'Baker's Dozen' Continues Rapid Rise Earning Leland's 1st Trip to Girls Golf Final
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 9, 2026
A lot has changed since Leland High School began offering girls golf just a decade ago.
Starting as a club sport with tremendous support from the Leland Country Club, the Comets began participation in MHSAA competition in 2021. These days, they are among Northern Michigan’s best Division 4 programs – and Tuesday qualified for the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final for the first time.
The Comets have done especially well considering more than 90 percent of their student-athletes had never picked up a club prior to entering high school.
Not many would have thought this rapid rise possible, but the team’s coaches – head coach Grace Keeble and assistant Kathy Wheeler, also a Leland teacher – are not among them.
“I don't think you can write a better script, really,” Keeble said. “I'm really excited for the girls. It is just so magical to be in the same sentence with Traverse City St. Francis and Elk Rapids.”
The Comets placed second to Elk Rapids at their Regional to qualify for next week’s Final. St. Francis also qualified for the LPD4 championship tournament, which will be played at The Meadows on the campus of Grand Valley State University.
“Leland has been very fortunate to have some incredible teams go to states,” Keeble acknowledged, referring to the Comets’ successes on the volleyball court and soccer pitch. “I am honored and excited that these girls get to be added to that list. We've been riding an incredible wave, and I just want to ride it out. I want these girls to just soak it up.”
Leland’s run to the Final started at last year’s Regional, where they fell just shy of advancing.
“We were fourth, and the girls looked at me – and there were three girls who were really close to making it as individuals – and they had a smile on their faces and a determined look, and they said, ‘Coach, we're going to states next year.’ And I looked at them and I said, ‘Let's keep up with the hard work and the determination.’”
With five seniors leading the way and a total of 13 golfers on the roster, the Comets started this fall destined to reach championship weekend. Four seniors – Ariah Amin, Maya Hamelin, Elise Vann and Lillian Conner – were a part of the Comets team that nearly made the Final last year. The fifth senior, Ella Hennessey, is playing her first year of golf. All five seniors took at least a half-dozen strokes off their averages this fall.
“I wholeheartedly believed they could do it,’ said Keeble, a retired teacher and avid golfer. “It’s been kind of a mantra since the end of the season last year. I have 13 magnificent girls, and for the first time ever in this program, a representation from every class, from freshman sophomore, junior and senior.”
Keeble likes to refer to the 13-player roster as her “baker’s dozen” pointing out it took all 13 to get the team where it is today.
“When I saw the magical number 13, I told them they were my baker's dozen, and they kind of just looked at me,” Keeble recalled. “Well, there's 13, and I don't like classifying if you're the number one player or you're my 13th player – you're a member of this team. There are six going to states with five playing and four scores counting, but it took all of them, and it was these seniors leading.”
The rest of the “baker’s dozen” consists of juniors Jaelyn DeFour and Sadie Hill, sophomores Lucy Baldwin, Ella Hamelin, Bryn Waskiewicz, Flora Wengreen and Ellie Yoffy; and Penelope Shank, a freshman.
All 13 golfers will be behind the fire truck as Leland hosts a parade Thursday to send the Comets to Allendale.
Conner, finishing fourth, and Hamelin, sixth, led the way at this week’s Regional, and Amin, 11th, and Vann, 15th, rounded out the scoring. DeFour was right behind the scorers in 17th, allowing the entire team to place among the overall top 20 individuals. That success was despite weather conditions hampering the Comets after they all shot personal bests during their previous most recent tournament in Cadillac, with the team’s top four scores there all under 100 for the first time in program history.
As the Comets prepare for the Final, Keeble has them focused on the upcoming experience, rather than the result. She expects her golfers to always focus on the next hole, even if the last wasn’t so good, and let the results fall where they may.
“I'm not a big believer of putting expectations of where you're going to place,” Keeble noted. “I'd rather have the girls enjoy the experience and come off a course and say, ‘Hey, coach, I just did the best I could.’”
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) Leland’s Jaelyn Defour tees off on the Sundance Course during Tuesday’s Division 4 Regional at A-Ga-Ming Golf Resort in Kewadin. (Middle) Elise Vann tees off during her Regional round. (Photos by Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle.)
