Bowling teams set sights high, look to keep improving

Many people think that bowling is easy and not even a sport at all, but this year’s team is planning on proving those people wrong.

“Bowling is definitely not as easy as everybody thinks, and there are a lot of techniques to learn. I thought it was going to be easy, but it turned out to be hard, and I really want to get better and keep up with my teammates,” senior Ana Cunha, who is playing on the girl’s team for the first time this year, said. “It is the first time I’ve played for real, and it’s still really fun for me. I don’t view it as too much of a competition because I just want to have fun with it and do my best for the team.”

Out of the four meets played so far this season, the girls have defeated Waterloo East and Dubuque Senior.

“I’m happy with the results because we’ve started out really well this season, and we hope to continue winning a few more meets,” junior Jessica Hinz, who has been on the team for three years, said.

Valley Park Lanes, where the team have held practice in the last years, unfortunately closed recently, so the teams have had to make different arrangements, and it has proven to be a pain.

“Having Valley Park closed has changed a lot of things for us. Now varsity only gets two days of practice, whereas last year they had three, and junior varsity only gets one and had two last year. We also have to share Maple Lanes with [Waterloo] West and Denver. It’s a big change for us, but we’ve managed to work with it,” Hinz said.

The team has managed to make it work and pull it together. Having these small challenges has helped make players stronger and come together as a team.

“As a team, we have improved a lot. Our Baker games are becoming a lot better. We are all getting better at picking up spares and keeping each other in a good mood and not getting upset when we have a bad shot,” Hinz said. “Baker games are where you have five bowlers that come together to play one game. Player one bowls frames 1 and 6; player two bowls frames 2 and 7, and it keeps going on like that.”

Aside from winning and losing, Cunha said it is important to have fun and enjoy the sport and improve as you go.

“I do enjoy bowling. Mr. Baker, our coach, is really nice and I think a lot of people there are new at bowling, and he does a good job encouraging us to get better. He is really committed, and that makes us have a good time too,” Cunha said. “My main goal is continuing to have fun and get better at the sport.”

Hinz also said having goals is important to improving her performance on a team such as bowling.

“My performance is going really well. I have increased my average by about 30 from last year. I started practicing  a month before actual practice started so that I could become a better bowler,” Hinz said.

The team is next in action on Friday, Jan. 4 at Linn-Mar.