Work Begins Again for Reigning Champ West

August 18, 2016

By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half

TRAVERSE CITY – Kristen Nolan is trying to avoid putting undue pressure on her Traverse City West golf team.

So talk about defending an MHSAA Division 1 championship has been kept to a minimum during the preseason.

“I don’t want my girls going into (the season) too confident because that can also be a negative,” the seventh-year coach said. “I want them focusing on individual goals instead of that full team goal of winning states again. As long as each player is working on their personal goals, the rest (will take care of itself).”

The unranked Titans pulled a surprise a year ago, edging first-day leader and tournament favorite Rochester in a tiebreaker to claim the Lower Peninsula D1 title.

Ironically, neither team had a senior in the lineup.

West returns its core group of Anika Dy, Hunter Kehoe, Grace Ellul, Madison McCall and Grace Warren. Dy, now a sophomore, finished runner-up for the individual title. She was one stroke back of medalist Julia Dean of Brighton.

Dy competed in an American Junior Golf Association tournament at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club this week and missed the Titans’ season-opening tournament, the Bob Lober Classic at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa.

Dy missed a couple early tournaments last year as well, but when she returned to the lineup the Titans went on a roll, cruising to Big North Conference and Regional crowns en route to the MHSAA Finals championship.

“We got into a groove,” Ellul, a senior co-captain, said. “Hopefully, we can do the same this year.”

Most of the Titans spent considerable time on the links this summer, taking lessons and playing in several tournaments, notably in the Traverse City Junior Golf Association program.

“I highly encourage it,” Nolan said. “The girls love playing in it. It’s a little more low-key, not as competitive as high school golf, but it prepares them.”

Kehoe, also a senior co-captain, agreed.

“It allows us to focus and work on our games,” she said. “It’s a huge advantage coming into the fall.”

That focus has not shifted now that the high school campaign has arrived.

“We all have personal goals” Kehoe said. “Kristen does not want us to worry about going back to states and repeating what we did. She just wants us to work on our own games each and every tournament throughout the season.”

For Kehoe, who shot the Titans’ second-lowest score at the Finals last season, that means improving her approach to the game.

“I’m working on course management, really dialing in on target control,” the 17-year-old said. “I consistently shot 80 or low 80s last year. My goal is to be consistently in the 70s this year.”

Ellul, the Titans’ third-lowest scorer at the Finals, is stressing her mental outlook on the course.

“I get down on myself, get nervous, and it can ruin my game,” she said. “I need to learn to stay positive when I’m playing, not put myself down.”

Nobody was putting the Titans down last October when they rallied to win at The Meadows at Grand Valley State University.

West was in fourth place, five shots behind Rochester, after the opening day. But all five Titans golfers came back with lower rounds on the second day to give the school its first MHSAA girls golf title.

“Going into states our goal was top five,” Kehoe said. “We obviously knew there were a lot of good teams there. We did not expect to win it all. That was a huge surprise. It was amazing.”

After finishing their rounds, the Titans gathered in the clubhouse, away from the hubbub outside.

“We knew it was close,” Kehoe said. “All the parents were outside watching the scoreboard. We sat inside, too excited, too scared, to go outside and look.”

“It was nerve-wracking,” Ellul added. “We were trying to not get our hopes up, but we had to. When we found out we had won, it was crazy.”

Kehoe’s younger brother, Murphy, is the one who informed the team of its triumph.

“We walked out and immediately started crying and hugging our parents,” Kehoe recalled. “It was super surreal.”

How close was it? West and Rochester tied at 685, forcing officials to go to each team’s fifth golfer’s score over the tournament. Warren’s two-day 193 beat her rival’s to give West the title.

It kicked off a celebration that spilled over into the weekend and the following Monday at school when all of West’s sports teams held a reception for the champs in the school’s common area.

The team later custom-designed their own championship rings, which were presented at halftime of a boys basketball game.

“Thinking back on it, you forget how crazy it is to win the Division 1 state finals,” Ellul said. “Our school, and town, were so proud and supportive of us. They made it such a big deal. That was really nice.”

The Titans know they will not be able to take any team by surprise this season.

“Obviously, all eyes are on us,” Kehoe said. “We’ve been working hard this summer trying to improve our games. Our confidence is through the roof, but we’re all trying to maintain a calm, steady mindset so we don’t get too excited.”

Nolan likes what she has seen thus far.

“They definitely have that drive to try and win back-to back-state championships,” she said. “They’re definitely more eager. They’ve been putting in quite a bit of effort to get there.”

First things first, however.

“We can’t worry about an end-of-the-season result right now,” Kehoe said.

There’s work to be done.

Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. 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) Traverse City West hoists for the first time Oct. 17 its first MHSAA girls golf championship trophy. (Middle) Anika Dy lines up a putt during last season's Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)

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.

Northern Lower PeninsulaBut 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.

Smith tees up a drive for Elk Rapids this season. 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.

Smith shares a moment with her horse.“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 SpencerTom 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.)