After working for the Oxford school district in one capacity or another for nearly five decades, Terry Kelley is literally headed for greener pastures – specifically, the 55-acre farm he owns in northern Michigan.

Kelley recently retired as head coach of the varsity boys golf team. He had been associated with the program for 24 years.

“You know when it’s time,” he said. “Somebody said, ‘Once you start thinking about retiring, you already are (retired).’”

“I thought (since there’s) a good team coming in (next year), it was probably time to go,” Kelley continued. “Anybody who’s a coach wants to leave a good team for whomever succeeds them . . . You never want to leave the cupboard bare. It’s so hard for a coach coming in at the varsity level in the first place, but then to have an average or below-average team makes it doubly difficult.”

Kelley finished his coaching career on high note.

The boys team went undefeated in dual matches during the spring season and finished atop the Oakland Activities Association White Division for the third consecutive year.

Kelley started out coaching the junior varsity boys golf team in 1995. He went on to lead the varsity squad after its coach, Don Lovell, passed away in 2005.

In the 1990s, Kelley started the varsity girls golf team and coached it until 2014.

One of his greatest accomplishments as a coach happened in 2011 when the boys team finished in the top 10 at the Division I state finals.

Prior to becoming a fixture in Oxford’s golf program, Kelley, a 1958 graduate of Roosevelt High School (now West Bloomfield High School) taught English and history at OHS from 1971 until his retirement in 1995. During those years, he coached other sports, including the middle school track team and the junior varsity girls basketball squad.

Kelley said the most rewarding part of coaching has been “working with the kids” and seeing them progress as both athletes and people.

“When they come in, they’re goofy little boys. By the time they graduate, they’re goofy big boys,” he quipped.

But seriously folks, Kelley said, “It’s fun to watch them mature.”

One of Kelley’s great pleasures came whenever he witnessed one of his players “really flush one,” meaning the ball was hit exactly as planned and it went exactly where he or she wanted it to go on the course.

“That’s why we play golf,” he said.

Unlike some other sports, Kelley said “you don’t have to be 6-foot-8” to play golf and it’s a game that can be enjoyed at any age.

“I think all these kids (I’ve coached) will continue, to one degree or another, to play all their lives,” he said.

Kelley plans to spend part of his retirement enjoying the 55-acre farm he purchased near Burt Lake.

“It has a nice trout stream [the Maple River] running through it,” he said, and close to 2,000 feet of the property abuts “a really nice golf course.”

“That will all keep me busy,” he said.

Kelley is no stranger to farm life.

For about 10 years, he spent his summer vacations growing tobacco for cigars and chewing on 77 acres he owned in Wisconsin.

“It was a crop you could put in in June and (take) out in late August or early September,” Kelley said.

Kelley is quite familiar with Wisconsin because his mother’s family settled there after emigrating from Norway. He said he spent a lot of time there in his youth.

He still has a love of farming. “It’s fun stuff – getting out there early in the morning and getting the dirt between your toes,” Kelley said.

Looking back on his career, Kelley wished to thank “the six or seven athletic directors” he worked for, the coaches and parents he worked with and “of course, the kids.”

He’s glad he landed in Oxford and decided to build his career and life here.

“It’s a good community – a really solid community,” Kelley said.