Saline's Williams-Hoak Named National Coach of the Year by LPGA Professionals
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 20, 2022
The LPGA Professionals have named Saline High School golf coach Debbie Williams-Hoak as its national Coach of the Year.
Williams-Hoak was among national award winners who were selected by the LPGA Professionals’ executive committee from a pool of Section Award winners, which were voted on by officers of those regional sections.
More on the award from LPGA Professionals:
The LPGA Professionals Coach of the Year Award was established in 1980 and is awarded annually to an LPGA Professionals member who is actively engaged in teaching and/or coaching golf at the collegiate or high school level.
LPGA Professionals Class A member Debbie Williams-Hoak knows what it takes to compete at the highest levels. She is a former LPGA Tour Player and track & field athlete who represented U.S. Track & Field in Russia and West Germany. She is a four-time Big Ten Champion, a member of the Ohio Track & Field Hall of Fame, University of Michigan Women’s Track Hall of Fame member and a member of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame as a player, coach and teaching professional. This year, she is being inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor.
Having been a multi-sport athlete accustomed to competing at the highest level, Williams-Hoak brings something unique to her coaching style. She has successfully coached boys and girls golf for the past 16 years at Saline High School in Saline, Michigan, and currently is serving as the first female president of the Michigan Interscholastic Golf Coaches Association. Williams-Hoak feels proud that every girl on her team shot career lows while maintaining 100-percent academic eligibility this season, while her boys team placed second in the conference championship and qualified for its second-straight state Finals appearance.
She is dedicated to instilling a lifelong love of the game while empowering students through golf and hopes her example will pave the way for other women coaches to lead as well.
Williams-Hoak received the 2017 Sandy LaBauve Spirit Award, the most coveted honor bestowed by LPGA*USGA Girls Golf, for her continued dedication and passion for empowering girls through golf. She was honored with the Midwest Youth Leader of the Year and Goldie Bateson Award two times, in addition to numerous recognitions as Coach of the Year from Saline High School.
She is deeply involved with the LPGA Professionals organization, which she currently serves as the LPGA Midwest Secretary since 2021. She has been site director for LPGA*USGA Girls Golf of Greater Washtenaw Country since 2015 and acted as an advisor for the Site Director Certification program in 2021. From 2018-2021, she worked as an expert committee member for LPGA*USGA Girls Golf. She also coached at the LPGA Leadership Academies in Michigan over the last two years.
"I am extremely humbled by this award, as there are so many outstanding LPGA coaches in our association. What an honor to represent the LPGA, the state of Michigan and the game of golf as a coach,” said Williams-Hoak. “It is a privilege to work with so many wonderful players who make coaching so rewarding. I am also fortunate to have such great fellow coaches in Michigan and throughout the LPGA. Thank you so much for this very special recognition."
PHOTO: Saline golf coach Debbie Williams-Hoak, far left, stands for the trophy shot with her girls team after the Hornets won the 2016 Lower Peninsula Division 1 championship. (MHSAA file photo)
Grand Rapids Catholic Central Extends Title Streak, O'Grady Reigns Again
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2025
EAST LANSING — Successful title defenses from the Grand Rapids area sure were the themes of the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Girls Golf Final this weekend at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West.
From a team perspective, Grand Rapids Catholic Central fulfilled a season with sky-high expectations, easily winning its third-straight championship with a score of 682.
The Cougars were the team to chase all season with four golfers back after winning last year’s Final by 65 strokes.
Ultimately though, there wasn’t a team in Division 3 that could catch and dethrone them.
“There definitely was a target,” Catholic Central coach Kim Napieralski said. “The expectations weren’t anything new or different. They just leveled up to it.”
Catholic Central had three golfers earn top-7 individual finishes, led by senior Kelsey Preston (81-78-159), who took third. Senior Margaret Deimel finished with a 166 (80-86) to place sixth, while senior Sofia Piccione added a 167 (81-86) to finish in a tie for seventh.
“All of them are super competitive,” Napieralski said of her team. “They are grinders. If they have a bad hole or two, they get right back into it. That’s the biggest strength of our team, is our mental ability to get through the round comfortably even when there is bad stuff happening.”
There was also a repeat winner individually, with Grand Rapids Christian senior Lillian O’Grady reigning again after winning last year at Bedford Valley in Battle Creek.
After birdieing five holes to shoot 72 in Friday’s first round, O’Grady birdied six more holes during her second round Saturday, finishing with a 1-under par score of 71 for a two-day total of 143.
“This course, you can kind of be more aggressive with it and really hit it to good spots on the greens,” said O’Grady, who will play next at the University of Findlay. “I would say it was a lot of good wedge shots into the greens and making some pretty good putts. In some moments, my driver was off but my irons were really good, and I was making the putts. And then other times my irons were off but my short game was really good. All combined together, it was really good.”
O’Grady did have a different dynamic winning the title this year, as her closest pursuer was sister Eleanor, a freshman who finished runner-up with a score of 156 (78-78) in what could be a passing of the baton within the family.
“It was so special to have my sister on the team and experience this with her,” Lillian said of Eleanor. “Hopefully she can do what I’ve done these years.”
Making its first appearance as a team at an MHSAA Final since 2021, Grand Rapids Christian finished runner-up, surging ahead of Detroit Country Day with a strong second-day-total of 353 to finish at 711.
Country Day was third at 731 (356-375), Grand Rapids South Christian was fourth at 734, and Goodrich rounded out the top five with a score of 745.
“I thought we played about as well as we could today,” Grand Rapids Christian coach Seth Davis said. “This course is tough and was set up really tough. You play that first day and you kind of get over that first tournament-day thoughts of, ‘What does this place look like?’ But the second day, you just feel a bit more confident and you are hitting your stride. We played more like we could.”
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Margaret Deimel chips toward the green Saturday at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Golf Final. (Middle) Grand Rapids Christian’s Lillian O’Grady follows a drive at Forest Akers West. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)