On Tuesday, Jan. 14, the Stevenson girls’ bowling team attended a tournament and lost against Vernon Hills with a final pinfall of 2,078 to 2,595. Despite their loss, the Patriots kept their spirits high and didn’t give up throughout the match.
The team bowls six athletes per game and drops the lowest score so there are five scores that count per game. The first game had a pinfall of 673 to 918, the second game had 745 to 825, and the third ended 660 to 852. The highest scoring bowler during the game was Amanda Xumsai ’25, the team captain with a total pinfall of 171, followed by Ellie Im ’27 who ended with 163.
While preparing for a bowling match, the bowlers do various exercises to improve their performance. Melinda Fitzgibbons, varsity girls bowling head coach, emphasizes how bowlers must be prepared for anything during their games, and how their warm-ups will vary based upon conditions.
“Warm-ups are different everywhere you go because of the different ways houses do oil patterns on their lanes,” Fitzgibbons said. “During their warm-ups, we teach them to go after a strike ball, seven pin, and ten pin because with all lanes being different they need to be able to adjust themselves for different lanes.”
Although warm-ups are a crucial aspect of the team’s performance and camaraderie, coaching also plays a major part in improving the Patriots’ skills. Xumsai, who attended sectionals last year, illustrates the active role coaches play in ensuring the team improves their skills.
“Our coaches always promote team morale, having good sportsmanship, and having good teamwork, whenever we make mistakes they always help us improve with anything we did wrong,” Xumsai said.
Xumsai underlines that support from coaches is not the only thing that improves the team, a lot of the growth the team experiences is possible because of the strong team bond. Fitzgibbons highlights that the team prepared for this match with consistent practice and a constant effort to strengthen their team bond.
“We have a great team morale, everyone gets along with each other, there never seems to be an issue with anyone, it’s come a long way,” Fitzgibbons said. “At practice, we do nine pin no tap days where hitting nine pins counts as a strike. Overall, we try to keep them happy [and having fun] at practice, we like to play music and bring in snacks for them.”
