The Holy Rollers

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A hush falls over the crowd. The bowler takes up his stance, lines up the ball, and barrels it down the alley. With a loud crack, he scores a strike. 

The bowling team competed in conference competition on February 8 and played in the state tournament two days later. Shooting a 680 series, sophomore Isaac Head finished first in the individual performance. Senior Evan Richard finished sixth with a 637 series. Overall, the team finished runner-up in the tournament beating third place by one point. 

Richard believes the team had a good season leading up to conference. “We were undefeated until Cabot,” he said. “Cabot, of course, is like the archenemy of every bowling team; they are consistently good every year. However, we got closer than we ever have to beating them. For some reason, we were nearly always better at Cabot when it came to playing Baker Games [when multiple bowlers combine to bowl one game].”

Richard had a memorable experience at conference. The team managed to win second place by only one pin. “Over the course of the several games we played, one pin is such a small amount that it was kind of amazing that it happened in the first place,” he said. “Something even better is that Isaac actually tied for first place with another player from Cabot with a total pin count over three games of somewhere close to the upper 600s.”

While the team didn’t perform as well as they had hoped in state competition, they did better than expected in their conference play. “We got close to second last year, but this was the first year we really got close to Cabot,” said Richard. “At conference, everyone was cheering when they called their school’s name, but everything went silent when we got called because none of us thought we won. Someone calculated the scores wrong and showed that we lost second place by one pin when we actually won by one pin. Medals are only handed out to first and second, so we did not expect to be up there at all. So when we got called up it was just pure silence. We even thought that they made a mistake before we even started going up. I thought it was funny, but I remember thinking to myself before it happened how hilarious it would be if we actually ended up winning by one pin.”

While the team was able to perform at different tournaments, junior Isaiah Robinson suffered an injury causing him to miss the competitions. “A few weeks before state and conference, we had a bowling match in Cabot,” he said. “I also had a church league basketball game right after the bowling match. I bowled my career high, a 273, hyping up the whole team. I was debating whether to even go to the bowling match because I had hurt my ankle a few days prior. I am glad I went to the bowling match. 

“I was super excited to play the first game of the season for church league,” said Robinson. “On one play, I tried jumping up and blocking a layup off of the backboard. It was a brainless decision, considering the ball had basically already gone in the hoop. I landed fine, but one of the guy’s teammates also landed beside me, accidentally kicking my knee sideways. I immediately felt a popping sensation.

“I sat out for a while but decided to go back in during the fourth quarter,” said Robinson. “I eventually tried going for a layup when I felt a pop. I knew I messed up. I eventually went to the doctor, got an MRI, and discovered that I had torn my ACL and had gotten a meniscus tear.”

Robinson had to get surgery very quickly. Unfortunately, it happened right before the state tournament. “The ice storm we had pushed conference back making it to where my surgery would come before both conference and state, meaning I couldn’t play in either,” he said. “After my surgery, I sat at home, wishing I could bowl. This hurt, knowing that the in last practice before the ice storm, I bowled a 267. Everybody on the team was begging me to reschedule my surgery, but I knew had to handle business instead.” Despite what happened to Robinson, he loved being on the team. “I got a nice welcome during my first day of tryouts,” he said. “Everyone on the team gets along very well. It’s a nice environment, and the guys are fun to hang out with on the lanes.”

Robinson said, “Now that my knee is on the road to recovery, I cannot wait for next season when I will be a senior and ready to come back even better than before.”

Essa Kassissieh

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