Loy Norrix Mourning Death of Longtime Coach, Teacher Duckett: 'He's All Knight'
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
January 19, 2026
KALAMAZOO — Theophlis Duckett, known to generations of students and alumni as the more familiar “Ted” Duckett, dedicated 57 years of his life as a teacher and coach at Loy Norrix High School.
After his unexpected death Jan. 8, people will have a chance to show their respect and share memories at a community celebration of life, Saturday, Feb. 14, from 11 a.m.-noon (with doors opening at 10:30 a.m.) at the Loy Norrix auditorium.
At age 79, Duckett continued to teach three classes of physical education as well as coach the Knights girls and boys track & field teams.
“There aren’t many educators who have worked as long as he has, especially all those years in the same building,” said Andrew Laboe, Loy Norrix’s athletic director. "He connected with kids very well. He had a generational following: kids, parents, their grandparents, their great-grandparents.”
Some memories of Duckett bring a laugh from Laboe, who said he and Duckett had a running joke about his years as a Knight.
“I’m 55 years old and I told him I was negative-2 (years old) when he started working here,” Laboe laughed. “I believe he was a parapro or a locker room aide when he started here.
“In the teachers union seniority list, he is listed as 1969-70 for his first year teaching.”
Laboe said in losing Duckett, the school and community have lost a great resource for his knowledge of the history of the school and the people connected to it.
“He knows everybody,” Laboe said. “He was a consistent person in the lives of the kids he taught every day. Kalamazoo is not small like a lot of small towns around us, but it’s not very big, either.
"Ted knows everybody. You could get help from Ted on everything about children, who are they related to, who they are connected to, who can we contact to help them in any situation. That’s very helpful.”
During his tenure at Loy Norrix, Duckett coached football, basketball and track.
“He’s definitely a good sprinter coach for track,” Laboe said. “He was a fixture at Loy Norrix forever. He’s all Knight.”
Duckett’s coaching tenure included developing several all-state football players. Among those were sons Tico and Todd, who continued their football careers at Michigan State and then the NFL.
Tico Duckett played for Washington while Todd was a first-round selection by Atlanta in 2002, and he also played for Washington, Detroit and Seattle.
Laboe laughs when he looks back on his first meeting with the coach.
“My first year (at Loy Norrix) was 2004,” Laboe said. “Ted came into my office the first day. I said, ‘Hi Mr. Duckett, how are you? I’m Andrew Laboe.’”
He told Laboe he already knew.
“He said, ‘I just want you to know you have one year to get all the information out of this head that you need to run this athletic department because I’m retiring in one year.’”
No matter how much Laboe got out of Duckett’s head that first year, it didn’t matter.
“I’ve been here for 22 years and he was still here. It’s crazy,” Laboe recalled.
“He’s one of a kind. I don’t think it will ever be replicated in my career. There’s not people like that anymore that are that dedicated to one school like Ted Duckett was to Loy Norrix.”
(Photos courtesy of the Duckett family and Loy Norrix High School/Knight Life.)
Summerfield Girls Find Their Stride, Claim 1st League Title Since 1990
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
May 20, 2026
David Raymond has heard it before.
“I always laugh because I've definitely gone on the recruiting trail in our hallways and tried to get kids to come out (for track & field), and one of the answers I always get was, ‘I don't even like running.’ I tell them, ‘Great, you'll fit right in because there's a bunch of kids that run track that don't like running.’”
Running track is a little more fun these days, however, at Petersburg Summerfield, where Raymond is the head coach. His Bulldogs recently celebrated winning their first league championship in more than three decades and have a bunch of qualifiers heading into next week’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals.
“When you win, people start talking it up positively within the hallways,” Raymond said. “That helps when you're trying to recruit kids. It's kind of funny how when you win, all of a sudden people are a little bit more interested and want to see what it's all about.”
Raymond is a 1999 Summerfield graduate. He played multiple sports in high school and was part of teams that won District basketball and a Regional track titles his senior year. He was named the Summerfield varsity girls basketball coach at age 23 and eventually switched to become the boys varsity coach. He would coach the Bulldogs for seven seasons, win 100 games, and become the winningest coach in school history before stepping down to spend more time with his family, which includes three daughters.
Two of those daughters are now on the Summerfield varsity track team. Both are headed to the Finals meet next weekend – Abby in the low hurdles and three relays and Grace in the 800 and three relays.
“I'm very blessed to be able to coach my daughters,” Raymond said.
When Grace was a freshman, she was Summerfield’s only Finals qualifier. This year she and Abby lead a parade of nine Bulldogs who have earned a trip.
Grace set a school record in the 800 at Friday’s Regional and was part of the 3,200 relay with her sister, Makenzie Wolfe and Allison Ost that set a school record and qualified as well.
Grace and Abby are part of the Finals-qualifying 400 relay with Emma Jacob and Sophia Stanger and part of the 1,600 relay with Alice VanCamp and Ost. Abby Zilka (high jump), Ost (1600), Wolfe (3200) and Gabi Myshock (discus) are other qualifiers. Abby will also compete in the low hurdles next weekend.
“Having nine girls qualify for the state meet shows how far the program has come over the last 3-5 years,” Raymond said. “It’s been incredible. The team has come a long way. We’ve had good kids come in, obviously. You need talent in order to be successful, and we have that. The girls have worked hard and put the time in. I am thankful they have been able to put it all together this year.”
Winning Summerfield’s first girls Tri-County Conference track championship since 1990 was a pleasant surprise.
“Winning a league title was a different experience for us because a lot of times, we kind of knew going into certain meets we didn’t have a chance,” he said. “Our focus has always been Regionals. This year, we had a much different mindset that we were going to try and win it. The hard work paid off. That’s what was so exciting.”
While he ran on the track team in high school, he didn’t start coaching the sport until about five years ago as an unofficial assistant to the previous head coach, Kelly Thompson. She stepped away from the head coaching role when her son started running in college. He has surrounded himself with several great assistants, he said, including two classmates from high school.
“There was an opening, and it was an opportunity for me to, again, be with my kids a little bit more, and that's kind of how I ended up in the role,” he said. “I learned that track is not a sport where you can coach by yourself; you need quality people around you.”
Raymond decided he wanted to be a teacher and coach in high school.
“I had good coaches growing up,” he said. “Ron Estes was my varsity basketball coach when I decided to go into teaching. I had a number of people like him that influenced me and showed me that teaching can be a great career and, when you get the opportunity, to coach.
“I've obviously loved sports my entire life. At first coaching was a way to be around sports. As you grow older, you start to see the impact that you can have on kids, which is even different than what the impact that you can have on somebody in a classroom is. It's always been an avenue that has allowed me to impact kids in a positive way.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Petersburg Summerfield coach David Raymond encourages Allison Ost during a relay race this season. (Middle) Summerfield 1,600 relay racers (left to right) Abby Raymond, Alice Van Camp and Ost get together to “Triple A Power Up.” (Below) Grace Raymond (left) and Abby Raymond hold up Summerfield's first league title trophy won since 1990. (Photos by Tom Westrick.)