Title IX at 50: Coach Clegg Sets Championship Standard at Grand Blanc
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 26, 2021
Grand Blanc’s ninth-place finish at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Girls Golf Final on Oct. 16 was its third-straight top-10 placing at the championship tournament, and the Bobcats remain second in MHSAA girls golf history with eight Finals championships.
Judy Clegg played a founding role in setting that standard nearly five decades ago.
Clegg became Grand Blanc’s first girls golf coach in 1975, leading the team to a fifth-place finish that spring in the third MHSAA Girls Golf Finals – when all 83 teams were assigned to one “Open Class” and nine advanced to the championship tournament.
A decade later, her 1985 Bobcats won the first of those eight Finals championships – with girls golf still played in one Open Class – and she led them to a runner-up finish in 1986, another Open Class championship in 1988, and then a Class A runner-up finish in 1990 and Class A title in 1991.
Over 21 seasons, Clegg guided Grand Blanc to a 243-72 match record, eight league and seven Regional championships before retiring in 1995. She was named to the Michigan Interscholastic Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Michigan High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2006.
The Grand Blanc View reported in detail her pioneering work with the program when she was inducted into the MHSCA Hall in 2006. (The statistics above were taken from her bio from the MHSCA Hall of Fame.)
Second Half's weekly Title IX Celebration posts are sponsored by Michigan Army National Guard.
Previous Title IX at 50 Spotlights
Oct. 19: Rockford Girls Set Pace, Hundreds After Have Continued to Chase - Read
Oct. 12: Bedford Volleyball Pioneer Continues Blazing Record-Setting Trail - Read
Oct. 5: Warner Paved Way to Legend Status with Record Rounds - Read
Sept. 28: Taylor Kennedy Gymnasts Earn Fame as 1st Champions - Read
Sept. 21: Portage Northern Star Byington Becomes Play-by-Play Pioneer - Read
Sept. 14: Guerra/Groat Legacy Continues to Serve St. Philip Well - Read
Sept. 7: Best-Ever Conversation Must Include Leland's Glass - Read
Aug. 31: We Will Celebrate Many Who Paved the Way - Read
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Blanc coach Judy Clegg (front row, second from left) serves on the MHSAA's Golf Committee in 1986. (Middle) Clegg (back row, far right) stands with her 1988 Finals championship team. (MHSAA File Photos.)
Banner Day For Lutheran North Golfers
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 15, 2022
EAST LANSING - With his team tied with Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood after the first round of the MHSAA Division 3 Girls Golf Finals, Macomb Lutheran North coach Alex Schlump didn’t need to deliver a big pep talk to his team going into the second and last day.
Instead, it was just a simple message he’s preached to his team all year.
“The focus was to play your own game,” Schlump said of what he told his girls. “We had to be mentally stronger than everybody else and we knew we were. That’s been our strength all season long, whether it’s been playing in the rain or playing in 40-degree weather.”
That mental strength was the difference for Lutheran North, which captured its first state title since 2017 on a chilly and windy day at Forest Akers East.
After Cranbrook and Lutheran North shot identical scores of 336 on the first day, Lutheran North was six shots better on the second day, shooting a 332 to finish with a final total of 668.
Cranbrook finished as the runner-up with a final score of 674, while Grosse Ile, which entered the day three shots back, took third with a 677.
Grand Rapids South Christian (682) and Grand Rapids Catholic Central (695) rounded out the top-5.
Leading the way for Lutheran North was junior Lauren Timpf, who followed up a first round score of 70 with a 72 in the second round to finish as the medalist with a 2-under par score of 142.
“I have played this course many times, and just coming into the week, I tried to give myself as many birdie opportunities as I could,” Timpf said. “Just take advantage of the short par-5 and getting there in two. Just really playing aggressive to get those birdie opportunities.”
Flanking Timpf was sophomore Saige Rothey, who tied for 13th with a two-day total of 163 (78-85).
Grosse Ile senior Lily Bargamian was the individual runner-up, finishing seven shots behind Timpf with a 149 (75-74).
Charlotte senior Hannah Robinson was third with a 150 (75-75), while Grand Rapids Catholic Central sophomore Ava Wisinski and Grand Rapids Christian freshman Lillian O’Grady tied for fourth at 153.
The highest finisher for runner-up Cranbrook was junior Mackenzie Behnke, who tied for ninth at 160.
Cranbrook was the defending state champion, but head coach John Minnich wasn’t unhappy at all to at least come away with a runner-up trophy given he called it a rebuilding year for his squad with no seniors.
“We play in the same conference in the Catholic League that Lutheran North plays in, and we’ve played them several times this year,” Minnich said. “Every match and every tournament we’ve played with them has been neck-and-neck. To be honest, they’ve had more firepower than we’ve had all year. Our players were more consistent though. We didn’t make the big numbers. We didn’t avoid them this tournament. We made a few too many big numbers.”
In the end, that proved costly for a Lutheran North team that beat out several larger schools to win the Macomb County championship earlier in the year, and now has another state championship trophy to add to its case.
“We knew we had so many good players and talent coming back,” Schlump said. “We have a team that’s mentally strong,” he said. “That is something we knew we could do with the group of girls we had.
PHOTOS (Top) Lauren Timpf wins her second consecutive MHSAA medalist honors. (Middle) Division 3 team champions, Macomb Lutheran North. (Photos by James Traynor.)