This year the Prairie bowling team made it to state taking their spot in Prairie athletics.
The team is coached by Rhonda Bash, who other students may know as the Chemistry teacher here at Prairie. To Bash, coaching bowling is important ¨because it is a sport where girls, who aren’t able to participate in ´traditional´ sports, get involved in their school with a team.¨
Just like any other sport these bowlers practice almost every day, they practice at Tiger Bowl in Battleground, which is also where their matches are held. Practices are an Hour and a half and they have four lanes reserved for the team. The bowlers learn the basics of how to throw the ball then from there, it’s repetition and ¨muscle memory.¨ After the basics are learned then adjustments are made, such as ¨how to line up their feet and where to look, and how to adjust their feet and eyes with different pins left for spares.¨ Bash shares.
State is a tournament that lasts 2 days. Each bowler bowls 6 games on day one and on Day 2, they bowl 14 baker games. “A baker game is when all 5 bowlers combine for one game score, each bowler bowls 2 frames.” Bash enlightens.
There’s no real way to predict where the bowlers should end up, but the hope is they do their “job” and bring home some “hardware.” Bash wants bowlers to focus on the moment and their shot. Not the scores. “Everyone wants to bring home the Championship but expecting it adds unnecessary pressure that affects how a bowler performs,” Bash says.
