Senior Standout Aiming to Add to Grass Lake & Family Fame
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
August 17, 2021
GRASS LAKE – What will Lexus Bargesser do for an encore?
The Grass Lake senior had an unbelievable junior year, leading the Warriors to their first-ever MHSAA Finals basketball championship, in Division 3, then winning three events to pace Grass Lake’s team title at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 track & field championship meet. She spent her summer on the basketball circuit, traveling the country to compete against top competition.
As she embarks on her senior year of high school, Bargesser is looking forward to having fun, working hard – and bringing home more hardware.
“It was pretty amazing,” she said this summer. “Everything came together and worked out.”
The Bargesser family certainly could have been called the first family of Grass Lake sports over the last few years – in the least for track & field – and Lexus is likely to add a few more highlights during 2021-22. She won’t play a sport for Grass Lake this fall as she’s prepping for basketball season and a hopeful encore to last winter’s achievement. But next month she will begin making college visits and could make a decision before the 2021-22 basketball season begins.
“I don’t really have a timeline,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the season and helping the younger girls on the team grow. I’m excited for it.”
Grass Lake’s Bargesser surge began with 2020 grad Xavier, who’s currently playing basketball at Alma College.
Second-oldest Brennen Bargesser made a splash last school year as a senior both on the basketball court and track, during the spring winning three individual events and running on a first-place relay to lead the boys team to a Finals title as well.
“My older brother and my younger sister are insane athletes,” Brennen said. “I’m the middle child and just wanted to make a name for myself.”
Lexus Bargesser had won the 100 and 200 dashes as a freshman at the 2019 Finals, then burst onto the national prep basketball scene with an amazing summer that saw colleges from across the country start offering her scholarships.
Their parents also are part of the mix. Father David Bargesser coached the Warriors boys basketball team last season and was an assistant to the girls team. Mother Lori Bargesser was the scorekeeper for the boys team.
Sports is the common bond that links the entire family.
“We’re a really close family,” Lori said. “We’ve always just played sports. That’s what we did. We were in the yard from the time I can remember.”
David, who played basketball and golfed in college, and Lori are from upstate New York. They originally moved to Belleville, then landed in Jackson when he accepted a job at the Michigan Department of Corrections. The family has lived in Grass Lake for about 25 years.
“When I got off work, we’d go outside and play basketball or throw the football,” he said. “From the time I can remember, we were always outside playing something.”
Lori said the organized sports started through a local YMCA.
“Xavier was probably 3 or 4 years old,” she said. “David helped coach. Ever since they started, they were always in at least two sports. It was hectic at times, with practice schedules and everything. It was weird when one of them could drive because they could take themselves to practice.”
Xavier, being the oldest, was the first to play organized sports. Brennen soon followed.
“Basketball is very important in my family,” Brennen said.
“As soon as they could walk, they had a basketball in their hands,” Lori said.
Lexus showed her basketball talent and poise from a young age.
“Basketball was the thing that took off for her,” her father said. “I remember realizing how fast she was on the basketball court. I didn’t realize how fast she was.”
One of the first colleges to offer was UCLA.
“Once one started offering, they all took notice,” David said. “It was a fun two weeks where everyone started calling. She’s would get 4-5 calls in an hour and a half.”
The Bargessers might have had the best day for any one family in state track & field history. Along with both Grass Lake teams winning championships, Brennen won the 100 with a time of 11 seconds, the 200 in 22.6 and the 400 in 49.10. He also anchored the 400 relay that came in first with a time of 44.43.
Lexus repeated as LPD3 champ in both the 100 with a time of 12.12 and the 200 in 25.30. (She had won both in 2019, and the 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19.) She set an LP Division 3 meet record with a time of 55.54 in the 400, then helped the 400 relay place second with a time of 4:11.54.
Between the two siblings were seven first places, one runner-up finish and two team championships.
“When Brennen won that first race, I was so happy for him,” Lori said. “He had worked so hard. Lexus had won before, but he never had. That was a great moment.”
The seeds of those championships were formed during the spring of 2020 when in place of their season Brennen and Lexus trained together almost every day.
“It’s insane to think (about) what we were able to accomplish,” Brennen said. “She’d run the 100 and win it, then I’d run the 100 and win it. I got so excited for her, then I had to run my race. In the conference meet I jumped (early) and was disqualified. I was nervous at the state meet that I would do that again.”
Lexus and Brennen have always been close. Training together brought them closer.
“We spent all summer running together,” Brennen said. “She was my pacer. She was helping me get my times in.”
Their dad was confident that both could accomplish what they set out to do at this spring’s Finals because he had watched their times closely all summer.
