When entering the girls’ bowling practice, you hear pins hitting the ground, followed by an encouraging cheer coming from a teammate. “S-I-S-L-I-D-E slide it, over, slide it over,” senior Mia Sarris said, firing up her teammate to get a spare while the ball comes back to her.

Bowlers practice almost every day getting better and better, all having goals to accomplish.

“We are bowling the whole time. During practices, it’s a time for everyone to work on their form and the small details. Some of our more advanced players are trying to hit certain pins that they know get left behind in a game. Some of our lower experienced players are working on how to release the ball and their form and making sure that ball makes its way to the pins,” varsity coach, Kathie Kajmowicz said.

This is only the girls bowling team’s second year being their own group, last year, the season started off with the girls and boys teams combined because of the lack of girls involved. Mid-way through the 2021-2022 season, though, many new girls joined, enough for them to make their own team.

Bowlers joined for a variety of reasons, “I originally joined a bowling league for fun and to try something new out outside of school. And then junior year, when the bowling season started, I thought it would be fun to join as a school sport.” Sarris said. Some, joined because they have enjoyed bowling outside of school. However, some first started bowling at Niles West. “I got into bowling because I wanted to do something at school and I didn’t really have anything going on and I keep going because it’s fun. I started it last year,”  junior Carly Markson said, now Markson has already made her way up to co-captain of the team.

Many freshmen have also found the bowling team, calling it a home for them after arriving in the new school environment. “Everyone has made me feel so welcome. They’re all very nice and I made a lot of new friends. Everyone is super supportive, even if you’re a starter,”  freshman Carly Krygowski said.

As co-captains, Sarris and Markson lead the team with energy. “We definitely keep the spirit up,” Markson said. Part of their jobs is to push the bowlers to reach their highest potential. “We give encouraging pep talks to both the varsity and JV before games. We try and give technical points at practice through observation here and there” Sarris said.

During games, there are ten people who play, five players from JV and five from varsity. After playing three games, they total up all of the scores, and whichever team got the highest wins.

It being only their 2nd year of the girls being a team, they have been excelling and doing very well already placing 4th in their division.