Winter sports are in full-swing at Grayslake Central, bowling  being one of them. Two seniors, one from each team, give an overview of the games played. Senior Kailey Petray said “We are a really close-knit team, and everyone is extremely supportive of each other. When you’re bowling, you can’t beat yourself up too much, but it definitely happens, unfortunately. It’s inevitable, but we are always there to snap each other out of it, which is why we are successful.” A highlight for senior Caleb Jasper, is “ teammates bringing up teammates and congratulating them on [their] victories.”

“The season went very well. As a team, we made it out of regionals for the second time in school history. And we almost won the regional! We were shy only four pins, which would have been the first regional win in program history,” said boys’ bowling coach Bryan Dovichi. As always, with highs must come some lows. In bowling, there is an injury that could arise called bowler’s thumb. It happens when there is repeated interaction of the thumb and the holes in a bowling ball. “It’s the most painful rip of skin that you just have to deal with. There are a few options to help us when our skin breaks, but they’re all painful because of the friction of the ball. I think my bowling thumb will forever be a different shape than my other thumb,” said Petray. Bowlers not only have to deal with physical injuries, but intangible ones as well. “Not doing good in tournaments and games would bring morale down” said Jasper.

With last season being a mixture of in-person and virtual play, coming back to all in-person caused Petray to be “absolutely more competitive this season than I have ever been.Obviously, we are a team, but there’s a lot of individual effort that needs to be put into bowling.” “We had one of our most competitive teams out there this year. As a team, they are easily one of the best in program history,” Dovichi said.

Kailey has been on the bowling team all  four high school years. She wants to “bring attention to it because it really is a blast.”  “If you are interested in joining bowling just go into it with one piece of knowledge: a game is never over until the last ball is thrown,” adds Jasper. “We accept anyone interested in bowling. It doesn’t matter if you’ve ever bowled before. If you’re interested in learning the game and improving your score, join the team and you’ll see results,”  Coach Dovichi explained.

Coach Dovichi highlighted players who have greatly improved over the season and have stood out:

• Kurt Heerdegen, senior: Started the season throwing between 75-100, ended the season averaging 170-200

• Ethan Rodriguez, sophomore: Started the season throwing 50-90, ended the season with a record personal score of 244
• Cole Olsen, freshman: Started the season throwing between 60-100, ended the season with a top score of 260