The ball thuds hard on the waxed wood and rolls down the alley, a moment of thunder and anticipation before it crashes into the pins—and it’s another strike! The Ridgefield High School bowling team is closing out their season with a bang, earning their highest ranking and highest score ever at the district tournament while team member Kate Moreland earned a spot at the state competition.
Moreland, Natalie Braunstein, Lorena Jimenez, Jesse Seimer, Avaa Shibley, Maddie Smith, and Kallie Waletich are the powerhouse players performing at the top of their games. For the first part of the district tournament, they bowled three “10-pin” games—what everyone thinks of as a standard game of bowling—and achieved three consecutive games of 800 or better, which is a team record.
Coach George Black shows his pride as he explains their achievement. “In the seven-year history of the program, we have never had a combined score of over 800 in a competition single 10-pin game. We have only done that twice in practice,” he says. “So to come out in districts and bowl three consecutive games of 800 or better was something incredible. In order to accomplish this, every member of the team needed to average 20 pins over their season average in every game that day. That is remarkable! They all showed up on the biggest stage.”
For the second part of the tournament, the Baker Games, five team members took turns each frame, with each member bowling two frames of the game. The team score was the total number of pins knocked down. The Spudder bowlers kept up their incredible performance, averaging ten pins more per game than their season average.
The team’s overall score for the tournament was calculated by adding together the totals from the Baker and 10-pin games. Their overall pin total was 3,456, the team’s highest score ever at district. In the past, the team’s highest ranking at districts was ninth; this year they moved up the charts to place fifth.
“While finishing fifth may not seem like a big deal, I think it is important to put that accomplishment in perspective for us,” Black shared. Most teams we are facing in league play have had their programs for close to twenty years, so they’ve had the advantage of working with their players much longer than we have. In my opinion, our league and our district are the toughest in the state when it comes to bowling. So we really can’t compare ourselves to those teams yet. However, after this year’s districts, we are getting closer!”
Moving up the rankings so quickly is a huge achievement. Last year, four of the top five teams in the state tournament, including the state champions, and 11 of the top 15 bowlers, were from this region. Black explains that since the RHS bowling team started, every single state championship team has come from this league or district, as well as the last five individual champions.
“When this is who you are competing against day in and day out, you have to get better,” he said. “I think when you look at the big picture it is easy to see that what this team did at districts this year is incredible.”
Coach Black is excited that Moreland will be going to the state tournament this week to represent RHS. Moreland bowled a pin average of 527 over three games to qualify for her spot at state. Black has confidence in her ability to compete at the highest level.
“If an individual or team does well at our district tournament, they have a tendency to have a shot at state titles when it comes to bowling,” Black said.
Moreland’s trip to the state competition and the team’s fifth place district ranking are the perfect topper to a season that showed the true character and ability of the Spudder bowling team. Black already has an eye on next year.
“This year the team had their best matches in the history of the program. Our competition brings out the best in us, but comparing ourselves to others is not what defines this team. At districts, this team set the standard of what the best in our team is now going forward. This group of young ladies have taken the program to the next level and are leaving quite a legacy for the next team to build upon,” he says with pride. “So yeah, fifth place is pretty amazing.”