With the sound of bowling pins striking down the lane, the player earns a strike for the team, and a wholesome and cheerful spirit punctures into the bowling team and the crowd. The people go wild for the team—unless you are the Edison High School bowling team and you roll a bit unnoticed. 

As of 2021, with students back to school from quarantining as COVID-19 is becoming less severe, sports like bowling are active once more. This year, the bowling season seems to be quite eventful. Take it from a bowling member, Mark George ’25, who expressed his view on the season: “Pretty good. I mean, we have our ups and downs, but when the team all focus and support each other by giving each other tips and confidence, we all just continue to try our best for our best score.” 

Another bowling member, Derek Dudek ‘25, had further expressed how the bowling season has been this year. Particularly, the negative aspects of the season: “I think why we are foot-flobbing is because half our team is made up of freshmen. We’re all still learning and using this year to develop.”

Their season has not been perfect, but they are constantly concentrating on enhancing their bowling skills and bond as a team. Especially as a lot of the members are freshmen, new to the field of bowling. Though if they were to lose a competition, the members would always have their supportive teammates there. 

To obtain deeper information on how the bowling season has been, the Eagle’s Eye acquired the behind-the-scenes scope of the season to assist viewers to be connected with the bowling team in a way that cannot be achieved through a competition lens. 

A bowling member, Marooba Khan ’22, remarks, “This year, it’s a little less strict with COVID restrictions. Like we had to always wear masks last year and we were not allowed to give our teammates high-fives. But this year, we can give our teammates high-fives and stuff again.” 

Without a doubt, the atmosphere of the EHS bowling team has changed positively as COVID-19 becomes less severe. It seems that there are more ways and opportunities now in giving support and motivation to their teammates. As always, there are some negatives out there too in the bowling field that are to be uncovered. For example, the transportation situation in bowling. 

“When the bus comes late to pick us up for and from bowling, and we get home late, it is stressful because we also have other work to do,” James Stavenick ‘25 said. 

To specify the bowling schedule, The Eagle’s Eye questioned Isrrael Mojardin ’23, a bowling member, on what it is like: “Practices are like every day or two times a week, and it’s usually after school. And sometimes the bus comes late, so we can only play two bowling games when we get to the bowling place. And when the bus is late, we just sit there in the cafeteria doing nothing. And sometimes we starve if we have no food. And if we do have food, we usually have a snack.” Mojardin states. 

These words from the bowling members reveal how the bowling’s bustling schedule can affect the amount of stress they carry and how they function, as time is precious, and at times, it can feel like there is not enough time to do other tasks or to even simply unwind.  The bus to and from practices and competitions, likewise is essential to the bowling team, as counting on the clocking of the bus to transport them to their place to play bowling, is how efficient their life will be. 

On the grounds of this, with the bowling schedule so humming, where do they operate and how do the bowling games operate though? George answers this: “We usually go to Bowlero to play bowling, and it depends on when the bus picks us up.” 

Khan then further added on this topic. “So there are 6 girls on a team, 6 boys on a team, and we go against other schools. And whoever makes the most pins out of these schools in bowling games, wins.” 

Now with the bowling schedule so busy, why is it that the bowling members continue to drive down this path? How come bowling is so special to them? 

George expressed, “Honestly, I’ve always wanted to try bowling as a sport, because I went bowling a few times in the past, and all the schools I have gone to never had bowling. And so this year, I decided to try it.”

Khan also expressed her story. She said, “My brother did bowling before me, and I thought it was boring. But after one day just trying out, it seemed more fun, and especially with competitions, and I just learned more every single day.” 

These stories told by a few bowling members are fascinating, as each bowling member has reasons and a background story on how they started bowling and why they continue bowling. And with bowling so remarkable to the bowling members, according to the team, bowling is not as remarkable to most people at EHS as it is to them. Several people at EHS are not even aware EHS has a bowling team, and several other people, as well, underestimate the complexity of bowling, when it is a hit-or-miss-target type of sport. 

Nicholas Heoa ‘22, a bowling member, was passionately nodding his head up and down when asked if bowling was an underrated sport. He stated, “Yes, I do think it’s underrated because I feel like people don’t even know we have bowling as a sport here, and I think it doesn’t have enough exposure into the school. And when I tell people I’m on the bowling team, they get really surprised and they’re like “you’re on the bowling team?”

Another bowling member, James Stavenick ’25, also stated, “Yes, because not many people talk about bowling, and some people don’t even say it’s a sport or they are surprised it’s even a sport, or they think it’s easy when there’s a lot of math involved and its complicated.”

In short, the bowling season has been negative and positive. And following some studies and some statements made by some of the bowling members, it is revealed how bowling is an experience that is more than just knocking pins down with a ball.