During the district series this year, Lake’s Boys Bowling team placed well with 6 members qualifying for states, making this the first year Lake has had a bowling team qualify for states. The qualifying bowlers are Andrew Venus, Benjamin Venus, Braden McKinney, Joshua Trent, Noah Earles, and Noah Parker.
States will be held on March 6th, in Columbus. The team will leave for Columbus on March 5th so they are able to practice in the bowling alley that they will be competing in.
Senior Joshua Trent wrapped up this season with an average score of 200 and a title on the All Federal League 2nd Team. Joshua was an anchor to the team playing in the 5th and 10th frames of the baker games. An anchor is a member of the team who performs well under stress and bowls strikes often.
Andrew Venus placed 6th overall and Joshua Trent placed 8th overall in the District Series. There were overall around 170 people competing, so members of Lake did outstanding to qualify with the immense amount of competition.
“As a team we really fought our way together by encouraging each other through sectionals and districts”, explained senior Joshua Trent.
To prepare for games and tournaments, the team has been practicing every week. Students practice 3 times a week for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Practices take place at Park Center Lanes. During practice students work individually on what they need to work on.
“I personally have mentally prepared myself for any stress inducing situation I could be in”, remarked Joshua Trent.
Students especially take time practicing spares and working on hitting corner pins. It is important to work on spares because a match can be won by a few pins. This year to place first at sectionals Lake beat Hoover by 4 pins. Then practice switches to focus on practicing games and bakers.
During matches students compete in two rounds where they bowl individually. They then finish off the competition by playing 3 baker rounds. A baker round is where the whole team takes turns bowling with one combined score.
Coach Mowles is Lake’s new boys varsity bowling coach this year and Coach Don is the new JV coach. The team appreciates how well the coaches compliment each other and how they both bring important aspects to the table. Varsity students feel Mowles has helped their team become stronger by being a little more tough on them. Mowles challenges the team to become the best that they can.
Going into states students are excited to be a part of the competition.
“I am confident in our team’s ability to do well at states”, said Andrew Venus.
