LUDINGTON — Although baseball was Steve Klemm’s first love, sometimes life has other plans.
“My dad was a ball player, and so we were in baseball,” Klemm said. “I was a pitcher and shortstop in grade school and middle school. … In eighth grade, I was a starting pitcher and undefeated in Little League. I was 5-0. I tore a tendon in my arm while pitching. So my baseball career kind of came to an end.”
After sustaining an injury to his throwing arm, Klemm learned to play tennis with his left hand from legendary Ludington coach Howard O. Jensen. The rest is history.
“Howard Jensen, who was my gym teacher at the time, talked me into playing tennis and trying to do it left-handed. … As it turned out, I really enjoyed tennis and started getting pretty good at it. So I stuck with tennis.”
On Saturday, June 27, Klemm will be inducted into the historic ranks of the Mason County Sports Hall of Fame at 6 p.m. at the Lincoln Hills Golf Club.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” Klemm said. “I’m really excited about it and glad to see that people are still recognizing the tennis heritage there. Because I think it was an extremely impressive group that came through in the 70s.”
For many Ludington tennis players in that era, hitting against the wall is a way of life, and Klemm is no different.
“Ironically, that’s how I started,” Klemm said. “They didn’t have a tennis wall. I used to hit against the wall at the junior high. That’s how I learned to play tennis. My right arm is in a sling, and I’m just dropping the ball and hitting against the wall, trying to figure out if I can hit left-handed.
“Every kid starts out against the wall, you challenge the wall, and you can’t really beat the wall.”
However, Klemm did manage to register one win against the wall.
“I only beat the wall once in my life,” Klemm said. “I hit so many shots, so hard against the wall that the ball popped. So I declared that a victory. I squeezed the ball; it had a blowout in it, and I just kind of smiled. I said, ‘I finally beat the wall.’ And I went home.”
That drive led Klemm to figure out his left hand.
“The biggest problem I had was serving and throwing with my left hand. It was kind of awkward,” Klemm said. “I’m kind of ambidextrous, so that helped. Howard was the football coach as well, so he would have me throw a football left-handed. So I could learn the throwing motion left-handed. Which is what you need for serving left-handed.”
Once things came together, Klemm’s game improved immensely. By his senior year, he was a regional and conference champion in 1975. He was also part of a team regional title and a team conference title.
“We had a really good team,” Klemm said. “We were kind of young. I think I was the only senior on that team. We had a really good group of freshmen, which included my brother Mike.”
With the regional championship on the line, Klemm had to face a familiar opponent – his younger brother Mike.
“At that time, all of the singles were in one draw, and all of the doubles were in one draw,” Klemm said. “So I ended up having to play Mike in the regional finals.”
The pressure to win wasn’t a problem for Klemm, especially with his experience against his opponent.
“It was a lot of fun, actually,” Klemm said. “I knew his game. He played the No. 2 seed in the semis, beat him in a really good match, and got to the finals. It was an easy final for me because I played him so many times, and he was my baby brother. I enjoyed that match, it was a good match, but I pretty much knew I had the upper hand.”
Klemm also used his tennis skills to find his way into golf.
“Jim Chinworth was the No. 1 player on the golf team and was a friend of mine,” Klemm said. “The summer after our sophomore year, he wanted to play tennis. So, I said, ‘I’ll give you tennis lessons, you give me golf lessons.”
Chinworth joined the tennis team, and Klemm added golf to his repertoire.
“He ended up playing on the tennis team,” Klemm said. “He gave me golf lessons and got me out playing, and I picked up the game pretty quickly. It’s a lot easier than tennis because the ball’s not moving and you don’t have to run to hit it.”
During his senior season on the golf course, Klemm won the top medalist honor in the conference and was a part of the conference champion team.
“In tennis, you have to read your opponent’s swing and spin and depth, and you have to move,” Klemm said. “And you do all of that while the ball is in the air. So when you get to golf, the ball just sits there and looks at you.
“Jim and I played almost every day for two years in the summer. By the end of my senior year, I was playing pretty well, and I ended up winning the conference medalist title. And we ended up winning the conference championship in golf.”
While Klemm experienced immense success in multiple sports, his senior basketball season still stands out. Despite winning a conference and district title in 1975 on the hardwood, he feels like that team could have gone much further.
“Basketball, I was a little disappointed actually,” Klemm said. “I thought we had a good enough team to win a state championship. We had a bad day in the semifinals against Mount Pleasant. They had a good team, and we just didn’t shoot well.
“It’s one of those days where we just couldn’t find the basket. We got it close a couple of times. I think we had a solid team and could have competed for the title. That’s the one that I think got away.”
As the game progressed, Klemm realized it was just one of those days where things weren’t going to go their way.
“I still remember some of the plays,” Klemm said. “I stole the ball, and we got out on the break, and one of our players who never misses, ended up missing. It’s like, you kind of look down and say, ‘It’s not our day.’”
Throughout it all, Klemm’s parents, Norman and Mary Lou, helped keep him grounded.
