Between the Lanes
Features March 9, 2018
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Bowling team experiences unexpected challenges, successes in first season Holly Hambleton | Asst. Editor Carolina Yanez | Photographer
Their first tournament resulted in a disappointing loss, girl teams, to have a better chance of the girls winning but the newly founded bowling team decided to focus on district and scholarships. It was difficult to get people to take it seriously because evtheir future successes instead of ery time I would bring it up to my their past mistakes. With three total teams, the club has grown more friends they would say I was cra“It’s a great way to zy.” than expected in the short season Both teams practice together which ended in February. The team open up. Alexis, the twice a week at Spare Time Texas captains, sophomores Hunter Pope girls’ team captain, but compete separately to increase (boys) and Alexis Poul (girls), of moving on to the state hope to expand their teams and always says bowling is chances level. Along with competitions, their talent in the future. like therapy.” members of the club enjoy bowling Through word of mouth recruiting on their own outside of practice and the possibility of scholarships and meet up over breaks and on the horizon, more people joined weekends to bowl for fun. the team at the beginning of “Anytime we bring up our bowling competition season. “The hardest challenge has been club, people think it’s lame. In reality, it’s so fun and it’s exactly just getting the word out there,” Pope said. “I was worried about getting a girls’ team like going bowling with your friends on the weekend but started because at the beginning we were going to be you can get money for college doing something fun,” one big team. Then I decided to split off into boy and Poul said. “We are all super close. We have team dinners,
Hunter Pope, 10
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team outings like going to Top Golf, team sleep overs, and team parties. It’s totally insane because I didn’t talk to any of the girls before bowling but now we are hanging out almost every day.” Even though this is the club’s first competitive season, they both advanced to district with the boys’ varsity team receiving district runner-up. From the girls varsity team, sophomore Diana Ly made the all-district team along with Poul, who also won female bowler of the year for the district. With this success, Pope has talked to Weiss High School and Pflugerville High School about starting their own bowling teams. “My end goal is to get to state and see what it’s about at that level,” Pope said. “Everyone likes to bowl because it’s really fun and not very difficult. If you know how to listen and focus on the game, it comes pretty easy. It’s a great way to open up. Alexis, the girls’ team captain, always says bowling is like therapy. You just get to throw a ball that weighs ten to eleven pounds and spend time with friends.”
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Sophomore Tatiana Terroba looks down the lane and plans which angle she wants the ball to roll, to help get a higher score. “I’ve never been bowling before this season, so I think I did pretty good. I got peer pressured to join the team but I’m really glad I joined because I made a lot of new friends,” Terroba said. Terroba’s best score was a 131.
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At the Spare Time Texas tournament, senior Kevin Vaughn prepares to bowl, hoping to add to his growing score and add to the team’s points. “I was just thinking to myself ‘I hope I get a strike’ which helped me focus. I have fun with my friends on the bowling team and it makes the tournaments more enjoyable,” Vaughn said. By the end of the tournament, Vaughn received a score of 168.