McGuire Emerges from Cancer, Amputation to Return to Golf Course, Soccer Pitch
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
June 3, 2022
A lot has happened since Dan Alto and MacKale McGuire first met eight years ago around the game of golf.
Alto was helping out at the Cadillac Country Club. McGuire was playing there in the junior golf program.
Today, Alto coaches golf at Cadillac High School, and McGuire serves as the captain preparing to lead the Vikings into the MHSAA Finals next weekend.
“Mac is an extremely polite, determined young man,” Alto said. “He is an outstanding student, which will serve him well as he attends college and pursues a career.
“With his work ethic, I have no doubt that Mac is going to find great success in whatever he decides to do.”
McGuire has plans to play golf at the next level as he moves on to Kalamazoo College in the fall.
Many might assume the last few years that have passed since Alto and McGuire first met have been a struggle — but not McGuire.
His left leg was amputated above the knee four years ago after a battle with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer.
McGuire is now preparing to walk at commencement. He looks back and sees only a varsity golfer, soccer player and theatre performer ready to take on the world.
“I just consider myself another person,” said McGuire, known as Mac to many. “I guess everyone has their differences.
“I guess mine is a more apparent kind of thing.”
McGuire learned to walk again with a prosthetic leg. He returned to golfing almost immediately and eventually played soccer and mastered downhill skiing. He’s been cancer free for more than five years.
When he steps on the golf course every day, he wants his teammates, coaches and opponents to see nothing more than a golfer. He’s seen all kinds of reactions to what others call a disability.
There’s no need to be politically correct around McGuire. In fact, he’d prefer you not be.
“Personally it (political correctness) just feels weird,” he said. “Just say it and get it over with.”
McGuire holds down the third golfing spot for the Vikings. He’s ready for some tough competition at the Finals after Cadillac qualified with a third-place finish at their Lower Peninsula Division 2 Regional.
“Mac is the kind of teammate coaches love,” said Alto, who with Brandon Bailey took over the Vikings golf program just as COVID-19 canceled the 2020 season. “He offers to drive younger teammates to practice when needed.
“He is never late for practice and leads by example … (and) always is happy for teammates that play well, even if he doesn't.”
McGuire’s tee shots get plenty of distance, but it’s the green game where he shines.
“I would say his true strength would be on the putting green,” Alto said. “He does a nice job of making the 5 to 6-foot putts that can save a round, and rarely three putts.”
Alto said McGuire is much more focused on his team’s success than his own.
“Like all golfers he wants to shoot a low score, but I get the feeling he wants to play well in order to help our team achieve goals more so than individual accolades,” Alto pointed out.
As a youngster, McGuire played a lot of soccer, basketball and golf. He really didn’t think soccer would be in his future when he made the decision to have his leg amputated in a Florida hospital.
“When I had the amputation, I didn’t even think it was a possibility I’d be able to play soccer,” he said. “I didn’t think soccer was in the question.”
He served as team manager for the Vikings’ JV soccer squad is sophomore season. One day, he was given the chance to play in a game.
“The coach just randomly told me to get out there and start playing,” he recalled. “I found out it was something I actually could do if I decided to work at it.
“I was able to play varsity my senior year.”
Paul King, who took over the Vikings boys soccer program in 2021, had met McGuire before he entered high school. He’s thrilled he had a chance to coach him on the soccer field.
“Mac isn't ever going to let his disability be an excuse,” King said. “He pushes himself to be better every day at practice, and he encourages others to do the same.
“If he gets beat, he never blames it on his disability. He just works harder so that it doesn't happen again.”
McGuire’s competitive nature has served him well, his coaches note.
“Mac is extremely competitive,” Alto said. “He puts in as much – or more – work as anyone on the team.
“He has a very strong desire to play well.”
Growing up with two younger brothers, McCoy and MacGill, has fueled the Cadillac senior’s competitive fire.
“It is who I am. I have two younger brothers I have to beat at everything,” McGuire said. “I have a love for competing, no matter what it is.”
The competitive drive will serve well as he heads off to K College, King said.
“Mac has been through a lot,” King said. “If he can overcome cancer, I don't see anything slowing Mac down.
“I am so proud of him and consider myself lucky for having the chance to get to coach him and get to know the amazing person he is.”