“She was always the optimist,” Klemm said. “She was always pushing, ‘You’ve got to think you can do it. My dad was always pushing, ‘If you do it, do it right.’”
After graduating from Ludington High School, Klemm found his way to Michigan State University and eventually the Spartans’ tennis team.
“I had offers to play at other schools like Central and Western, but I wanted to go to Michigan State because of their chemical engineering program,” Klemm said. “I talked to the coach about walking on and trying out. They had a freshman tournament you had to play, and the winner got a tryout for the team.”
In a 64-player tournament, Klemm came out with the top spot.
“I beat two guys that had beaten me in high school, so I felt like I was moving along and had a chance to get better at a higher level,” Klemm said. “I got on the practice team my freshman year, and so I got to play these guys that had won high school state championships.”
By Klemm’s sophomore season, he was No. 5 singles for MSU. By his junior year, he was sitting at No. 3 singles.
“There was a little bit of nerves,” Klemm said. “Some of these guys I looked up to as legends. They turned out to be really nice guys and helped me with my game. I got to play with them every day and picked up a few pointers. As my career developed, I started competing with them and beating some of them. That really elevated my confidence level and made me a little hungrier.”
In 1979, when he graduated, he was the No. 1 singles player and a team captain. Which allowed him to meet MSU legends like Magic Johnson, Kirk Gibson, and Greg Kelser.
“I got to meet them because I was the captain, so we met at captain’s meetings,” Klemm said. “Getting to watch them compete and work out was just a huge amount of fun. It was a super time for sports at Michigan State.”
Although Klemm progressed past the Ludington tennis courts, he still held on to the lessons that coach Jensen taught him.
“It’s step-by-step,” Klemm said. “Nobody, no matter how good your natural talents are, gets good without really working hard. You build it in blocks. You build it in steps. Each year I was able to add something to my game and move up a step. … You trust the process.”
While it may seem like a cliche, Klemm believes it with all of his heart.
“It’s absolutely true,” Klemm said. “It’s worked for me and it’s worked for a lot of other kids. I still use that when I’m coaching tennis. It’s a big part with all these kids. … You’ve got to trust the process and work your butt off.”
That process also took Klemm to the heights of the chemical engineering world. He finished his career in consumer products, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, doing research, development, and manufacturing as the Chief Science Officer at a nanoparticle pharmaceutical company in Texas, which allowed him to give back to MSU.
“I had a really good experience at the chemical engineering program at Michigan State,” Klemm said. “It was No. 1 in the nation at the time. They asked me to come back on the board after my career developed. … It’s been a great experience coming back and working with students, working with teachers, and making sure they maintain a really high academic standard.
“It’s fun to watch the kids develop their technical skills over the years.”
He still receives calls from the students at MSU.
“I like it because I get to stay current in the advanced technologies and research that is going on,” Klemm said.
Once his children came of age, Klemm began coaching them on the tennis court.
“I started (as an assistant coach) when my oldest son was a freshman,” Klemm said. “When he graduated, my youngest son started playing. So I coached another four years with him. Then I just got adopted by a bunch of players and parents and just kept coaching.”
While Klemm has a passion for competition, the coaching game was something he thoroughly enjoyed.
“Coaching the kids was a lot of fun,” Klemm said. “I really enjoyed that. I got to hang out with them and their buddies and help them develop their game and win some state championships.”
While at Forest Hills Northern as an assistant coach, Klemm has been a part of 18 state championships, 48 conference titles, and 43 regional titles.
“And we’ve got probably 20 second-place finishes in there,” Klemm said. “So we’re in the top three, pretty much, every year in the state in our division.”
Klemm also credits the lessons he learned from Howard Jensen for his success in the coaching ranks.
“Howard was a force of nature, and he really taught you how to compete,” Klemm said. “He taught you how to believe in yourself, and he would get totally ticked if you ever said you can’t do that. He would tell you, ‘I don’t want to hear the word can’t from you ever again.’ He pushed kids to do their best.
“You’ve got to put your heart in it, and you’ve got to put the work in. He also taught us that doing things half-assed just didn’t work. You had to go for it and push yourself.”
While Klemm is still coaching, once he turned 55, he returned to the tennis court as an athlete. He won Men’s 4.5 Senior Tennis League state titles in 2009 and 2010. He was runner-up in 2011 and 2012.
“That was a lot of fun because you run into guys you played in college,” Klemm said. “I didn’t play when I was younger because I was busy with work, raising a couple of boys, and coaching. But when I was 55, I got to play in the 55-and-over division. All of a sudden, I was young again. … It was a lot of fun.”
Klemm still coaches at Forest Hills Northern; however, he finds himself back where it all started from time to time.
“I’m really happy to see tennis making a comeback in Ludington. … In the summertime, I stop over there, and I’ll hit at the Howard O. (Jensen) wall,” Klemm said. “I think that was a fitting tribute. I’m really impressed with the tennis facility, and the Schoenherr family was extremely generous and put together a first-class tennis facility for Ludington.”