At first, most people believe bowling is a leisure activity, not a sport. It just looks like a few people, going out for a fun night, and playing a classic game, that all ages love to play. But looking into it, the MCHS Bowling Team works extremely hard for their sport.
We spoke with Mr. Larry Collins, the coach of the girls’ bowling team, to find out more about how the team practices and what their meets are like. The team practices every weeknight except for Thursdays from 4:00-5:30. They start out their practices with stretching, to prevent injury and cramps, and then drills. Their drills, like drills in any sport, are to improve a variety of things. Some of them include improving timing, footwork, hitting targets, and picking up spares. They also do activities to help with some of these various skills. Collins described one of these activities, where the athletes couldn’t see the pins and had to work together as a team and help each other adjust and pick up spares.
The meets consist of a six-person varsity team that changes between meets. So far, the girls who have bowled varsity are Sadie Arickx, Sarah Wendel, Gabi Simon, Danajua Judon, Julie Hubacher, Morgan Lacy, Hannah Hill, and Erin Lacy. During the meets, each athlete bowls two single games, then works together to bowl five baker games. A baker game is two frames of one whole game. Currently, their score is 2-2.
To see the bowling team in action, which is highly recommended, their next meet is on January 8th, at Mystic Lanes at 3:45. The team will bowl against versus Fort Dodge.