Cancer Won’t Stop the Mission of These Coaches

By Gabriella Tapp

Two-time high school state champ (South Lyon)

Current player for U-D Mercy

The workload for a high school golf coach can be draining.

Now imagine taking on this challenge while fighting a disease which is the second leading cause of death in the United States — cancer. Both Tom Johnson of Gaylord and Phil Kerr of Montague have done exactly that. 

I have also witnessed it up close.

The job of being a high school golf head coach includes scheduling and running practices, attending coaching clinics, putting together a tournament schedule, and traveling with the players to those tournaments. It can easily become beyond time-consuming for what people call a part time job. 

Around the beginning of winter in late 2023, Gaylord boy’s golf coach Tom Johnson learned the shocking news that he had been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. He retired from teaching in 2007 but has since continued his passion for coaching high school golf, which he has done for the past 43 years. 

Shortly after his diagnosis, he found himself sitting in his chair at home, wondering what he was going to do. His doctors had warned him that people with his diagnosis don’t usually live very long. In that moment, he realized he only had one option—he was going to get up out of his chair and live every day to its fullest, continuing to do what he loves most. 

“At my age, I don’t need to be doing this, but I’m doing it because I love it,” Johnson said. 

For the last nine months, Johnson has been treatment free, meaning he is no longer undergoing chemotherapy or radiation. He has CT scans every three months to see how his cancer is progressing. 

“I’ll coach as long as my health allows me to,” said Johnson, who spends every opportunity he can practicing with the Gaylord boys’ golf team. Although they have faced some tough weather in northern Michigan this spring, the team has competed in multiple events for the 2025 season and was scheduled to compete in the Regional tournament hosted by Petoskey on May 27. 

To Johnson, however, coaching high school golf is about a lot more than just helping his players shoot low scores. 

“I enjoy working with kids, and if I can make these young boys into young men, teaching them not just about the game of golf but also the game of life, then I’ve done my job.” 

Reciprocating the same passion and energy back to their coach, Johnson says his players have been his biggest supporters throughout this journey. He believes his decision to stay active during this difficult time was the best choice he could have made for himself and his family. Rather than throwing in the towel and giving up coaching, he took the adversity head on, and it couldn’t be a more rewarding experience. Coaching a high school golf team does have its challenges, but for Johnson, the feeling of knowing that he is making an impact on his players’ lives greatly outweighs the difficulties. 

“That’s the way I look at it. I’m not just a golf coach, but I’m kind of like a life coach too. I love what I do, and I do what I love.”

Phil Kerr, the current Montague girls’ golf coach and former boys’ golf coach, shares a similar passion. He began coaching the boys’ golf team in 2014 and started the girls’ golf team at the school in 2016. 

In 2020, Kerr led the girls to a Division 4 State Championship. When he found out the following August that he had a malignant tumor in his shoulder, he was determined to continue coaching and help his team defend their title. With many of the state championship players returning for their final season, he knew right away what he had to do. 

“Even though I knew it was going to be crazy, we had been in a long journey together and knew that we could accomplish something pretty special,” Kerr said. “I knew that I was going to still be involved with the team and coaching as much as I could.”

Fortunately, Kerr received unwavering support from former player Megan Brown, who had played on the state championship team and received First Team All-State honors her senior year. She stepped in as an assistant coach, taking over for Kerr whenever he had to miss practice or a tournament for treatment. 

Throughout the 2021 season, he would undergo a week of chemotherapy, followed by two weeks off which he would spend coaching. The ability to keep coaching helped him remain motivated, giving him a reason to continue battling. It was his escape in a time of great uncertainty. 

Kerr’s hard work and dedication paid off, as the team did go on to become back-to-back state champions that year. As for Kerr, his treatment ended in June of 2022, and he has been in full remission ever since. He credits his passion and love for coaching for getting him through this tough time. He could have deemed it too difficult to coach through his treatment, but instead used it as encouragement to keep moving forward. 

“I feel like it was really a gift to me, to be able to keep coaching, and to stay motivated to keep fighting.”

For me personally, these stories hit close to home as my own high school golf coach at South Lyon, Dan Skatzka, faced a similar struggle with cancer. 

He was the most dedicated coach I have ever known. He gave every girl who tried out for the team a chance, and did everything he could to help his players improve. 

Most of the girls on the team didn’t even play golf until their freshman year, but many went on to play in the state championship or even play collegiate golf at the end of their four years – me included. This was only possible because Skatzka ran practices throughout the year. During the winter months, he would have the team hit golf balls in batting cages, working with a few girls at a time to improve their swings. As soon as it was warm out, he would have after school practices at the local course for anyone who was looking for some extra instruction. He would host two, week-long, all-day camps throughout the summer. 

This was his passion; it was what he truly loved to do. 

“My goal was to press forward and help them get to be the best they can be as quickly as possible,” Skatzka said. 

In 2021, however, he faced a new challenge. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer, undergoing radiation treatments almost daily throughout the season. Still, his commitment and enthusiasm never wavered. Like Kerr, his team was coming off a state title. This was during my junior year, and I can honestly say his drive to help the team be the greatest we could be had never been stronger. Now retired from coaching, his legacy with South Lyon girls’ golf lives on. 

One thing all three of these coaches have in common is their dedication and passion for coaching the sport throughout the adversity and obstacles they faced battling one of the deadliest diseases known to mankind. However, they didn’t just continue coaching because they felt like they had to. 

They took this challenge head on because it helped them through the challenge of battling cancer. It was an escape, and it was what they truly loved to do most. It was motivation to keep battling each day. 

Coaching golf is exactly what they needed in a time of personal hardship.