“Going into the year, I was checking times and seeing what other kids were doing,” David said. “I knew both had a chance to do it in all three events. It was definitely the goal. It helped them by training together. Brennen really was into lifting, and I think that helped Lexi get into it. The two of them were always training together, pushing each other.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Bargesser family celebrated a championship-loaded Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals; pictured from left: father David, Brennan, Xavier, Lexus and mother Lori. (Middle) Lexus Bargesser (1) gets a hand up on defense during Grass Lake’s 52-50 win over Kent City in April’s Division 3 Final. She finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds and five steals. (Below) Brennen Bargesser crosses the line first in the 100 at the Finals in June. (Top photo courtesy of the Bargesser family; Brennen Bargesser photo by Jason Ruggles.)
Hoping to be 'Hardly Noticed,' 50-Year Official Allen Certainly Recognizable, Respected
By
Mike Dunn
Special for MHSAA.com
December 18, 2025
Editor's Note: An extended version of this article appeared originally in the Cadillac News in March. Since then, Allen has been inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan's Hall of Honor in October and is wearing the striped shirt again this basketball season, officially his 50th year.
CADILLAC – Bill Allen’s story is similar to that of many area sports officials, particularly those officials who have been active for many years.
A background in sports, typically playing team sports while growing up, combined with a desire to continue to be involved after high school or college, coupled with an inner urge to be part of the solution – these characteristics find a natural outlet for those brave souls who choose to be officials. and these traits are nearly always part of the make-up of the officials who receive high grades for their efforts and serve capably for many years.
Allen, of Cadillac, would not say this about himself. But he is one of those officials whom coaches are glad to see on the floor because they know they’re getting someone who will be fair and consistent. The same could also be said of Allen when he was umpiring, though he doesn’t work the diamonds anymore.
As Allen can tell you as he enters his 50th year wearing the striped shirt on the hardwood, officiating is a demanding vocation – and it is rewarding at the same time. It requires the right temperament as well as an above-average level of mental and physical fitness, especially as age makes its inevitable demands. It requires the ability to make decisions quickly, sometimes under very stressful conditions. It requires the ability to face criticism, sometimes expressed loudly or very loudly. It requires the ability to be a peacemaker at times and also the willingness not to hold grudges or become petty.
For those like Allen who have what it takes, those who are up to the challenges and the rigors that officiating requires from an individual, there is a deep satisfaction in knowing they are making a positive difference.
“I think that’s a common thread among all the officials, whether it’s basketball or baseball or softball,” Allen said. “You obviously want to do your best, but you want to manage the game in a way that helps it to flow the way it should flow and enables everyone, the players and the coaches and the fans, to get the most out of it.
“It’s an old cliché but it’s true: The best officials are the ones you hardly notice. If you can officiate a game and walk through the crowd afterward and no one recognizes you, then you’ve probably done your job pretty well that game. That’s what every official strives for.
“You’re never going to get every call right, and you have to be willing to accept that going into it,” he added. “But you know the rules and apply the rules the best you can, you put yourself in the best position to make the calls, especially in basketball, and you call it the way you see it.
“Are you always right? No. But if you put yourself in the right position and make the call you believe is correct, you can live with that and normally the coaches can too, even if they’re angry about a particular call in the moment.”
Allen, like most officials, was an athlete himself growing up in Traverse City and playing multiple sports for what was then known as Traverse City High School, the largest high school in Michigan in the early 1970s. By his own admission, he wasn’t one of the top stars in basketball and baseball but he was a good, reliable player for his coaches and a dependable teammate who loved the atmosphere of the arena during each season as well as the sense of achievement that the act of competing brought out in him like nothing else.
“I was pretty athletic growing up, but not a great athlete at Traverse City High School,” he said. “I was good enough to make the teams, but I wasn’t what you would call an impact player. A lot of officials have the same kind of background as mine. Maybe we weren’t the greatest players, but we still enjoy sports and we like being part of the action.”
It was during his final two years at Michigan State during the mid-1970s that Allen received his start in officiating.
“In my junior year at Michigan State, one of the fellows I roomed with did assignments for the intramural programs at the college,” he said. “Everything from touch football to basketball to slow-pitch softball. He told me to take the officiating class and he would assign me to games, and that’s how it all started 50 years ago.”
Allen jumped into the world of officiating eagerly with both feet, working a sporting event “nearly every night” at MSU.
“I would go to school during the day, ref at night, and do it again the next day,” he recalled.
