Regional Miss Leads TC Christian to End on Historic Finals Roll
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
April 16, 2021
As fall sports playoffs commenced, Traverse City Christian was seeking its first ever MHSAA Finals championship in a girls sport.
Then the Sabres’ volleyball team reached the Regional Finals, and thoughts of a state title were on the school’s collective mind.
That’s good.
But those hopes ended at the hands of Leland.
If you’re one of the Sabres, that’s bad.
Yes, but winter sports were on the horizon and girls and boys Regional bowling titles had been numerous in years past. And the girls team graduated only one member of the 2020 team that reached the Division 4 semifinals and fell 10 pins shy of the championship match.
That’s good.
Suddenly winter sports hit the pause button.
That was bad, and frankly sad for many student-athletes.
In February, the pause button was released and the Sabres bowling teams were ready again to pursue Division 4 titles.
Fast forward a bit and the girls managed to let the Regional title slip out of their hands, 52 pins short of champion Ishpeming Westwood. They lost a 90-pin lead in the final game.
Oh, supporters and the girls would agree that’s bad.
Not really, as the Sabres’ runner-up finish qualified them for the Finals.
That’s good, right?
Indeed! They topped Ishpeming in a semifinals rematch on their way to claiming the first girls sport Finals championship in the school’s history.
“We thought we were going to win one (Regional) this year,” said Brent Wheat, one of the Sabres’ three girls and boys bowling coaches and the school’s baseball coach. “We were in the lead (at the girls Regional) and the individual mental side of things kind of took over that last game and got in their head a little bit, and it impacted the outcome for the team in the end.
“We gave up the lead, and I think that was a big growing lesson for them, and it was a lesson the coaches really hammered in that next week before the state finals.”
Kaia Bebe, Rebekah Burch, Hannah Elenbaas, Brooke Smith, Eva Wendel and Ella Wendel were the comprised the history-making team. Along with Wheat, coaches Andy Radtke and Judy Radtke are also in the history books.
TC Christian’s boys bowlers did win their Regional and nearly upset top-seeded and eventual Finals champion St. Charles in the opening round of that tournament’s match play, coming up 21 pins shy of the victory. The Sabres’ Hunter Haldaman, Jeremy Hansen and Ella Wendel also competed in the next day’s Singles Finals, with Wendell finishing runner-up and Haldeman reaching the semifinals as both made the all-state first team.
“It was quite a year for TCCS bowling – two conference titles, a Regional boys title and a girls state championship,” noted coach Andy Radtke. “It's shown them what hard work, teamwork, and a never-give-up attitude can accomplish.”
The girls team’s character is what impresses their coaches the most.
“They encourage each other, and they are respectful to their coaches and opponents,” shared coach Judy Radtke, who also teaches at TC Christian. “It was wonderful for me to have several coaches from other teams at the Finals tell me how much they enjoyed bowling with our girls and how nice they were.
“As coaches, we seek to use bowling to help build character in our players, and I'm thankful they were able to demonstrate that on such a big stage.”
The three coaches, who are all related, aren’t really surprised the girls became Finals champions in less than 10 years of competing.
“Andy, my father-in-law, and I talked about it after we won,” Wheat said. “We used to go down there (to the Finals) and look at these teams and go ‘Man, I wonder what that feels like to be that team that wins.
“‘I wonder what it feels like to have that program that can compete at that level,’ and all of sudden we’re sitting in that position,” he continued. “It is hard to process.”
Mounting successes are what Andy Radtke points to for the real lack of surprise. Traverse City Christian’s girls had won Regional championships three of the last four seasons entering this one.
“I’m very pleased, but not surprised,” he said. “During the 2019-20 season they were conference and Regional champions.
“They also did very well at states – finally losing in the semifinals in a very close match,” he continued. “I’m convinced that experience served as a springboard to this year winning the championship.”
Christian’s small enrollment, fewer than 75 students in the high school, is a source of pride for Judy Radtke.
“To be able to successfully compete against schools that are significantly larger than ours feels really good,” she said. “Our school has had several girls teams, in all sports, do well in postseason play.
“Being able to be the first team to win that Finals trophy is incredibly exciting.”
Wheat believes the lessons learned in the second-place Regional finish led to tremendous growth.
“They really buckled down and performed above their years from what we have seen mentally,” he said. “They seemed much more grown up in their competing.
“Being able to control the mental side of it at that level is the difference in champions versus just coming up a bit short,” he explained. “They were able to work through it largely from what had happened the week before.”
The Division 4 Finals title has the school’s athletic director Micah Gallegos beaming with pride for both the girls and boys bowling teams.
