Senior-Powered Lansing Christian Makes Good on 2019 Goal, 2021 Promise

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

June 11, 2022

EAST LANSING – Caden Kinnas had an idea that he and his teammates on the Lansing Christian boys golf team were doing well.

But he didn’t want to hear how well until Saturday’s round at the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals was over.

“That makes me a little bit nervous when I see the scoreboard,” the Lansing Christian senior said. “I did that yesterday on my third-to-last hole, and then I ended up tripling then parring out for my last two holes. Today, I was like, ‘I’m not going to look at the leaderboard once.’ I didn’t even know we shot a 304 until five minutes ago. I kept hearing whispers like, ‘You’re crushing us’ from other people, but I was like, ‘Don’t tell me. Let me just play and finish this round.’”

Kinnas and the Pilgrims were crushing people as they cruised to the Division 4 title with a two-day score of 622 (318 Friday, 304 Saturday) at Forest Akers West, 24 shots better than second-place Clarkston Everest Collegiate. Maple City Glen Lake was third at 655, followed by Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep at 665 and Charlevoix at 669.

Royal Oak Shrine Catholic’s Jeffrey Andrus was the individual medalist, shooting back-to-back 72s and finishing even par (144) for the tournament, six strokes ahead of Glen Lake’s Blake O’Connor who finished second.

It was the first Finals title for Lansing Christian, which was the runner-up to Kalamazoo Hackett a year ago. The Pilgrims’ five-man lineup featured four seniors.

“It’s a process – you finish 14th your first year, you get to the big dance and you just get a glimpse of it and it just gets you excited, like, ‘What if?’” Lansing Christian coach Jason Block said. “Everybody from summer leagues to winter simulators to the chalk talks that we do on course management – the courses we played this year … I can’t imagine a schedule tougher to get these guys ready for today. I always think of Nick Saban, trust the process. Just do the little things one day after another, one match after another. To be able to do it on the last day, pretty exciting.”

Clarkston Everest Collegiate golfKinnas, a senior, led the way for Lansing Christian, shooting a 151 and tying 2021 individual champion Remy Stalcup of Everest Collegiate in third place.

He was one of three Pilgrims to finish in the top 10, as senior Davis Garrett tied for fifth at 155 and junior Baylor Brogan tied for eighth at 156. Senior William Combs rounded out the scoring with a 160, while senior Isaac Haley shot a 180.

The 14th-place finish in 2019 came from a Lansing Christian team filled with freshmen. After that tournament, they took a picture with the championship trophy, which was won by Hackett. 

That was all about motivation and putting the possibility of taking a picture with their own trophy into the heads of each of the golfers. 

“We were happy to make it to state that year,” Block said. “Fast forward to 2021, we play at the Fortress against Hackett, with Hackett, and we end up losing the two-day tournament by six strokes. We go home with a runner-up trophy – happy, but you wanted to win the championship trophy. Coming into this year, we wanted to do three things: want to win the conference championship, win the Regional championship, and win the state championship.” 

Kinnas, who didn’t play on that 2019 team, said he thought it was a little odd when he first saw the picture, but was happy to help make it happen three years later.

“Knowing that we had the chance, and realizing the skill we had throughout the last two years, we realized it was pretty winnable,” Kinnas said. “I think that makes it a little more emotional, too, knowing that four out of our five starters are seniors. It really makes you appreciate every hole you play and that we couldn’t have done this without one another.”

The individual title was equally drama free, as Andrus played two incredibly clean rounds on his way to his six-stroke victory.

He did, though, allow himself to check the leaderboard prior to the final hole.

“I didn’t check the leaderboard until my last hole,” he said. “My coach told me I had a big lead. I wouldn’t say I was loose, maybe more conservative.”

For the weekend, Andrus had six birdies, two bogies and two double bogies to go with 26 pars. 

“I hit my driver really well,” Andrus said. “I struggled a little bit at the beginning today, but my short game saved me. Overall, my chipping and driving really helped me out.”

O’Connor shot a 150 to take second, followed by Stalcup, Kinnas and Garrett. Saginaw Nouvel freshman Alex McCarthy and Glen Lake freshman Michael Houtteman each shot a 155 to tie with Garrett in fifth. Brogan’s 156 was matched by Hackett freshman Joey Blondia, Riverview Gabriel Richard senior Blake Wagner and Hillsdale Academy sophomore Rykert Frisinger in a tie for eighth.

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PHOTOS (Top) Lansing Christian's Davis Garrett lines up a putt on No. 9 at Forest Akers West on Saturday. (Middle) Clarkston Everest Collegiate's Remy Stalcup chips toward the No. 9 green. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)

Four-Time Finals Placer Piot Earns Ultimate Amateur Championship

By Tom Lang
Special for MHSAA.com

August 23, 2021

James Piot was a high school all-state Super Team member all four years he played golf at Detroit Catholic Central.

Piot – who has since moved on to play at Michigan State – was never an MHSAA Finals individual champion. But recently he achieved something much bigger, winning the ultimate individual crown for amateurs – the 121st U.S. Amateur Championship.

His championship run concluded Sunday, Aug. 15 at the iconic Oakmont Country Club with a 2 and 1 match play victory over Austin Greaser of Ohio and the University of North Carolina.

Piot led the Shamrocks to a Lower Peninsula Division 1 runner-up team finish in 2014 as a freshman, followed by three consecutive championships creating arguably the best era of high school golf for any one program in Michigan history.

