Pat O'Keefe

Named All-State in football and basketball at Standish-Sterling High School, Pat O’Keefe distinguished himself as a third baseman at Central Michigan University. In 1967, he led the Chippewas with a .433 average and was named first-team All-Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, helping CMU win the IIAC Championship, and was named first-team All-IIAC. O’Keefe went on to play 153 games in the Houston Astros’ Minor League system from 1968-1970.

It was during this same time that O’Keefe began coaching baseball at Grand Ledge High School, beginning in 1968, resuming in 1970, and very quickly dominating. A perpetual force in the Capital Area Activities Conference (CAAC) Blue, O’Keefe’s Comets won the Class A state championship in 1977 and 1995.

In 1990, he was enshrined in the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was named a finalist for the National High School Baseball Coach of the Year. In 2009, he was inducted into the Central Michigan University Hall of Fame.

On April 15, 2010, the Grand Ledge Comets swept a doubleheader from Owosso, capturing O’Keefe’s 1,000th career victory and making him the second coach in Michigan high school history to reach the plateau.

In 2015, the Comets won their 25th Diamond Classic, pitting the top Mid-Michigan baseball teams against one another in a tournament. It was Grand Ledge’s sixth Diamond Classic victory in the last seven seasons.