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Photo by Jerry Hinnen
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Milan girls' golf team members Tracie Rasmussen (left), Lindsey Lammers, Genessa Bower, Raven LaPointe, Amber Jeffries, Amber Marks, Jamie Barnette and Heather LaBelle enjoy their new Taylor-Made clubs after Friday's practice. The clubs were provided free by Taylor-Made at the request of rock star Kid Rock after the team's clubs were stolen.
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Last Tuesday afternoon, in the wake of the robbery of six of her fledgling team's golf bags and clubs, Milan girls' golf coach Claire Neff believed the program "might be finished."
Just a few days later, Neff's team wasn't just still very much in existence, it had become a national story after Detroit-based rock star Kid Rock helped arrange for the Taylor-Made golf company to replace the team's stolen clubs free of charge.
"It's overwhelming," Neff said. "I never would have thought something like this would have been possible."
Rock's involvement — and the charitable twist on his hard-partying rock star persona — helped land the Big Reds in media outlets ranging from Detroit TV stations to the Web site of CNN to the pages of USA Today.
"We got one call from a station in Los Angeles. I don't think they realize I'm still trying to teach," Neff said with a laugh.
But the biggest, most surprising call for Neff came last Wednesday afternoon.
She had walked outside her Ypsilanti apartment May 1 to find her SUV's rear windshield smashed and six of the team's golf bags stolen. A brief report on the team's predicament appeared the next day in The Detroit Free Press.
Rock, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, read the report and phoned famous professional golfer and good friend John Daly, who suggested Rock contact his corporate sponsor Taylor-Made. At Rock's and Daly's suggestion, Taylor-Made agreed to furnish the Big Reds with custom-made new clubs, at no cost to the team. Rock's next call was to a shocked and joyful Neff.
"I couldn't believe it," she said. "My class asked who it was. I told them 'Kid Rock' and a few of them just said 'Oh my God!' It was so strange."
Neff said she wasn't a fan of Rock's (until now) and might have wondered if the call was a hoax — that is, if Taylor-Made hadn't called just moments later asking for the proper measurements for the girls' clubs.
No less excited by the development was the golf team itself, which is in the midst of the program's inaugural season and faced the possibility of having to drop out of last Monday's Monroe County Invitational until Rock and Taylor-Made stepped in.
"It's amazing, to think that Kid Rock cares about people in Milan," said freshman Lindsey Lammers. "It's good to know ... that now we can all go out and just play our game."
"It just makes us want to work that much harder," Heather LaBelle said about taking advantage of the opportunity. The only disappointment for LaBelle, who arrived for Friday's practice wearing a Kid Rock T-shirt, and said she owns "all his CDs," was that Rock had not been able to deliver the clubs in person.
"I wanted to meet him so bad!" she said, smiling.
As surprising and helpful as the generosity from Rock, who told Neff he wished for Daly and Taylor-Made to receive credit for the new clubs, proved to be, just as meaningful — if not more — to Neff was the support she and the team received from Milan High School and the Milan community. Even before Rock's call, Neff said she already had received more than 40 offers for donations last Wednesday morning alone.
"I knew this was the kind of community I'm living and working in," Neff said. "Every teacher in the school has offered shoes, clubs, anything we'd need. We had one person who was unemployed write us a check for $25. It's amazing. We're so thankful."
Donation offers came from across the Michigan high school golfing community as well, with Southgate-Anderson High offering used clubs, Ann Arbor Huron coach Katie Loy promising help and calls coming from as far as Traverse City. Detroit Golf and Sports provided new putters for the team, with owner Tony Foresi arriving Friday to donate them in person.
Also arriving on Friday were the new Taylor-Made clubs, as well-built as any on the market, Neff said. Amid the buzz of TV reporters and cameras Friday afternoon at their home course of Pine View in Ypsilanti, the Big Reds tore into the boxes and put the clubs through their first swings.
It was a sight Neff was thrilled to see, even as she was already looking forward to her team leaving the cameras, the reporters, and the story behind and returning to the course.
"It's like Christmas," she said. "But I'm ready for Monday. I'm ready to get back to golf."
Coverage of Milan's performance in the Monroe County Invitational can be found in today's C section.
Video associated with this story is available at www.heritage.com.
Staff Writer Jerry Hinnen can be contacted at 429-7380 or jhinnen@heritage.com.
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