The girls bowling season started rolling this week, and the team is aiming to do their best and knock out their goals.

Following tryouts on Monday, the team started practicing at Edison’s ahead of their first game in February.

At practices, the team scrimmages with each other and works together to refine their bowling skills.

“I hope to sharpen my swing and release,” sophomore Alex Hill said. “I also want to work on staying consistent with my approach and aim.”

Practices have also been a place for the team to bond. The team is currently all veteran players from last year, but the sport is no cut and new people may join before the season gets into full swing.

According to players, having many familiar faces on the team boosts the energy of the team and makes it a more relaxed, fun environment.

“You can tell that we are just a bunch of high school students looking to do something and stumbled across bowling and had a great time with it,” sophomore Madison Wendleton said. “We all help each other with … rides to practice or home matches, or give tips on how to better our performances.”

Teammates aren’t the only support players have. Girls bowling coach Deanne Voegele said she guides them to improving their bowling abilities. 

“I work with the girls on how they bowl, answer any questions they have about their form … basically tweaking things that I see,” Mrs. Voegele said. 

Players attribute the supportive and positive environment of the bowling team as a help in working towards the personal goals they have set for themselves this season.

“A personal goal I have this season is getting a score of 200 [in a match],” junior Vivian Panico said.

Some player’s goals are less about improving specific skills or score benchmarks and more focused on changing their mindset in regard to the sport. 

“I want to work on being less hard on myself,” Hill said.  “I’ve learned that when I get frustrated for doing bad it just makes things worse, so I want to start thinking more encouraging thoughts.”

While players said they are feeling positive about the pre-season, they have a different outlook on the competitive season.

The team is currently experiencing a shortage of players and has been asking people to join the team in the morning announcements in order to round out the team.

“I think that the girls would enjoy having more teammates just because the more teammates you have, the more camaraderie you have,” Mrs. Voegele said. 

EHS’s smaller team will be a disadvantage when going up against other schools with more players. But the Tigers aren’t focusing on the negatives. 

Before they begin going head-to-head with other schools, the team is focusing on having a good time and improving their bowling prowess.

“I don’t expect our scores to compare to other teams this season,” Hill said. “I think [the team] can all agree it’s not the most important thing. We’re here to have fun, and I’m confident we will.”