East Jordan's Meg Kitson calling it a career after 34 years

EAST JORDAN — Teenagers aren’t always too keen on listing to the advice of their parents.

But, longtime East Jordan softball coach Meg Kitson is glad she did all those years back in her own high school days. It kept her in the game, built a life-long love and eventually changed the lives of so many around the East Jordan community.

“I remember my freshman year saying to my mom, ‘I don’t think I’m going to play softball.’” said Kitson. “My mom then said, ‘Oh, you’re playing softball. You’re pretty good.’”

That was Kitson’s first year of high school while growing up in Charlevoix. In the years since, Kitson's had a standout collegiate and amateur career, was elected into a softball hall of fame and spent the last 34 years coaching, including 30 as the EJ varsity head coach.

While she questioned her mom at the time, she’s since come around to believing maybe she was right.

“Sometimes moms aren’t the best judge, but in this case, my mom knew what she was talking about,” said Kitson with a laugh. “It was a really good fit and it seemed like no matter where my softball journey took me, the shoe always fit.”

While her love of the game remains the same after all these years, the reins of the East Jordan program will be passed on to someone else. Kitson, who retired from teaching in 2018, recently called it a career coaching the Red Devils, making 2023 her final season.

“It was a really good run,” she said. “It was time. The time was just right and when everything is right, right is good. I had a good ride.”

When Kitson stayed in the game of softball after her mom’s encouragement, she later went on to become the first-ever all-state softball player from Charlevoix.

She'd later start every game at Alma College during her college days and had a lengthy career within the Petoskey women’s fastpitch league, which included winning a 1996 national championship.

In 2009, Kitson was elected into the USA Softball of Michigan Hall of Fame, joining Boyne Falls’ Pam Hodge that same year as a player-elect.

“All these fun and incredible things happened around softball,” said Kitson. “I just wanted to share my love for the game with the kids and my respect for the game.”

She first did that through four years as a varsity assistant in 1990 and later as junior varsity head coach with East Jordan. After that, she moved onto the varsity in 1994 and went on to help the Red Devils to seven district championships and three Lake Michigan Conference titles.

After adding to that district title list this season, Kitson closed her career with a 433-395-5 record.

Through it all, Kitson leaned on her style and stayed with it. Much like her husband, Greg, who spent over 20 years leading the Red Devil football program before retiring a year ago, she focused on the fundamentals over the big speeches.

“I was never really a ra, ra coach,” said Kitson. “Those coaches are great, but I was more of a, ‘We’re going to be the smartest team out there,’ kind of coach. Because of that, we were going to win games we shouldn’t win and we weren’t going to lose games because we’re not smart. That’s a hard way to coach because it’s not always fun for the kids.”

Though the high school coaching duties will be passed on, Kitson hopes to stay on as a middle school volleyball and basketball coach, where she loves teaching the basics of the games to kids.

She’ll also stay connected through her game day announcing for Red Devil football and basketball games.

“I hope that I’ll get to do it until I don’t want to anymore and who knows how long that’ll be,” she added. “Even if I can’t have a microphone in front of my face, I’ll still be a fan.”

Kitson’s color loyalty changed from the Rayder maroon growing up, to Red Devil red though and through all these years. East Jordan has been a community she’s felt so much love for since.

“East Jordan is just filled with nice people,” she said. “The people are just genuinely caring. It doesn’t matter if they’re super rich, super poor, they will give you the shirt off their back. Fierce competitors. Sometimes our crowds get riled up, but they love their Red Devils and sports. I just feel like this is such a welcoming community and they appreciate people who are loyal.”

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: East Jordan's Meg Kitson calling it a career after 34 years