Mt. Pleasant’s Hall of Fame softball coach Ted McIntyre steps down after 44 seasons in the dugout
Softball in the Middle of the Mitten is going to have a completely new look next year, for the first time in four decades.
A month after legendary Central Michigan University softball coach Margo Jonker announced she was retiring from the dugout, the OTHER softball institution in town, Mt. Pleasant High School’s Hall of Fame coach, Ted McIntyre, has also decided to wrap up his career at the end of this spring’s season.
Jonker took over the Central Michigan softball program as head coach in 1980, five years after McIntyre — who began his coaching career as a football assistant, a job he now holds again, on the staff of his son, Jason, the Oiler head coach — started the Mt. Pleasant program.
Like Jonker, who went into the 2019 season as the sixth-winningest coach in NCAA Division I history, and 10th all-time (she finished with 1,268 wins), McIntyre is among the elite of his peer group. Inducted into the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2000, McIntyre compiled a record of 1,081-414 in 44 seasons, winning a state title in 1993 to go along with 17 conference titles, 13 district titles, four regionals and four appearances in the semifinals.
McIntyre is one of just nine softball coaches in Michigan high school history to go over the 1,000-win plateau. Only Warren Regina’s Diane Laffey, Frankenmuth’s Brad Walraven, Saginaw Swan Valley’s Tom Kennelly, Stevensville Lakeshore’s Denny Dock and Lakeland’s Joe Alsup have more wins than McIntyre.
For more on McIntyre’s retirement, read the story from the MT. PLEASANT MORNING SUN.
[Photo courtesy Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun.]
