LUDINGTON \u2014 Although baseball was Steve Klemm\u2019s first love, sometimes life has other plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad was a ball player, and so we were in baseball,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI was a pitcher and shortstop in grade school and middle school. \u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoward Jensen, who was my gym teacher at the time, talked me into playing tennis and trying to do it left-handed. \u2026 As it turned out, I really enjoyed tennis and started getting pretty good at it. So I stuck with tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many Ludington tennis players in that era, hitting against the wall is a way of life, and Klemm is no different.<\/p>\n
\u201cIronically, that\u2019s how I started,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have a tennis wall. I used to hit against the wall at the junior high. That\u2019s how I learned to play tennis. My right arm is in a sling, and I\u2019m just dropping the ball and hitting against the wall, trying to figure out if I can hit left-handed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery kid starts out against the wall, you challenge the wall, and you can\u2019t really beat the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Klemm did manage to register one win against the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only beat the wall once in my life,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI 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, \u2018I finally beat the wall.\u2019 And I went home.\u201d<\/p>\n
That drive led Klemm to figure out his left hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest problem I had was serving and throwing with my left hand. It was kind of awkward,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once things came together, Klemm\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a really good team,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the regional championship on the line, Klemm had to face a familiar opponent \u2013 his younger brother Mike.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time, all of the singles were in one draw, and all of the doubles were in one draw,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cSo I ended up having to play Mike in the regional finals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pressure to win wasn\u2019t a problem for Klemm, especially with his experience against his opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of fun, actually,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klemm also used his tennis skills to find his way into golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cJim Chinworth was the No. 1 player on the golf team and was a friend of mine,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cThe summer after our sophomore year, he wanted to play tennis. So, I said, \u2018I\u2019ll give you tennis lessons, you give me golf lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chinworth joined the tennis team, and Klemm added golf to his repertoire.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ended up playing on the tennis team,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cHe gave me golf lessons and got me out playing, and I picked up the game pretty quickly. It\u2019s a lot easier than tennis because the ball\u2019s not moving and you don\u2019t have to run to hit it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn tennis, you have to read your opponent\u2019s swing and spin and depth, and you have to move,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cAnd 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cJim 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasketball, I was a little disappointed actually,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI 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\u2019t shoot well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those days where we just couldn\u2019t 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\u2019s the one that I think got away.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the game progressed, Klemm realized it was just one of those days where things weren\u2019t going to go their way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still remember some of the plays,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI stole the ball, and we got out on the break, and one of our players who never misses, ended up missing. It\u2019s like, you kind of look down and say, \u2018It\u2019s not our day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout it all, Klemm\u2019s parents, Norman and Mary Lou, helped keep him grounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was always the optimist,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cShe was always pushing, \u2018You\u2019ve got to think you can do it. My dad was always pushing, \u2018If you do it, do it right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduating from Ludington High School, Klemm found his way to Michigan State University and eventually the Spartans\u2019 tennis team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a 64-player tournament, Klemm came out with the top spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI got on the practice team my freshman year, and so I got to play these guys that had won high school state championships.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Klemm\u2019s sophomore season, he was No. 5 singles for MSU. By his junior year, he was sitting at No. 3 singles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a little bit of nerves,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cSome 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to meet them because I was the captain, so we met at captain\u2019s meetings,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cGetting to watch them compete and work out was just a huge amount of fun. It was a super time for sports at Michigan State.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Klemm progressed past the Ludington tennis courts, he still held on to the lessons that coach Jensen taught him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s step-by-step,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cNobody, 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. \u2026 You trust the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it may seem like a cliche, Klemm believes it with all of his heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely true,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cIt\u2019s worked for me and it\u2019s worked for a lot of other kids. I still use that when I\u2019m coaching tennis. It\u2019s a big part with all these kids. \u2026 You\u2019ve got to trust the process and work your butt off.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a really good experience at the chemical engineering program at Michigan State,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cIt was No. 1 in the nation at the time. They asked me to come back on the board after my career developed. \u2026 It\u2019s been a great experience coming back and working with students, working with teachers, and making sure they maintain a really high academic standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun to watch the kids develop their technical skills over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
He still receives calls from the students at MSU.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like it because I get to stay current in the advanced technologies and research that is going on,\u201d Klemm said.<\/p>\n
Once his children came of age, Klemm began coaching them on the tennis court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started (as an assistant coach) when my oldest son was a freshman,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cWhen 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Klemm has a passion for competition, the coaching game was something he thoroughly enjoyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoaching the kids was a lot of fun,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI really enjoyed that. I got to hang out with them and their buddies and help them develop their game and win some state championships.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019ve got probably 20 second-place finishes in there,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cSo we\u2019re in the top three, pretty much, every year in the state in our division.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klemm also credits the lessons he learned from Howard Jensen for his success in the coaching ranks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoward was a force of nature, and he really taught you how to compete,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cHe taught you how to believe in yourself, and he would get totally ticked if you ever said you can\u2019t do that. He would tell you, \u2018I don\u2019t want to hear the word can\u2019t from you ever again.\u2019 He pushed kids to do their best.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to put your heart in it, and you\u2019ve got to put the work in. He also taught us that doing things half-assed just didn\u2019t work. You had to go for it and push yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Klemm is still coaching, once he turned 55, he returned to the tennis court as an athlete. He won Men\u2019s 4.5 Senior Tennis League state titles in 2009 and 2010. He was runner-up in 2011 and 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a lot of fun because you run into guys you played in college,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI didn\u2019t 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. \u2026 It was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klemm still coaches at Forest Hills Northern; however, he finds himself back where it all started from time to time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy to see tennis making a comeback in Ludington. \u2026 In the summertime, I stop over there, and I\u2019ll hit at the Howard O. (Jensen) wall,\u201d Klemm said. \u201cI think that was a fitting tribute. I\u2019m really impressed with the tennis facility, and the Schoenherr family was extremely generous and put together a first-class tennis facility for Ludington.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUDINGTON \u2014 Although baseball was Steve Klemm\u2019s first love, sometimes life has other plans. \u201cMy dad was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[205,2101,8592,8593,50,28],"class_list":["post-21797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-baseball","tag-golf","tag-ludington","tag-michigan","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}