Local Bowling Team Sends Ten to National Competition

(KNSI) – Ten Sauk Rapids-Rice Varsity Bowling teammates are headed to Indianapolis for Junior Gold Championships next week.

Incoming Head Coach Adam Bialke says it will be a challenge. Each facility will have its own oil pattern on the lanes, designed to test the bowlers compared to what you would find at your neighborhood alley.

He says, “In a house shot, there’s more oil on the middle and less oil on the outside. So, if someone misses right, they’ll be able to get back to what we call the pocket to get a strike and if it misses left, it’ll go straighter. But on a sports shot, it’s not set up like that. It’s designed so a bowler has to be way more accurate.”

Bialke says the youngest Storm competitor is still a seventh grader. Last year, the school only had two make it to Junior Gold. Bialke says the increase is a testament to the group’s character. They will bowl individually, and not as part of a team at the tournament.

He says some of his bowlers play other sports as well during the fall season and talks about how bowling differs from football or basketball. “Bowling is not so much about energy,” Bialke says, “It’s about controlling what you have. So you want to control your body movements, aim for that target. It’s a lot like archery. You got to control your heart rate and you got to execute with precision versus so much emotion.”

The Junior Gold Championships run from July 10-22.

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