COLUMN: Time to get rolling


Kegan Arduser, who bowled a 700 series during a men’s league at Legacy Lanes this past season, could be among the top members of the new Monticello High School bowling team next season. (Photo by Pete Temple)
HOME STRETCH COLUMN
By: 
Pete Temple
Express Sports Editor

     Monticello is the most recent Iowa high school to add bowling to its list of activities.

     Approved at the May 22 Monticello School Board meeting, the first Panther teams will get the ball rolling in 2017-18.

     High school bowling in Iowa is a winter sport, with starting dates and state tournament dates that align almost exactly with basketball and wrestling. This year’s state tournament was held the week after state wrestling, at Plaza Lanes in Des Moines.

     Parents and others from the community began approaching Superintendent Brian Jaeger in the fall about the possibility of adding bowling.

     “I wish I had counted the number of times people came up to me and talked about it,” Jaeger said during the meeting.

     Jaeger asked activities director Tim Lambert to conduct a survey of students who were in grades 8-11 this past school year, to gauge interest. Forty-nine students expressed interest, split almost evenly between boys and girls.

     “We went through the list,” Jaeger said at the meeting, “and there were only one or two that are currently doing an activity in the wintertime. So this isn’t something that will devastate the wrestling team or the basketball team.”

     The board unanimously approved adding the sport. The cost of the program, including a coach, transportation, uniforms, facility rental and entry fees, is estimated to be about $6,600 a year.

     “We talked about it in the past and never really moved on it, and now we are,” Lambert said. “It will be nice to have an option in the winter for kids who don’t do basketball or wrestling.”

     Brian Meyer, owner of Legacy Lanes in Monticello, said he is happy with the decision.

     “I’m going to do all I can to help them,” Meyer said.

     Last year there were exactly 100 boys’ high school bowling teams in Iowa, and 99 girls’ teams. Monticello will likely compete in Class 1A, which last year included 44 schools.

     Four of those are in the River Valley Conference:  Bellevue, Camanche, Cascade and Durant. Other Eastern Iowa schools that might be Panther opponents include West Delaware, Maquoketa, Vinton-Shellsburg, DeWitt Central and Oelwein.  Independence is a 2A school that might also be on the slate.

     For competition, teams consist of six varsity bowlers and six junior varsity bowlers, plus an unlimited number of reserve bowlers.

     In a match, the six-team members each bowl two regular games in Round 1. The top five two-game scores are used for the team total. Then it switches to five games of Baker format, with each team selecting five bowlers to participate. In Baker bowling, the first bowler rolls in frames 1 and 6, the second one in 2 and 7, and so on. Those scores are added to the team total as well, to result in an overall final score.

     Coaches can make substitutions on a team after a game, but not while a game is in progress.

     Ken Boesenberg, a retired former sports editor and later editor of the Manchester Press, has been head coach of the West Delaware girls bowling team for nine years. His teams have finished second at the state tournament three times, and third once.

     “In our situation, there are kids who don’t participate in basketball or volleyball, but they do participate in bowling,” Boesenberg said. “It’s opened up an activity for them.”

     Boesenberg added that of the 13 girls he coached at West Delaware last season, only two participate in another sport besides bowling.

     “It’s really good for the kids, and it’s been fun,” he said.

     For now, the Panthers will have just one coach, yet to be named. Finding a coach will be part of the process as MHS prepares for its first-ever bowling season.

     “I’m going to reach out to schools and start building a schedule,” Lambert said. “It’s new for everybody, so we’ll all be learning a lot, but it’ll be fun.”

 

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