Jack Pine Powers Shepherd, Gladwin Sweep D3 Championships
By
Tim Robinson
Special for MHSAA.com
March 5, 2022
JACKSON — Dave Carson’s Shepherd girls team had been knocking off higher seeds all afternoon long, but seemed to hit a wall against Cheboygan in Friday’s Division 3 Girls Bowling Final.
“After the two baker games, we were up by about 60 pins, he said. “In the fifth frame, we were still up by about 30, and I pulled my girls together and I told them, ‘Forget about how the first five frames went. I don’t care about your scores now. Just win me the last five frames.’ And they did.”
As a result, the Bluejays, who had never competed in the MHSAA Tournament, or even won a conference championship, are Finals champions.
“It was closer than it needed to be,” Carson joked.
The Bluejays, who squeaked into the quarterfinals by 18 pins over Boyne City, ousted top seed Kent City by 12 pins and No. 4 seed Flint Powers by 23 before downing sixth-seeded Cheboygan in the final, 1,041-987.
“We started faltering a bit in the middle of the last game,” Carson said. “They were getting tired. Both teams did. You could see it. We just weathered the storm a little longer than they did.”
It was the first bowling state title for Shepherd, and Carson admitted it came as a surprise to him.
“They had the potential to do it,” he said. “They had the potential last year, but didn’t gel as a team. This year, they gelled as a team all season.”
The Bluejays won the Jack Pine Conference title for the first time, then finished third in their Regional to punch a ticket to Jax 60, site of the Finals.
There was a certain bit of familial ties as well.
Carson’s cousin, Kendra Walch, was one of the Bluejays’ top bowlers, and he went to high school with Josh King, the coach at Mid-Michigan Community College whose daughter Amelia was a team member.
Amelia King was in the starting lineup for Shepherd, while Walch rolled a 187 to lead Shepherd in the final. Walch and Sara Montney took turns leading the team throughout the day.
“I told them throughout the season they had the potential to do it,” Carson said. “This was beyond my expectations to bring a team here the first year and win the whole thing.”
The future looks bright for Shepherd. Montney is a sophomore and Walch a junior.
“It’s a great feeling,” Carson said, laughing. “Everything seemed to come together this year. They started acting as a team, more than as individuals.”
Shelby Rolston was the only senior on this year’s Shepherd team.
“I’ve had her for four years and watched her grow,” Carson said. “It all came together, and I’m glad I was able to win it with her.”
It was the first trip to the final for Cheboygan as well. The Chiefs downed No. 3 Jonesville by 30 pins and rolled past No. 2 Hudsonville Unity Christian in the semifinals.
Jenna Knaffle had a game-high 210 and Izzy Portman rolled a 171 for Cheboygan.
Gladwin’s boys bowling team was the top seed after qualifying and the Flying G’s acted like it down the stretch, beating Midland Bullock Creek by a wide margin to take their second Finals title in four years.
“The first match (against eighth-seeded Armada) was kind of close,” Gladwin coach Kent Crawford said, “but we persevered and kept picking up spares.”
Gladwin then dispatched Standish-Sterling by 126 pins in the semifinals before taking the title with a 1,287-1,110 victory over Bullock Creek.
It was the third overall Finals title – all sports included – for the Flying G’s, who won the Class C girls basketball title in 1975.
Friday’s title had a family connection. Ethan Weston was on the 2019 champ, while Brady Weston is a mainstay on a Gladwin team that saw four bowlers roll a score of 200 or more. Weston had a 200 in the final.
But it was a freshman who led Gladwin on Friday.
Brayden Phillips rolled a 211, second only to JR Phillips’ 225. Gladwin rolled a 993 as a team in the final round, which was more than enough to overcome a 72-pin deficit after Baker play.
“We said, ‘Man, we need to get to work,” Crawford said. “They’re going to give us a run for our money. They were ahead of us for a little while until about the fifth frame, and then we started striking and you could tell they were getting fatigued.”
Meanwhile, the Flying G’s were getting a little too quiet for Crawford’s taste.
“I started to raise my voice to keep them pumped up,'' Crawford said. “Our guys started to sit down, and I said, ‘Boys, you’ve got to stand up. Let’s go!’ I wanted to keep everyone moving, and they came through. They started striking and having a good time and hollering and yelling and we passed them.”
But, Crawford said, the match wasn’t decided until the 10th frame.
“It could have gone either way if (Bullock Creek) had gotten more strikes,” he said.
Instead, the Flying G’s went home with a trophy and Crawford with a good feeling about Brayden Phillips, whom he called his “horse.”
“He kind of came out of the woodwork,” Crawford said. “He was getting spares and strikes, and he was just on course today.”
Crawford feels good knowing he’ll have Phillips for three more seasons.
“Especially with him,” Crawford said. “The rest of the group is sophomores, so I get a couple more years with them, too.”
The Flying G’s finished second in the Jack Pine Conference.
Gladwin lost to Sanford Meridian in league play, but got its measure of revenge during qualifying. Meridian was the No. 7 seed, but was eliminated by Madison Heights Bishop Foley in the quarterfinals.
The key, Crawford said, is team chemistry.
“Most of these boys have grown up together,” he said. “Most of them are sophomores. They’ve played football together since they were 5 or 6 years old. They hang out together. They support each other 110 percent.”
Coaching is a cooperative affair as well.
Crawford, who describes himself as “the CEO,” is assisted by Dan Hagar and Kevin Van Tiem.
Bullock Creek, which was in its first Final, got there as the No. 6 seed.
The Lancers downed No. 3 Jonesville and No. 2 seed Bishop Foley to advance.
Cole Gilbert had a 158 to pace the Lancers, who saw four of their five bowlers roll a 150 or better in the final.
PHOTOS Shepherd and Gladwin bowlers send shots during Friday's Division 3 Team Finals at Jax 60. (Click to see more from Champions Photography.)
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.)