Wayne Boys, Holt Girls Rally from Early Deficits to Clinch 2nd Finals Titles

By Perry A. Farrell
Special for MHSAA.com

March 3, 2023

ALLEN PARK – Wayne Memorial bowling coach Christine Day will be celebrating her 34th birthday Saturday with a state championship.

Led by Jeremiah Hodge’s 212 game, Wayne rallied from a 59-pin deficit to defeat Brownstown Woodhaven 1,331-1,244 to win the Division 1 championship Friday at Thunderbowl Lanes.

“I have an entire group of seniors – seven,’’ said Day. “This was present enough. I’m so proud of these guys. They kept fighting and coming back.’’

Down 59, senior anchor Donovan Uselman called a team huddle in the third frame, and his teammates eventually responded.

“He just said to keep our focus and keep executing our shots,’’ said Hodge. “It was a long day. We were down every game. We shot 1,100 today. We shot 1,000. I just tried to control the pocket.’’

Wayne Memorial advanced to the boys championship by defeating Livonia Churchill, 1,385-1,315, while Brownstown Woodhaven topped Jenison 1,382-1,268. The title was the second for Wayne, which previously won Division 1 in 2015.

Holt captured the girls title, also its second, behind a 214 game from Lola Knox, 1,197-1,078.

“It was hard getting here, but I was just happy I could pull it out for my team,’’ said Knox. “I’m very proud of my senior class.’’

Coach Sandra Teague said she knew early in the season this group was special.

“We won a title in 2010,’’ said Teague. “With this group I said there was no way I was going to mess this up.’’

Wayne Memorial opened the boys championship match with a 224-202 win in the first game of the Baker match. Both teams struggled in the second Baker game as Woodhaven shot 170 to open up that big lead.

Woodhaven then went ahead 101 pins, but Wayne made a comeback to get the deficit back to 51.

The effort was sidetracked with four opens in the seventh frame, giving Woodhaven a chance to reassume control.

“It was a matter of making good shots,’’ said Hodge. 

The Holt girls bowling team celebrates its 2023 Division 1 championship.

In the girls Final, Traverse City West led by 18 pins after the first Baker game, but Holt shot 157 to open up an 10-pin lead going into singles play.

Traverse City West had advanced to the championship match by easing past Grandville 1,265-1,111, while Holt edged Westland John Glenn 1,167-1,155.

Zeeland was the top girls qualifier at 3,271 pins, followed by Sterling Heights Stevenson at 3,174 and Grandville at 3,159. The hard-luck school was South Lyon, which missed the last qualifying spot by one pin.

Zeeland’s run for the girls title was short-lived, though.

With a raucous crowd behind them shouting “Rocket Power,” Westland John Glenn’s bowlers knocked off the top seed in a heart breaker, 1,089-1,088, to advance to the semifinals.

Stevenson, the No. 2 seed, also had a tough afternoon and fell to Traverse City West, 1,149-1,132. That set up the Titans’ showdown with Grandville, which had eliminated Grand Blanc 1,198-1,122.

It was a tough day for annual powerhouse Macomb Area Conference teams, girls and boys, as they were all eliminated in the quarterfinals. Holt defeated reigning Division 1 champion Dakota in the girls division 1,245-1,195.

On the boys side, Davison jumped from ninth after the first singles games of qualifying to first with a 1,113 score in the second set of singles for a total qualifying score of 3,598. The Cardinals had lost five of six starters from a year ago, which made the run to the top even more impressive.

Jenison was second in qualifying at 3,594, Utica Eisenhower third at 3,538 and Wayne Memorial fourth at 3.496. Macomb Dakota was the other Macomb Area Conference team to make the top eight with a score of 3,474.

Davison’s run abruptly came to an end, however, when eighth-seed Livonia Churchill prevailed, 1,177-1,162 to start bracket play. Churchill moved on to face Wayne Memorial, which had eliminated Dakota 1,179-1,162.

Brownstown Woodhaven bested Eisenhower, 1,308-1,251, and moved on to face Jenison, which was six pins better than seventh-seed Byron Center, 1,258-1,252.

Division 1 Final ResultsBoys | Girls

Feeding 'Drive to Win,' Loy Norrix Grad Morgan Impresses with Strong USBC Showing

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

July 10, 2025

KALAMAZOO — Trevor Morgan received an unexpected bonus when he joined Scott Brunner’s Old School Scratch League at Continental Lanes several years ago.

These are logos for the Made In Michigan series and the Michigan Army National GuardThe youngest on the team at the time, the 2018 Loy Norrix High School graduate said the fun part about bowling with those guys is that they have all bowled with or against his mom Nikki Randall McGruder, his stepdad Ed McGruder and his dad Randy Morgan.

“Now I get to hear all these fun stories involving my parents and my stepdad,” Trevor laughed.

Morgan added that teammates Brian Cooper, Mark LaBarge and Joe Gates were the guys he looked up to when he was a teen working as a food runner at the bowling alley. Another young bowler, Adam Rowlson, has since joined the team.

“These (original guys) are all guys that 10 years ago I was like, ‘Hey, these guys strike,’” Morgan said. “‘I want to be like them one day.’ And now I’m bowling against them and striking with them. Pretty cool.”

Pretty cool is also a good way to describe Morgan today.