Elk Rapids' Smith Back on Course Just 2 Months After Severe Leg Injury
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
August 30, 2024
Leighton Smith’s freshman year was nothing short of amazing as she competed for Elk Rapids High School’s first girls golf team in the fall and capped it off in the spring with a track school record and bragging rights as the fastest 400-meter runner in Northern Michigan.
But events this summer were even more astonishing.
A horse riding accident in June left the 15-year-old fighting for her life, experiencing multiple surgeries and then recovering through physical therapy.
To top it off, she returned to the links Thursday representing the Elks at the Petoskey Invitational played at the Bay View Country Club. Smith shot a 100 as the Elks placed seventh. Her score was tied for the team’s best and featured four pars.
It was an impressive next step, to say the least.
No one could have been prepared to endure what Smith experienced this summer. And no one could have been better prepared to do it than the Elks sophomore, according to doctors, her coaches and her parents.
She underwent five surgeries in six days. The first surgery was done by Dr. Justin Hollander and Munson Medical Center. Dr. Hollander placed a titanium rod in her right leg to stabilize a severe femur fracture.
Smith developed compartment syndrome, which is extremely painful and happens when there’s too much pressure around the muscles and that pressure restricts the flow of blood, fresh oxygen and nutrients to muscles and nerves. That pain and lying in a hospital bed began to impact her mental health but Smith and her parents, Melinda and Don Smith, knew she had the capacity to get through her complications.
Medical personnel, including Dr. Hollander, were extremely impressed with her determination, drive and attitude throughout.
“When you’re in a situation like this you have try your hardest to keep the most positive mindset and thoughts you can, because the mentality you have is what is really going to affect how you handle the whole situation,” Leighton Smith said.
Following that first surgery, she underwent multiple life and limb-saving surgical procedures called fasciotomies in both Traverse City and Grand Rapids. A fasciotomy involves cutting fascia to relieve tension or pressure in order to treat the resulting loss of circulation in acute situations.
“I am not used to being in a bed against my will,” Smith noted. “I was stuck there – you don’t realize the things you take for granted until you’re stuck there like that.”
Don Smith also serves as co-coach of the Elks girls golf team with Mike Newhouse. He witnessed his daughter’s horse riding accident and was there every step of recovery.
He couldn’t be more thrilled about what he witnessed in Petoskey as a father or coach.
“It is great to see her back and looking forward to the future,” Don Smith said. “We went from time in the hospital where you’re scared to even hear what the answer was going to be about sports and anything in life, and to be able to participate in golf here two to three weeks into the season.”
The sophomore has received MHSAA approval to use a cart during competition as a medical necessity, and she may be able golf in enough events this fall to participate in her team’s Regional in Tawas and possibly qualify for the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final in Battle Creek.
“Leighton has greatly exceeded my expectations,” Newhouse said. “I initially thought she might lose the season, and if she could get back by midseason it would be a slow return. But her performance today far exceeded anything I expected.”
Golf really isn’t her favorite sport. Horse competition and track meets top that list. She is set to defend her 400-meter title next spring at the Traverse City Record-Eagle Honor Roll season-ending meet, and she is the only Elks student-athlete participating in rodeo, doing so through the Manton High School chapter of the Michigan High School Rodeo Association.
“I have a positive attitude and I don’t take it too seriously, but seriously enough that I can play the game,” she said of golf, while noting her primary motivation for being on the team is her father’s love of the game. “It is a good skill to have to be able to play golf, but it is definitely third on my list for sports.”
Third on the list is fine for her coaches.
“Dad will take it top three,” Don Smith noted while recalling moments after the final surgery at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. “The vascular surgeon talked with us for about 20 minutes and finally without us asking, he said she was going to be able to resume a normal life with sports and everything.”
And she has been back on a horse too.
“Now I am able to ride by myself pretty well, so I take him out every now and then and ride around the yard,” she said. “I think every time I get on, my Dad has a mini-heart attack – I think he’d prefer I never get on a horse again.”
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) Leighton Smith, left, consults with Dr. Justin Hollander during her recovery from horse riding injuries this summer. (Middle) Smith tees up a drive for Elk Rapids this season. (Below) Smith shares a moment with her horse. (Photos provided by the Smith family.)