Kenn Domerese’s first coaching job was unplanned.
He was a senior on the track and field team at Campbellsville University in Kentucky when he was called into the
office of President W.R. Davenport.
“Our coach quit two weeks before the season began,” Domerese said. “Dr. Davenport called me in and talked to me and said,
‘You know, Kenn, I’m not going to be able to get someone in place in two weeks.’ He said, ‘I will hire you as coach if you want.’
“It was a great deal for me to do that. It was crazy hard.
Thus began a career that blossomed into one of the greatest in the history of Michigan high school track and field, landing
Domerese a spot in the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame.
Domerese is being honored by the same organization that previously inducted great track and field coaches like Norb Badar
of Flint Northern, Marty Crane of Beecher and Duane Raffin of Holly.
“Those guys were so cool,” Domerese said. “Through all those years, you’d ask, ‘What are you doing to get your kids faster?’
They’d tell you what workouts to do and how to do them. That was the camaraderie of the old-time coaches. Most of them are
in the Greater Flint Hall of Fame. It’s crazy I’m in with them. You still kind of think you’re 35 or 40; that’s not the case anymore.”
No, Domerese isn’t 35 or 40 anymore. He’s actually been coaching in the Carman-Ainsworth school district for longer than
that. He became the cross country coach at Ainsworth High School in 1974 and the track and field coach in the 1975. He kept
both jobs when Carman and Ainsworth high schools merged to form Carman-Ainsworth in 1986.
Domerese’s teams have been a fixture at the state track and field championships.
He won a state Class B championship in 1982 at Ainsworth with only three athletes at the state meet, only one of whom
stepped foot on the track.
Jim Featherston won the 330-yard hurdles, was third in the 120 hurdles and took sixth in the 220. Tim Fellows won the shot
put and discus, while Tom Kassion was second in the shot put. When those performances were added up, the Spartans won by
a 45-33 margin over Oak Park.
“It was funny, because we have a picture at Houseman Field,” Domerese said. “We were waiting for them to take a picture with
the trophy. Finally, the photographer says, ‘Can you get your team here for a picture?’ We had four coaches and three athletes.”
Beginning with that state championship in 1982, Domerese’s teams have finished in the top 10 in a state meet 14 times in 37
seasons. His Carman-Ainsworth teams won state championships in 1993, 2005 and 2008.
“We missed by a point in 2004,” Domerese said. “We had a couple times we almost pulled off another one, and just missed.
Those are the ones that haunt you as a coach, because you’re so close. We’d leave Grand Rapids and I would be sick for a
week: ‘Geez, I couldn’t get one more point.’ The kids, 10 miles after we’re leaving the track, they’re completely on a different
year already.””