“There were so many contests, maybe thousands, that I got to work with a number of other officials. Tim McClelland, who later became a Major League umpire and made the illegal pine tar bat call against George Brett, was a colleague back then. It was a lot of good experience and good mentoring and laid a great foundation for what turned out to be ahead.”
Allen initially earned a degree in criminal justice, graduating from Michigan State University in 1977, and worked in the field of corrections for a period of time before his love of baseball and a sense of personal confidence in his potential to officiate at a higher level prompted him to attend a school for prospective umpires in Daytona Beach, Fla.
That didn’t quite work out, but Allen was not deterred. He changed his career plans from criminal justice to education, and the switch would also lead to abundant opportunities for officiating down the road not just on the baseball and softball diamonds but the basketball court as well.
“When I didn’t get picked (for umpiring), I went back to school to earn my teaching certificate and a graduate degree in history with the goal of becoming a teacher at Cadillac,” he explained. Allen’s wife Sue already was employed as a teacher with the school district.
Bill’s goal at that point was to join Sue as a member of the faculty, as a social studies teacher, and that’s just what happened. Bill served for 26 years in the classroom before retiring along with Sue 12 years ago.
“I viewed Cadillac schools as a great organization to work for as a teacher before I got hired there, and I was right,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade my years at Cadillac for anything. Susie and I both thoroughly enjoyed our years there.”
In conjunction with teaching, Allen continued to officiate basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring and summer. He umpired a lot of men’s summer league softball games through the years and grew to love in particular working the games under the lights at Cadillac’s Lincoln Field.
He also became a registered official with the MHSAA and has continued in that role, though he decided to hang up his umpire cleats a few years ago.
“I registered with the MHSAA while I was still in Lansing,” he said. “The first place I ever did a sanctioned event was in Perry, Michigan. I had barely enough (umpiring) equipment and I’m sure I looked like a real yahoo out there, but I got through it.”
After coming to Cadillac, Allen met Dave Martin, who was an active official and a fellow teacher at Marion, and Martin became his first “crew chief.”
“They needed some JV officials and I got signed up and was off and running,” Allen recalled. “That’s how you got into it back then. You found a crew and the crew chief assigned you some games, and you were evaluated. As long as they liked you and liked what you were doing, they kept you around.”
Allen expressed admiration and appreciation for Martin and also the late June Helmboldt from Lake City, another crew leader “who had a great perspective on the game.”
Allen served as a crew chief himself for a long time and has built rewarding relationships with fellow officials through the years. He has worked many games with Penny McDonald of Cadillac, another longtime official who has earned much respect for her consistency and quality of work in multiple sports over the decades. Allen, in a reversal of roles, is the one receiving assignments from McDonald these days.
Bill Bartholomew is another longtime officiating partner with whom Allen has worked many games over the years and for whom Allen has great respect. This school year, in fact, marks Bartholomew’s 51st year as an official. There are a few others from northern Michigan who have stood the test of time and have passed the 50-year service milestone, such as Paul Williams of Mesick, Tom Post and Mike Muldowney of Traverse City, Tom Johnson of Gaylord, and Dan Aldrich of Charlevoix. All of these, Allen said, are a credit to the craft of officiating and have earned the respect they receive.
Allen also has fond memories of working frequently through the years with Don Blue of Falmouth and Jill Baker-Cooley of Big Rapids, who was chosen for the MHSAA’s prestigious Vern L. Norris Award in 2018.
“I was there when Don and Julie and Penny all got their start in officiating, and they all found their skill set and became excellent officials,” Allen said.
Bill is included in the 50-year milestone group of basketball officials now that the 2025-26 season is underway. He is pleased that he has been able to maintain his longevity; as to the future, he is ready and willing to keep going.
“As long as I’m healthy and can do it properly, I hope to continue,” said Allen, who remains physically fit, jogging regularly along with activities including downhill skiing in the winters and golf during the warmer months.
“I’ll know when it’s time to step aside. When I can’t see well enough to judge the baseline and need to rely on my partners more than I should, then it’s time to hang up the whistle and let the younger ones take over. I hope that’s not for a while though.”
Mike Dunn is a sportswriter for the Cadillac News and the sports editor of the Missaukee Sentinel weekly. He has won numerous awards through the Michigan Press Association as well as the Michigan Associated Press.
PHOTOS (Top) Cadillac’s Bill Allen, shown here following a varsity girls basketball game in February in Evart, is in his 50th year as an MHSAA registered official. (Middle) Allen waits at the baseline for action to resume. (Below) Allen talks casually with McBain Northern Michigan Christian boys assistant coach Terry Pluger prior to the start of the varsity game with Buckley on Dec. 8. (Photos by Mike Dunn.)