According to his former assistant coach – Jimmy Dewling, now the boys golf head coach at Brighton – team titles suited Piot just fine.

“I think his team winning meant just as much to him than any individual title,” Dewling said. “Truly he’s one of those types of guys.”

Piot’s senior year in 2017, Catholic Central had three players on the all-state Super Team: Piot, Ben Smith (Georgia Tech) and Sean Niles (MHSAA individual champ), while teammates Dyllan Skinner and Sean Sooch were first team all-state.

Now on the national stage, Piot defeated Greaser of Ohio, 2-and-1, by sinking a 20-foot par putt on the 17th hole of the day’s second round in the scheduled 36-hole national final.

“It's the greatest feeling in the world,” Piot said to the national media on site. “I mean, as an amateur it's the best thing you can do. It was making that putt on 17 was just like, ‘Oh, my God. I might've done it.’”

By winning the elite amateur tournament, Piot is to receive presumably automatic exemptions into three professional majors next year: The Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open. That alone is a career-defining bucket list for anyone in golf – and he’s still a college student.

Piot was playing in the U.S. Amateur for the second straight year. In 2020 at Bandon Dunes (in Oregon), he was second in stroke play to enter the match play portion the No. 2 seed. He won his first match but then was bumped out in the round of 32.

Detroit Catholic Central golfThis year he finished his unfinished business by cruising through the match play, winning three of his six rounds with identical scores of 4-and-3. In the final, Piot was 1-up after the morning round of 18 holes. But after a lunch break and change of shirts from a dark color to a white one with a green Sparty golfer logo, there was a 4-hole swing where Piot found himself down three after 27 holes.

“I told myself on that tee box (on 10), I said, ‘I'm going to play this (last) nine 4-under.’ That's what I put in my head. Just self-belief.”

The tables turned hard at that point when Piot won four consecutive holes (10-13), and five of six, to go 2-up with three holes remaining, eventually grabbing the win 2-and-1.

Standing at that 10th tee, Piot was down three holes and TV commentator ‘Bones’ MacKay said it would be very difficult for Piot to get back into the match.

“I gave him the nickname when he was 9-years-old of ‘Spunkdog,’ because he’s got so much fight,” said Brian Cairns, his long-time teacher at Fox Hills Learning Center in Plymouth. “He’s in a corner by himself, he’ll come out every time by himself. He’s got spunk. You saw how he walked; you saw how mellow he was. You saw his shoulders go up on the back nine. He made the swings when he needed to make them.”

Dewling provided a similar but different angle on Piot.

“He took pride that he’s a public course guy and put that chip on his shoulder to beat people,” Dewling said about the high school years. “He’d watch other people practice and play and he believed he was doing things different and better than they were.

“I’ve been around high school golfers who practice because they feel like they have to. They think if they’re at the course it means they’re getting better than the next guy. But I think James would go to practice because he really wants to be there, and he really wants to know he’s preparing differently and he’s going to win more.”

Piot has always shown gratitude for the support he’s received over the years from high school buddies to his family and fans of both Catholic Central and MSU – who made up a huge section of the crowd that memorable Sunday afternoon at Oakmont.

“Mom and Dad have always been there, and I’ve been blessed to have the family and the support system I had before I even got to Michigan State,” he said. “I also had my high school coaches there (at Oakmont), Mike Anderson, Rick Williams (Detroit Catholic Central) and Jimmy Dewling, who are great mentors to me in life as well. It’s an extreme blessing to have some of the people in my life and seeing them (at Oakmont). Beyond golf, it was the coolest thing in the world.”

During his Catholic Central career, Piot was not one to dwell on “what could have been” after his MHSAA Finals individual title pursuits. He tied for sixth in Division 1 as a freshman, eighth as a sophomore, fifth as a junior and placed fourth alone as a senior in 2017.

“I think he understood the process better than anyone else – that one or two days of golf wasn’t going to define him. He’s got bigger aspirations than just one tournament," Dewling said. "He truly had an outlook and a perspective that’s so much greater than anything else. He’s so composed in high-pressure situations because he realizes his goals are still in front of him.

“James just plays with a chip on his shoulder, and I don’t think winning the U.S. Amateur is going to change that either. That’s the kind of competitive person he is.”

The people who know Piot well said he won’t change his life much in the short term at least, and will compete with the Spartans this fall and spring while finishing up his degree in finance. His Spartans have unfinished business as well, going after a Big Ten title.

“I just want to enjoy my last ride with the boys,” he said. “My school credit load might shift in the spring … but I’m looking forward to the college season and getting back out there with the Spartans. … We’re going to have a really good team and our goal this year is Big Ten champions, and hopefully we can do that.”

After receiving the U.S. Amateur trophy from the USGA officials, Piot gripped the golden hardware with a graceful respect, and turned it around a few times while looking it over. He was then asked if any past winners’ names stood out to him.

“I was just trying to see if it was real or not. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I honestly was like, did I just win the U.S. Am, in the back of my mind,” Piot answered. “I didn't really sit there and stare at all the names.”

Yet from now on and forever in history, James Piot’s name will be on that special trophy for others to search out and admire.

PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Catholic Central grad James Piot, now playing at Michigan State, keeps an eye on his shot during a 2020 Golf Association of Michigan event.  (Middle) Piot, second from right, stands with his Detroit Catholic Central team after the Shamrocks had clinched their third-straight Finals championship in 2017. (Top photo courtesy of Golf Association of Michigan; middle photo by HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)