Bowling coaches pleased with season outcome

It was a year of growth for the Washington bowling teams, and coaches from the teams agree.

?I think it went very well for the girls,? says girls coach Sally Reighard, ?considering we had practically all new bowlers.

?When six out of eight on the team are freshmen and five of them had never really bowled before, it was only a matter of teaching the basics. That was good because they didn?t have any bad habits to break.?

?And if there were any bad habits, they were easier to break,? says assistant coach Chad Zear.

?The last two to three weeks were very promising, I thought, watching the scores and how they were coming along. They have some great promise.?

When the girls started off the season, averages weren?t the top priority. ?I was more concerned with them getting their mind on the game and focusing on technique.

?However many pins they got didn?t matter. It was if they did the proper approach and delivery. That will be the best thing for them in the long run. It all comes down to practice, practice, practice.?

That practice paid off; the girls? lowest score was 1,447, their highest was 2,041. When you?re talking 600 pins for five girls, you?re talking a huge improvement.?

For the boys, they did just as well as the girls.

?Last year, they didn?t score much higher than 2,500,? Reighard said. ?This year that had higher than 2,700 at least three times, possibly four. That?s a good increase.?

?They are still a young team for that matter,? Zear said. ?The only bowlers who had a significant amount of time on the lanes were Kolton Segebart, Collin Zear and Tucker Renoux.

?The rest of them, even Kylan Gillette, only started as a freshman. So we have a lot of fresh kids.

?We?re not talking about those coming up from 5 or 6 years old. You can?t complain too much about that.?

Seeing that improvement makes the coaches feel proud.

?Of course it does,? Reighard says.

?We were disappointed we didn?t make it to state,? Zear says.

?But when you look back at the season at some of the things we had to deal with, we couldn?t be any happier. All you ask is that the kids get better, and they do.?

?If you took all of the boys and compared their high school averages and compared them to their junior league average, they goof off during league,? Reighard says.

?So the fact that they really bore down and focused, shows they had the intent to improve.?

Heading into next year, the seniors will be missed. ?Collin will be missed because he?s always been our anchor since he?s been a freshman,? Zear said.

?You can?t ask a whole lot more out of an anchor bowler. He didn?t have many open frames, especially in Baker games.

?You can probably count on two open hands the number of open frames he?s had over the last four years.

?If he really puts his mind to things, you can?t hardly break him. He?s so mentally tough at times.

?That will be hard to replace. We will have to figure out who will be our anchor next year.

?For Kolton and Kylan, we?re going to really miss them, too. They are a couple of good kids. They put their heart into it.

?They tried hard and worked hard despite not having a lot of years? experience with it. I know both of them will want to continue bowling after this. That?s neat to me. We provided them with a sport that they can go on all the way.?

?It?s a lifetime thing,? Reighard says. ?Unless you are completely disabled or something, bowling is something you can enjoy your entire life.?

Another loss for the team is Reighard, as this is her last year. What will she miss about being part of the team?

?The early mornings,? she said with a laugh. ?No, not really. I?m going to miss it all because I?ve been around bowling for a long time. I helped start the program and I want to see it continue.

?The last couple of years we were pretty short in players, but I think maybe we are back to where we can get some kids interested in coming out.?

?Sally has put in so much hard effort into this,? Zear said. ?Nobody truly knows the amount of hours she puts into it.

?If you look at our stats book she brings to our end-of-year party, I have no idea how she puts that all together. It?s truly amazing.

?We?re very lucky we?ve had her here to do that. I don?t think there are too many people who could have done that.

?There are so many people on the outside who don?t have a clue. It?s going to be hard to replace.?

Taking a quick peek into next year, how does Zear think it will go for the boys?

?I think it will go pretty well,? he says. ?We need to pick up a couple more kids. We have a couple freshmen coming up that could possibly add to the program.

?When you have Bailey Curtis in there, who has only been bowling for three years, and putting up the scores he?s been putting up, Maclain Leyden has come a long way.

?This was Drake Schluetter?s first year on the team, but he?s been bowling for two years prior. He came a long way this year. So that?s been really neat to see. Tucker Renoux has some great possibilities. We have some good scorers coming up.?

The same is true for the girls. ?There is nobody lost off the team this year,? Reighard says. ?Trista Kelly will be our only junior and the rest will be sophomores. Hopefully we will get some more freshmen coming up.?

?Trista really turned it on as of late,? Zear says. ?I watched her in junior doubles and she had some fantastic scores.

?The light bulb has gone off and she has figured out what she needs to do. If she continues and is ready to go at the beginning of the season, she?s a contender. She has a strong possibility of seeing a state berth next year.?