The personable 25-year-old was one of more than 100 Kalamazoo area bowlers who have been traveling to Baton Rouge, La., for the USBC Open Championships, competing in team, doubles and singles divisions.

The tournament, from March 1 to July 28, features more than 11,600 five-person teams from around the country.

While Morgan said his team did not do well, he and Trevor Millard are currently 97th in doubles. As an individual, Morgan sits in eighth place with a 778 score.

“When I left there (May 19), I said I was hoping to stay in the top 20,” he said. “Since it’s been a month and a half, now I’m really hoping I can hold on to top 10.

“I bowled in a higher division with a lot of PBA pros bowling. It’s pretty cool to look at the list and go, ‘Hey, I beat some of these guys who were on TV this past year.’ I didn’t get to see them, I didn’t get to bowl against them, but I’m ahead of them.”

Growing up bowling

Continental Lanes has been Morgan’s second home since he was 2 or 3 years old, when his dad took him bowling but would not let him use the bumpers.

“He’d run down there and put his finger on the second arrow (of the lane) and say hit my finger,” Morgan said. “I tried every time to hit that finger. Sooner or later, I got better at it and was able to do it.”

Not only did he get better, but he bowled his first sanctioned 300 at age 12, becoming the youngest to bowl the perfecto in the Kalamazoo area, a record that still stands.

Morgan wears his 300 ring earned when he was 12, and his 800 series ring from 2018.Things have changed quite a bit since then.

Although he had no sanctioned 300s in high school, his current total is more than 20, including eight two seasons ago and seven last season.

“This past year, I shot 299 then 300 in back-to-back games, which was pretty cool,” he said. “But I don’t have one yet that tops that first one. That is a memory that will never be forgotten.”

Morgan still has the special ring signifying his very first 300 game, although now it fits just his little finger.

He also has a ring for his first 800 series, an 801 bowled Sept. 13, 2018.

He has added more since then and recorded five of them last season when he threw an 846, his highest to date.

Besides his scratch league, one of the few in the state, Morgan also competes on the DDS team of former high school friends Collin Rickey, Jared Edgerton, Antar Howard and Alex Hale at Continental.

Friends since elementary school, Morgan became ordained so he could officiate Rickey’s wedding last month.

“I met Jared through Collin,” Morgan said. “They bowled together at Gull Lake High School and were a part of my team Saturday mornings as a youth team.

“Antar we knew from bowling tournaments like Michigan Junior Masters. Alex went to Gull Lake, and I got to bowl against him for two years. A group of 25 (to) 30-year-olds bowling every week is a fun one.”

As for DDS, “We are the Dumb Dumb Squad,” Morgan said. “My stepdad Ed named us that 10 or 15 years ago, so we’ve just lived up to the name and keep doing it.”

Dream Team

At Loy Norrix, Morgan competed in the MHSAA Division 1 Boys Bowling Singles Finals three of his four years, but his team did not qualify.

“My senior year, I lost in semis,” he said. “I led qualifying, won my first match, won my second match, lost to Matt Buck from Rockford by five pins. At least I lost to the eventual winner.”

In spite of that defeat, Morgan was named to the 2018 Detroit Free Press Dream Team with Genesee’s Luke Cantrell, Wyandotte Roosevelt’s Gabe Cassise, Adrian Madison’s Isaac Solis, Davison’s Brandon Kreiner and Lowell’s Carson Clark.

The DDS team, from left: Alex Hale, Antar Howard, Morgan, Collin Rickey and Jared Edgerton. Morgan said the banquet was nice, “but the fun part was that everybody who was part of the Dream Team was there.

“Those were all people that I actually bowled Michigan Junior Masters events with, so we all knew each other. I still run into most of those people today when I bowl tournaments.”

When bowling became too stressful during high school, Morgan took out his frustrations on the golf course, something he still does.

“I was never very good (at golf), never made states (in high school). I never did anything great,” he said. “I used golf as ‘I know I’m not good, so let me get better' as opposed to bowling where ‘I know I’m good; how can I get better?’

“Golf was always my fallback. A lot of times I took the entire summer off from bowling.”

Although Morgan had several bowling scholarship offers from colleges, he said he attended Kalamazoo Valley Community College but soon decided college was not for him.

Instead he started working for his uncle, Mark Randall, who owns BoxDrop, which sells mattresses and furniture with stores in Battle Creek – where Morgan works – and Kalamazoo.

He and Caitlyn Ankli live in Kalamazoo with their two corgis, but Morgan still has a fleeting thought.

“I still have that kid desire to go give it a whirl on the PBA Tour,” he said. “I understand just as much as everybody else that life happens and I’ve built a life, I have bills to pay.

“I can’t just take 10 weeks off from work and say, ‘I’m going to bowl.’ Do I want to? Sure. If I had the time, I would certainly give it a whirl.

“At this moment, I’m pretty content with where I’m at: bowling two nights a week, a lot of little local pop-up tournaments to keep in the swing of things. I still have the drive to win.”

PHOTOS (Top) At left, Trevor Morgan poses for a photo with his third-place medal at the 2018 MHSAA Finals, and at right Morgan bowls this summer. (2) Morgan wears his 300 ring earned when he was 12, and his 800 series ring from 2018. (3) The DDS team, from left: Alex Hale, Antar Howard, Morgan, Collin Rickey and Jared Edgerton. (Bowling and ring photos by Pam Shebest; all others courtesy of Trevor Morgan.)