stays, Drenth was able to return to coaching both sports, missing only one meet this year. Matt Peterson and Emily Edwards, his assistant cross country coaches, and Bruce Beaudoin, his assistant golf coach, have played even bigger roles during Drenth’s recovery.
“I'm grateful for Matt and Emily, my two coaches that were there every day,” Drenth said. “And Bruce has such amazing knowledge of golf, which is so important. But more important than that, he's just so good with me and the boys.”
His cross country team made a major splash this past fall, winning the Lower Peninsula Division 3 championship. Hunter Eaton, a junior, won the individual title. Junior Ryder Hopkins and senior Matthew Solomon joined Eaton on the all-state team. Max Drenth wrapped up the team scoring recording his best career time at the Final.
“I truly believe that the success that we have had, both in golf and cross country, is directly related to the help of others,” said Drenth, whose golf and cross coaching career goes back to 1989. “Nothing great is ever accomplished alone!”
As such, Charlevoix knows success this weekend will be the result of success throughout the lineup.
“It's going to be really up in the air because it's kind of been all year for us,” Bryce Boss predicted. “If our (number) three and our four play good, we tend to shoot amazingly well.”
Drenth believes it will come down to the team performing up to its potential.
“I just hope and pray that they play to their ability,” Drenth said. “I know, if we do that, like the cross country team — they just ran to their abilities — we can play golf with anybody.”
While Drenth is coaching the Final, he’ll also be filled with gratitude and hope for the future.
“For my wife, Tricia, and our two boys, Oliver and Maxwell, this has changed their lives and I wouldn't be here without my family who came to the hospital every day … my brothers and their wives and families … and then the teams that came all the time,” Drenth said. “Whether it be my cross kids that have graduated or golfers that are still here, or whether they were in the hospital with me, and then the greater Charlevoix community – I mean, it's just unbelievable how much good has come out of something so bad.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Charlevoix’s Bryce Boss eyes a putt during last week’s Regional at Birchwood in Harbor Springs. (2) The Charlevoix golf team poses for a photo during a gathering July 17. (3) Drenth confers with one of his golfers during the Regional. (4) Drenth, back seat, rides in the Charlevoix Homecoming parade this past fall with wife Tricia in a vehicle driven by assistant cross country coach Matt Peterson. (Regional photos by Drew Kochanny/Petoskey News-Review. Family photos courtesy of Tricia Drenth.)