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) MacKale McGuire prepares for a throw-in during a Cadillac soccer game. (Middle) McGuire sends a shot toward the green. (Below) Cadillac celebrates advancing to this season’s LPD2 Final. From left: Brandon Bailey, Davin Brown, MacKale McGuire, Ben Drabik, Noah Traviss, Harry Chipman, Conner Putman, Dan Alto and Mike McGuire. (Action photos courtesy of Paul King. Golf team photo courtesy of the Cadillac Country Club.)
Pilots' Record-Setting Coach Always Eager to Play Role in Helping Students Soar
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
November 13, 2025
As if they were fans standing outside an arena’s exit waiting for a famous rock star or professional athlete to come out, Warren De La Salle Collegiate students congregated outside a gate at Grand Ledge High School with bated breath.
Instead of a rock star or athlete, the students had phones up waiting for Thaier Mukhtar, and let him know just how much he was loved.
“Mr. Mukhtar! Mr. Mukhtar!” the students chanted while mobbing him with praise.
Given what he has meant to the school and Michigan high school soccer for nearly four decades, it’s no wonder why the students waited him out.
Mukhtar had just helped lead De La Salle to its seventh Finals championship with a 2-0 win over Hudsonville Unity Christian, and Mukhtar said he was now in elite company with a famous NFL quarterback.
“Everyone was making fun of me because Tom Brady had one more ring than me,” Mukhtar quipped. “Now he doesn’t.”
The Division 2 title was the second straight for De La Salle and finished off a recent stretch full of milestones.
Two seasons ago, Mukhtar became the all-time winningest boys soccer coach in state history when he surpassed Nick Archer of East Lansing by earning his 661st victory.
This year, Mukhtar reached the 600-win mark coaching for De La Salle. That achievement didn’t come with much fanfare, but that was by design and true to form.
“He didn’t celebrate a lot because it’s more about the team,” Pilots senior James Spicuzzi said. “We got him a signed ball, but that was really it. It’s more about the team for him than it is about himself.”
Mukhtar has tried to make that his emphasis since becoming the head coach of De La Salle in 1983 at the age of 23.
The Pilots won their first championship, in Class A, in 1990, and then consecutive titles in 1992 and 1993.
After sharing the 2000 Division 1 title with Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice and then defeating Brother Rice to win the championship in 2005, De La Salle went on a title drought.
Mukhtar actually left his coaching post at De La Salle in 2011 and coached boys and girls soccer at Fraser from 2012-17 before returning as Pilots coach in 2018.
A social studies teacher at De La Salle for 30 years – a job he still holds – Mukhtar admits his coaching style can rub some the wrong way.
“I’m a demanding coach,” he said. “I’m a perfectionist. I call out every little mistake, and I make sure we work on those mistakes. I don’t care if we win 4-1 or 4-0, but are making mistakes. You’re not going to make those mistakes at the end of the year if you don’t want to send your team home.
“I have people – whether it’s parents or players – look at me like, ‘That guy is crazy. They just won the game.’ It ain’t about winning the damn game. It’s about getting here (to the state final) and not making those mistakes. Not committing the foul. Not being out of position. Not communicating in the back. Different things we harp on over and over again.”
Junior Andrew Corder, who led De La Salle with 38 goals this year, said it’s tough love that players have learned to embrace.
“It’s been kind of hard at times, but he just wants the best for us,” he said. “It’s all worth it.”
Mukhtar said he often thinks about retirement, but then points to something his son told him as a reason to keep running it back.
“Every year it’s a battle with me and my administration and, ‘Am I returning? Am I not returning?’ I say to take it year by year,” Mukhtar said. “My CEO at De La Salle made me guarantee that I give him two years (notice) at least. … I give two and then I always say, ‘Why am I doing this?’ My knee is killing me. But when my son says to me, ‘Dad, the fact that you get nervous and the fact you get excited means that you’re not ready (to retire).’ He said it perfectly, and he’s 100 percent right.”
Which is why Mukhtar is likely to continue coaching for the foreseeable future, and why more student celebrations should be in store.
“I’m still teaching at school when I don’t have to, and I’m still coaching when honestly I’ve done everything I’ve needed to do in my life,” Mukhtar said. “I’m like three wins away from 900 career victories coaching boys and girls. I’m still doing all these things because I feel like I can play a role in their life. It’s not just soccer. I want you to be able to believe in yourself and believe that you can accomplish whatever you work hard for. I teach my students the same thing.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) De La Salle boys soccer coach Thaier Mukhtar holds up his team’s championship trophy after the Pilots clinched the Division 2 title Nov. 1 at Grand Ledge High School. (Middle) Mukhtar embraces keeper Giovanni Vitale after his team’s 2024 championship win.