Lake Zurich Boy’s Bowling Goes to State
I was asked my thoughts about the bowling team before sectionals by a reporter from the Lake Zurich Courier.
Some of the my comments were in the article, but I wanted to share the rest. I was a little verbose because I was exited from sectionals.
– What does this mean to you guys to be competing at the State Meet next weekend?–
It means quite a lot for us to be going to state. This is a group that spent the last 3 years waiting for “next year.” The team had no seniors last year and only two the year before. So, most of the guys this year have been on varsity in some form for the past 3 years. As a group we always talked about growing and maturing and how our time would come and this season we have seen all of the hard work of the last three years finally pay off. For this group to make it to state is also personally satisfying because the seniors on the team started the same year that I started coaching the team so it is culmination of a lot of hard work.
– What were some of the highlights for you guys at the Sectional today?–
A few highlights of the day for me where Mike Schmitt (Fr. 200 average) who came in off the bench when we needed him in game 5 and bowled a 257. That was a huge game that really helped keep the team’s momentum going.
Game 6 was very exciting for the team. We we were out of 1st by 25 pins but up on 3rd by 80 and 4th 136. The 4th place team, Niles (Notre Dame), was coming in real strong in the lane next to us and we were about neck and neck with Vernon Hills (1st place). Throughout the year at several tournaments the boys have had a rough time staying strong through all 6 games. Today with the pressure on, the guys performed well and finished the day almost climbing back into 1st.
The other highlight was the performance of Kyle Hunter. Kyle typically starts tournaments stronger than anyone on our team. However, he has not had a particularly consistent time of it as the tournaments progressed. Today Kyle showed his toughness both physically and mentally to fight through 6 games making many adjustments and trying different shots both ones that he was used to and ones that are outside of his wheelhouse. And while he had dreams of 1st place after the first three games, the 6th place finish is by far his strongest individual performance.
Also, the stable leadership or our seniors, Luke Mueller and Austin Wells really help set the tone for the day. While they were not the scoring leaders, they didn’t let that get to them. The other bowlers could see that they still had the confidence in the team and were panicking because of a couple of low scores and that helped to set the tone for the day. I can not say enough about what those two have done for this team over the last three years, and we certainly wouldn’t be were we are today without them. Ultimately, all four of the upperclassman ended up “on the sheet” which would be in the top 27 for the sectional.
Finally, I was very excited about the support the team received today both from the large turn out of parents and the large number of other bowlers from the team that showed up. It is encouraging as a coach to see that the younger kids are excited to be on a team and are willing to come out and cheer their teammates on.
– What did you think of the performances of your two juniors Kyle Hunter and Steve Garcia on Saturday and what have they brought to the team this year? –
I can’t say enough about the performance of Garcia and Hunter. I already wrote about Kyle above. But to add to that Hunter has become one of the team’s emotional leaders as well. More than anyone on the team Kyle has matured as a leader and the team looks to him for motivation and inspiration.
Garcia has been one of our consistent performers over the past few weeks. He took 3rd at the Plainfield North Invite, 3rd at our tournament, 4th in conference, and 8th at the sectional and is really starting to find his way as a bowler. He started the day a little slow but showed true grit and fought through and gave us some huge games when we needed them. He too is growing into his role as leader on team and impresses me a little more every week with his bowling insight. All during the second game he had to basically through his ball at the gutter in order to strike. This is something he is horribly uncomfortable doing, but he toughed it out and got the job done.
– What are the team?s aspirations at the State Tournament next weekend? –
One of the traditions our school seems to be developing over the last three years is that teams that earn 1st or 2nd in state get to ride a fire truck from May Whitney to the high school for a pep assembly. One of the boy’s main goals is to ride the fire truck. That is what they talked about in practice as we prepared for sectionals. My goals are a little simpler, I want to make it to the second day at state. My first year coaching I took a team down state and we did not make it past the first day, and I would like to get over that hump. If after that we get to fire truck all the better. This group has the physical ability to bowl that well as long as they stay focused. We don’t have a true super star this year, but we have a group of solid bowlers that have shown when they are performing they can compete with the best in the state.