Former Wayzata golf standout Sarah Burnham embraces career evolution as coach

Sarah Burnham first was on the varsity golf team for Wayzata High School as a seventh-grader in the 2008-09 school year.

As she joined New Prague's Kenzie Neisen in dominating high school golf in the years that followed, Wayzata coach Mike Schumacher would relay this version of Burnham's first hole in a varsity event:

Sarah's drive went down the middle. Her second shot was dubbed, "went nowhere." And then, "from 150 yards," she knocked it in the hole.

Burnham was reminded of this in a phone conversation Friday. She laughed slightly and said:

"Coach Schumacher does tell that story. He's a great person, had a lot to do with my progress as a golfer, but the second shot rolled for a while, and it was more like 30 yards into the hole with the third shot."

Burnham, tremendously successful in Minnesota high school and MGA events, a two-time Big Ten player of the year for Michigan State championship teams and winner of State Opens in Minnesota, Michigan and Connecticut, has now entered full-time coaching.

On July 1, Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., announced Burnham, 26, as its new women's golf coach. The Golden Grizzlies, with an enrollment of over 20,000, compete in the Horizon League with Detroit Mercy, Cleveland State, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin-Green Bay, etc.

She played on the secondary tours and then made it to the LPGA Tour starting in 2019.

Burnham had two top 10s in 41 starts, and lost full-time status for 2022. She lives with her boyfriend, former Michigan State wrestler Jackson Renicker, in Temperance, Mich. She did some volunteer coaching at Bowling Green.

"I realized I loved coaching, a position opened up at Oakland and I applied," she said. "I'm thrilled with this. Oakland has a great 36-hole golf course and there is going to be a new facility.

"My coach at Michigan State, Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, a Hall of Famer, has been a great influence on my life, and she has been very encouraging in this.

"I'm going to stay as a pro play in some state events, but coaching is my career now."

The Minnesota state wrestling tournament started in 1938 and was contested in a single class through 1972.

St. James, a town with a population of 4,027 in the 1970 census, sent seven wrestlers to the 1972 state meet. Three reached the finals at their weight and six scored points.

The Saints won the last-ever one-class title in Minnesota with 59 points (compared with 49 for Osseo, with three state champs, but not the depth).

The wrestling meet ended on Feb. 26. A month later, St. James represented Region 2 in the Class 1A basketball tournament.

Famously, the Saints won that title at a packed Williams Arena over mighty Melrose, 57-55 on Jeff Nessler's 40-plus footer before the horn.

Those Saints did so in the highest style: 29-0, beating a Mark Olberding team on Saturday and a Mark Landsberger team on Monday.

Next Friday and Saturday, St. James will celebrate the 50th anniversary of those twin titles with a variety of civic events.

Oldtimers from Redwood Falls had a chance to revel in past high school glories on June 23, when the Timberwolves landed Walker Kessler as the 22nd choice in the NBA draft.

Kessler, a 7-1 center from Auburn, is the grandson of the late Jay Kessler, a prominent member of the amazing collection of athletes at Redwood Falls High School in the late '50s and into the '60s.

Jay Kessler, 6-6, played three sports at Redwood, and basketball for the Gophers. Jimmy Cairns (RIP, 2011) played four prep sports and was a mighty-mite runner for the two Gophers Rose Bowl teams. Paul Ramseth, also four sports, was a third-string quarterback for the 1961 Gophers, then a standout safety for two seasons.

Chuck Lussenhop was Class of '61. He still lives in Redwood and has been the timekeeper for girls' and boys' basketball games for 42 years.

He was also a standout multi-sport athlete and teammate with all these local legends.

"Jimmy Cairns' dad was a doctor; Jimmy always had a new Chevy Impala, so he did the driving," Lussenhop said. "Jay, he was introverted, and Ramseth never stopped talking. And Les, another great guy. It was a terrific group to look up to."