Knockin’ Em Down

West Girls Bowling Gets Third in the State

Morgan Ware, Print Editor

The Falcons have been soaring above and beyond in sports this year, and the girl’s bowling team is no exception. They competed and placed third in the state this year. It is an amazing achievement, but it isn’t unusual for them. 

West’s Girls Bowling Team has put in hard work to make it this far. Practice starts all the way back in November, and it lasts until February. Surprisingly, practices only happen once a week due to district budget concerns. Despite this setback, however, the team is able to pull through time and time again, with individual players making it to state for the past five years in a row. The work that the team puts in counts, as they are one of the most successful teams at West. 

Junior Hailey Mizer Hall has been on the bowling team since her freshman year, and she says that during their last game, competition was intense. 

“[In] our last game we won by one pin…It was 203 to 202,” Mizer Hall said. The competition was fierce, but so was the weather. When the team was at State in Waterloo, the actual games were postponed due to the weather.

“We got trapped in a hotel, actually. They postponed the meet, but we were already up there so we stayed in the hotel from Tuesday until Thursday,” Mizer Hall said. 

The time that they spent in the hotel wasn’t wasted, the West Girl’s Team, Central’s, and other teams in the hotel came together to do a scavenger hunt. 

With the cold weather allowing the girls to chill out before the meet, they were able to perform their best. Senior Shaylee Edwards was glad to get the time to bond with her teammates and try her best in the alley. 

“I thought I did well. I mean, [for] part of it I was kind of getting into my head, you know, but then I got back into it…I did well [helping] with our team,” Edwards said. 

It isn’t an unusual occurrence for the team to make it to State. Girl’s Bowling got to State before in 2019, and they even got third in 2013 as well. Of course, their coach couldn’t be happier.

Business teacher Mark Schlichting has been the head coach of both girl’s and boy’s Bowling for the past six years.

“To get third in the state is pretty darn good…We’ve bowled against some really, really good teams. They just performed well, I’m happy for them; I’m proud of them,” Schlichting said.