|
Girls bowling now has official sport status
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Written by Cullen Tillberg
|
|
Friday, 16 February 2007
|
 | | Photo by Tyler Lesthaeghe | | BOWL AWAY GIRLS!!- Katie Arnold, senior, bowls for a strike during practice last Thursday at Millertime. |
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union has sanctioned the West girls bowling team, making it one of only 54 sanctioned schools statewide.
Making the transition from club sport to a sanctioned one basically means that all coaches must become certified by the Iowa Board of Education and that athletes are held to the same grade requirements as other sports.
According to the IGHSAU, more than 3,000 bowlers from 81 schools participated on club-level teams during the 2004-05 school year, prompting the organization to adopt the sport. According to the Quad Cities Times, nearly forty percent of the students involved do not participate in any other sport in their high school. Getting more students involved with interscholastic athletes was the biggest contributing factor to the decision.
On the other hand, boys bowling remains at the club level and likely is a few years away from being sanctioned by the Iowa High School Athletic Association.
“In order to become sanctioned, a team must have been competing as a club for two years,” said coach Brian Arnold.
Bettendorf and North Scott have club teams, but aren’t yet sanctioned by their school boards according to the Quad Cities Times. Burlington and Davenport Assumption don’t have programs at all.
The coach of both boys and girls teams is Brian Arnold who started four years ago, when his daughter Julie was on the team.
The girls team is tied with Clinton in second place with a record of 5-2 in the conference. The boys team is tied with Muscatine in first place with a record of 6-1.
Their regionals were in Muscatine on Feb. 3, which consisted of seven teams. After that is the boys sub-state on Feb. 18 and the girls sub-state on Feb. 24. If the boys qualify at their sub-state they will go on to their state tournament on March 10. If the girls qualify at their sub-state they will go on to their state tournament on March 3 which will take place at Plaza Lanes Family Fun Center in Des Moines.
This year the boys finished their regular season first place in the MAC conference. The girls team tied for second place in the MAC conference with Muscatine.
The three top bowlers for the girls team are Anne Dobesh, junior, who is carrying an average of 196, Alex Brock, senior, who is averaging at 186, and Chelsie DeVol, junior, who is averaging at 186.
The three top bowlers for the boys team are Austin Gilbreath, sophomore, who is averaging 215, Brandon Bequeath, senior, who is averaging 204, and Joe Gloar, senior, who is averaging 200.
So far only Katie Arnold and Kaitlin Gerischer have made it to the varsity team status, but the team is working hard.
As of recently, there are no known plans to sanction boys bowling as an official sport.
|