“We have great kids who work really hard to develop themselves and their game,” he said. “It is evident that we have created a recipe for success.”
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) Traverse City Christian’s Ella Wendel finds her shot this season. (Middle) Hannah Elenbaas, with the Sabres’ Adam Rasmussen to her left, sends a shot rolling. (Below) Traverse City Christian celebrates its championship March 26 at Canton’s Super Bowl. (Photos courtesy of the Traverse City Christian bowling program.)
D2 Winners Follow Through on Title Plans
March 4, 2017
By Tim Robinson
Special for Second Half
CANTON — The Division 2 boys bowling championship came down to the final frame Friday, and when it was over, Lowell had completed a three-year plan that culminated in the school’s first MHSAA title.
Trailing by 46 pins after Baker games, the Red Arrows turned it on during regular play, outscoring Eaton Rapids by 90 pins to take the 1,117-1,073 victory at Super Bowl in Canton.
“It came down to the end in every match,” Lowell coach Chris Clark said.
Lowell senior Logan Smith said when the Red Arrows began the 10th frame in regular play, they realized they were close to winning.
“A couple of their guys had open frames in the ninth, and all of us had marks, which was huge for us,” he said. “But it came down to the last guy before it hit us. It was amazing. I cannot believe it.”
Lowell’s success was the culmination of a plan put forth when Clark took over as coach three years ago.
“The first year,” senior Ben Stewart said, “we had the idea that we had some kid who could bowl pretty well. Let’s just make the state meet. Last year, our plan was we knew we could get there, let’s make it to match play.”
The Red Arrows fell just short of that second aspiration, but had a source of motivation this season.
“The third year would have been the plan to take home the trophy, and this year we came through on our goal,” Stewart said.
Lowell was the No. 3 seed after the qualifying round, while Eaton Rapids was No. 8. The Red Arrows downed No. 6 St. Clair Shores Lakeshore in the Quarterfinals and No. 7 Tecumseh in the Semifinals.
Eaton Rapids, the No. 8 seed, rolled past top seed Flint Kearsley in the quarters and No. 4 Byron Center in the Semifinals.
“This whole year, we had great scores all around,” Stewart said. “We took first in (the Ottawa-Kent) conference, we took first at Regionals. I think from the start, we had this mindset that our whole year was for this weekend.”
The Lowell team’s reaction was subdued in the moments after the win was completed.
“If we were in the other team’s shoes, we wouldn’t want them cheering and screaming in your face,” Stewart said. “You have to have respect for the people you’re bowling against, especially if they make it as far as you did.”
The Lowell bowlers celebrated by staying in their rooms and being together as a team.
“We didn’t sleep much last night,” senior Logan Smith said Saturday. “We all roomed together, having fun and cracking jokes. It was a fun time.
“It was pretty unbelievable,” he said of winning the Division 2 title. “My whole life, I never expected to be a state champ. It was something I never expected to get.”
For the Flint Kearsley girls, winning MHSAA championships is something they’ve come to expect. The Hornets’ title-worthy performance Friday was their fourth in a row and fifth in the last six years.
“It never gets old, that’s for sure,” Kearsley coach Robert Ploof said.
His team held off a game Bay City John Glenn squad in the Final, 1,299-1,217.
“Their coaches did a fabulous job,” Ploof said of the John Glenn team. “We bowled that team a couple of times earlier in the season, and they were nowhere as good as they were (Friday). They pushed us right to the end.”
The Hornets won, in part, due to a key substitution in the Final.
Karlee Griffin, who is Kearsley’s No. 2 bowler, was having an off day and feared she would hurt the team. So she asked Ploof to replace her in the lineup, giving Mary Wheeler, a sophomore, a chance to step in.
“I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself to pull it any further,” Griffin said. “I wanted my team to win, and I didn’t have the faith in myself that I could pull through, and who knows what would have happened?”
Wheeler stepped into the moment and thrived.
“She came in and threw a big double that helped us win,” Ploof said.
It’s a group of Hornets that Ploof says gets along with each other like no team he’s had in 12 years at Kearsley.
“There’s no drama,” he said. “They’re having a good time and they enjoy it, and they fight for each other.”
A strong feeder program helps, too: Kearsley’s middle school program has five teams, and the junior varsity also thrives.
“That’s what you’ve got to have,” Ploof said. “We’re pretty fortunate as far as that goes.”
Click for full girls results and full boys results.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lowell’s boys pose with their MHSAA championship trophy. (Middle) Flint Kearsley’s girls, holding up their trophy from winning a Division 2 Regional last weekend.