Kalamazoo Central High School is the home of the Maroon Giants, and also nine holes of disc golf. The course plays clockwise around the school.

Although the course never strays more than 300' or so from the school building, there are actually a couple of interesting holes here. The opening hole plays 210' along a fairway that is steeply sloping from right to left, with a couple of trees in the way. #6 and #7 both play down small hills off the tee, across flat areas, and back uphill to the baskets. #9 is a 200' downhill throw at a basket located in a triangular artificial "island" in the middle of three cement drives. Although there isn't any signage to indicate that the cement is OB, you should assume it is to better entertain yourself. The basket is in the middle of the island, right next to what appears to be the school spirit rock.

The baskets are Chainstars. Eight of them are in great shape.

Basket #4 was uprooted and casually leaning on a fence when I visited, like a high school student trying to play it cool.

There are plenty of safety issues here. Although I enjoyed hole 9, the throw is blind to the left and the drives that surround the basket area likely get some use during the school year. Hole 8 also plays across the same drive, and finishes right next to the school building near an entrance doorway. A different section of the drive around the school is in play on holes 1/3/4, and a tennis court is in play on holes 4-5.

The other course infrastructure here is nada. No tee pads, tee signs, or navigational signs (you can tee off from existing pavement on some holes, but you'll need UDisc or the map uploaded here to know where to tee off from). No trash cans, benches, practice basket, or porta potty.

Many holes are wide open, and the average hole distance is only about 240'. Although this aspect of the course isn't necessarily bad for high school students, disc golfers above recreational level will likely get bored quickly.

When I said that the course plays clockwise around the school, I really meant that it plays about 2/3 of the way around. You'll have to walk the rest of the way at the end of the round, which is about 1/4 mile.

During the walk back to my car, I had a long time to think about what rating to give this course. There were enough interesting throws for me to consider a 1.0, but also enough safety concerns to keep me at a 0.5. Without the aid of UDisc or a map, this course is just 9 Chainstar baskets scattered around the school grounds - and one of them is too cool for school. With so many other disc golf options around the Kalamazoo area, there are likely better ways to spend your time.

-Baskets are brand new!
-Aside from hole 1, this course is pretty easy to follow as long as you know how 8 and 9 work (more on that later). They do not have tee signs or markers pointing you in the right direction, just small, thin wooden sticks marking the next tee point. BUT, you can see all of the sticks from the basket you just played to, so it's not too difficult to keep moving forward through the course.
-For not having much to work with, I think many of the holes provide a unique challenge. 1 requires a low ceiling drive and 3 requires a low ceiling putt to get the birdie. Hole 4 can punish you with OB the entire way (tennis court) on your right. Hole 5 will, and holes 6 and 8 can give you death putts at the basket. And, hole 9 is an island hole, so if you play Out of Bounds it requires a good drive, although it's probably only 200 downhill.
-Very Right Hand Forearm friendly. Truly you can probably throw either shot right or left handed and get to the basket.
-Porta Potty near the tee spot of hole 2 and 4. Bathrooms are a plus.
-Plenty of parking all over the school.

-Biggest problem I can foresee is that this course will likely be unplayable if ANYTHING is going on at the school. Holes 1, 8 and 9 throw over roadways through campus. Holes 4 and 5 throw along tennis courts and drives will end up in there. Holes 6 and 7 look like they're throwing over practice fields for other sports, so playing after school could interfere with practices.
-No signage at all leading you to the course or marking the start. (It's easy to follow once you get going though) As of now, there's no sign for hole 1, so you need to find hole 2 and then backtrack. From there, I guess just pick a spot and throw to the first basket. For more info on how to get to the start of the course, check the next column down.
-Holes are marked with small, thin, wooden stakes. Hole 1 is missing and hole 6 is already broken. These could all be gone in a week after school is back in session.

-TO GET TO THE START OF THE COURSE:
Enter from the most northern entrance if you can. Follow the main road east and this should lead you to the basket to hole 1. It will be on the right side of the road, under some trees, with the school building to the right of it.
If you go in the main school entrance: continue down the main path skipping all the parking lots. Soon, you'll see a big, decoration rock next to a cage in the middle of the road. A baseball field will be straight ahead, the football stadium to your right, and the school building to your left -- from here, take a left turn keeping the school building on your left side. You'll see tennis courts shortly up ahead which means your close. Next to the tennis courts is the tee spot for 4 marked by a stake. Further ahead maybe 100-200 feet is the tee for 2, and if you keep going straight you'll see the basket for hole 1.

HOW TO PLAY THE COURSE:
-The Valkyrie Kid describes how to play this course is his review. I did find the tee pad for 9 though, so I'll include that information below as a change to his layout.
--Hole 8 tee is next to a baseball field/football practice field. You throw west, towards the main school building. Basket is up hill straight ahead with a few things to miss in the way.
--Hole 9 tee is further west around the corner of the school building. It's in a small, flat pocket by the building with a tree. You'll throw down from there towards basket that's in an island and next to a large rock that students decorate.

Overall: I think the course designer did a good job of working with what's there. Every hole has a challenge to it besides hole 2 which is just a straight 250 shot with nothing in your way. Quick, fun play, but will probably be unplayable if something's happening at the school.

The Kalamazoo Central Disc Golf Course appears brand new. The Chainstars look "right out of the box." There are no signs yet and the pads are currently marked with these little thin 1" sticks. High schoolers will destroy those in no time and have already broken off a few and have probably stolen the # 1 and # 9. I couldn't find either of those. The course would be about impossible to navigate now. There isn't a map yet. I drove out to play it and was slowly driving around when I spotted a guy playing. After chatting with him, I had gathered enough information to navigate the 9 holes.

We couldn't find the # 1 stick so just picked a spot to throw from. Across the road from the # 1 basket is this small athletic field. Holes 2 & 3 play here. Find the # 3 basket hiding under the tree by the road. # 4 plays from the corner, along the tennis courts and over the chain link fence to a basket set behind the courts. # 5 stick is in the corner by the neighbor's house throwing to a basket straight down.

# 6 is my favorite, the student's favorite, the course deigner's favorite and DGCR Review's Signature hole on this course. The tee is on the tennis court corner. You're throwing at a basket set near the next brick building with no windows. A ricochet off these bricks could find chains. This will soon become every golfer's fav throw.

The # 7 is just around the corner at the door if the brick building. You're throwing slightly over the athletic field to a basket set the fence. The # 8 pad is ahead. I think it throws over a chain link fence and a pathway to the basket straight ahead. # 9 basket is up the grassy hill near that building. I couldn't locate that tee.

Not much useable space for the designer to work with.
No pads yet.
No signs yet.

# 4. This is the hole next to the tennis courts. It's currently about 235' playing down and around the tennis courts. HS players are going to throw in the tennis courts trying to get there. I would shorten this hole to about 125' with the reason being, the shorter the hole, the likelihood of discs being thrown in the courts decreases.

# 8. The hole that throws across the chain link fence and a walking path is a concern. Without study, I don't have a reasonable replacement idea, but I'm not being paid the big bucks for my high school disc golf course design expertise.

Today, I played the high school foursome of Paw Paw HS, Mattawan HS, Lawton HS and Kalamazoo Central HS. My opinion is the first three are ranked extremely close to each other. Kalamazoo Central Is a distant fourth. I could probably change my opinion each time I played one of these courses.

My ranking would be based on my personal fun factor would be:

1. Mattawan HS
2. Paw Paw HS
3. Lawton HS
4. Kalamazoo Central HS

The bad news is I just missed qualifying for the high school Girl's District Tournament by 9 strokes. I probably need to work on my game.