Bowling season going well

Last week, we looked at area basketball and wrestling teams and how well they have done so far this season. Today, we finish our wrap-up by looking at the Washington bowling and archery teams.

For the bowlers the first half of the season has gone well. ?The girls, despite being young, have come a long way,? says assistant coach Chad Zear. ?They have a passion to want to be here. For the boys, most of them are returners and they are struggling. I?m not sure why. It?s mostly a mental game, so we?re working on that.?

During practice there is only one thing to do: repetition. ?It?s like every sport,? Zear says. ?If you don?t do it a thousand times and see the progress, you won?t do it. It?s hard for the kids to focus on that.?

No matter what happens in a meet, the teams go into the next one with a fresh mindset. ?We look at each one as a completely different meet. Last year, we did so well with that at the beginning of the season and later on we started to focus on what we did in the last meet. We tried, as coaches, to get the team through that.?

Things are going to change starting with the team?s next meet as well. ?On the boys team, we have seven vying for six positions where before, we were working with only five. It?s going to be a battle every week. We will have a ?bowl off? to see who bowls varsity that week.?

The teams will travel to Louisa-Muscatine Saturday, Jan. 7, and Zear says it should be a great meet. ?I think it?s going to be one of our best. With having the holidays off, the kids will come back as a new group. It will be something different for us.?

?We don?t know about the lane conditions,? says girls? coach Sally Reighard. ?Lane condition is critical in bowling and unlike basketball, each house is different. We?ve been working on trying to get the kids to read the lanes, but that takes a lot of practice and it takes a lot of actually seeing what the conditions cause.?

As the month of January progresses toward the postseason, there are expectations of possibly someone qualifying for State. ?We have big visions,? Zear says. ?If our boys can pull it together, I could see the whole team going to State. We have a couple of individuals who have very good opportunity to go as well.?

?I?m not so sure for the girls? side because they are all so young,? Reighard says. ?When it comes down to it I?m sure there are four or five who will still have butterflies at the district qualifier.?

?But the girls want to go,? Zear said. ?We told them after asking us that if they work hard enough and get over each plateau, they will succeed.?

The team works together to get the job done at each meet. ?This group has enough in them and work well together to complete each other,? Zear says. ?That?s what it takes in bowling. Yes, you have to have some great individual scores, but if you can?t work off each other it?s tough to go further.

?That?s the basis behind the Baker games,? Reighard says. ?That?s where our kids really excel. They can be down at the end of the first round from the individual games, but do well.?

The remainder of the season won?t be easy. ?It?s going to be a lot harder season than what we?ve had in the past,? Zear says. ?Before, we had the first couple of weeks off in January. Now, we have no time off.

?Our Keokuk meet (canceled from Dec. 17) will be held in the middle of the week. We have a lot of meets to go until Conference and State. They will be a little beat up.?

With only 10 games left on the schedule, will that help or hurt the team? ?I hoping it will help,? Zear says. ?It will help them to focus more.?

The bowling tournament at Louisa-Muscatine begins at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7.