This past Saturday Jesuit Varsity Bowling began its season. They kicked off their season opener at AMF Lewisville Lanes against Ursuline Academy. Throughout the first individuals game they started strong despite major setbacks.
For those who do not know, bowling matches are scored out of 15 points. 7 points are allotted to the individual games. 1 point is given to the sum of the 2 one on one games. Then 2 points for the point total for the individual points as a team. 8 points are designated for Bakers matches. Baker games, for those who do not know, consists of one normal game of bowling in which the entire team partakes.
The coach decides who to place at each of the five slots, being the 1st and 6th frame, 2nd and 7th, 3rd and 8th, 4th and 9th, 5th and 10th. After the 5th frame, the coach can decide to switch out players based on their performance or other reasons. 2 points are given to each of the three Baker matches, then 2 points for the total of the said games.
Varsity Match:
Kevin Martinez, in particular, had an astonishingly abysmal performance with very inconsistent shots throughout his first game. In fact, he had seven consecutive open frames to begin the season. This performance calls into question the legitimacy of his status as a varsity starter in comparison to a Navy Junior Varsity bench player for the Jesuit Rangers across the rest of the season.
Despite this undeniably horrible start, Kevin managed to close out the rest of his game across the eighth, nineth, and tenth frames. These clutch frames allowed him to barely beat his opponent from Ursuline in the first game. The end score was one hundred nineteen to one hundred eighteen.
Luckily for the Rangers, Kevin’s second game resembled more closely to the latter half of his first game in comparison to the first half. He ended that game with a one hundred seventy-six. This substantial improvement in his score allowed him to yet again barely beat his opponent who scored a one hundred seventy-three.
The rest of the team, on the other hand, had a very dominant performance. William Martin began the season with a spectacular game. Even with opens in the eighth and nineth frames, he still got a very respectable score of a 200, creating a substantial lead of 114 pins against his opponent. With this lead in mind as well as an account for the conditions of the oil on the lanes, Coach Shoemaker called up Burke Martin from the bench to play the second game, taking up the opportunity Burke secured the win against his opponent scoring a 157 against her 101.
Captain William Spicer had a similarly dominant performance as he scored a 191 in his first game against his opponent’s 118. Following up this strong game with a 193, Spicer got his match point.
Chris Ellis created a strong pin total of 383 across his two games. He began with a respectable score of a 177, ending on a match high of a 206, beating his opponent in both games to get another match point for the Rangers.
Due to a lack of a 5th member on their team for the individuals, Ursuline could not put anyone against Chase Hollman. Although even with an opponent Chase would have been a tough match scoring a 201 his first game, followed by a 196 in his second.
Altogether, Jesuit took the individual point total by force outscoring Ursuline as a total from 1816 to 964, nearly doubling Ursuline’s point total.
However when baker matches began this dominance which characterizes Jesuit’s game in the individual matches was not as apparent. Ursuline was inspired by the prospects of going to Six Flags, which could only by obtained by holding Jesuit pointless in the Bakers.
In Jesuit’s first baker game, their seemingly perfect point total came to an end. After a critical error in the tenth frame from Jesuit’s Christopher Ellis, Ursuline took their first match point outscoring Jesuit 152 to 145. Ursuline’s prospects of going to Six Flags appeared increasingly plausible as they merely needed two more wins
Despite this costly mistake from Chris, he remained in the anchor position in the following Baker games. Jesuit’s game greatly improved as they put up a 177 to Ursuline’s 113, cementing Jesuit’s victory in the match, ending the prospects of Six Flags for Ursuline.
In the last baker game, with Ursuline’s hopes for Six Flags in the ground Jesuit won by a wide margin scoring 194 despite an open in the tenth frame again from Chris Ellis. Another highlight of this game was a spectacular coaching move from Mr. Shoemaker, after Burke Martin’s shot struck a 1-3-7 split in the eighth frame, he brought in William Martin back in to make the spare.
On the day Jesuit went 13-2 over Ursuline, even with Captains Corbin and Jack on JV Gold.
JV Gold Match:
The Junior Varsity Gold resembled the Varsity in their dominance starting off strong against Lake Dallas.
Captain Jack Golembeski scored a respectable 170 in his first game narrowly beating his opponent who scored a 158. Despite a dip in his second game to a 132, he still won against his opponent’s 106, getting JV Gold its first point and scoring the individual match high games.
Leo Fernandez got out to a strong opening, outscoring his opponent by 40 pins in the first game, 103 to 63. After this game, Lake Dallas enrolled a substitute to face Leo, who although had a strong game, ultimately came up short as Leo only lost by 31 in the second game. This got JV Gold yet another point.
Pedro Rivera narrowly lost in his first game 85 to 70, before Johnathan Evans came in hot with a 125 against his opponent’s 103. This resiliency shown by Jesuit helps to characterize their depth as a team as well as an ability to never give up.
Joseph Kohout had a great performance against his opponent despite much adversity in the first game, getting outscored 162 to 117. With a lot of resiliency, he came back in his second game throwing a 175. Although a high game for the match, his opponent barely held on with a 133, an unfortunate loss 295 to 292.
Captain Corbin Hicks also had a good day, scoring a 138 his first game, dominating his opponent by 45 pins. His second game was even stronger. He scored a 153, nearly doubling his opponent’s score of 87, winning another point for Junior Varsity Gold.
In their baker games, the team had a dominant performance, continuing their success in the individual matches. Their first baker game they won 156 to 137. Their second they continued 137 to 101. Finally, they narrowly came through on their last baker game winning 148 to 140.
Altogether, Junior Varsity Gold had an amazing week as a team defeating Lake Dallas JV 14 to 1, highlighting a depth in Jesuit’s rosters, characterizing a plasticity as many JV bowlers came out with the performances on par with some varsity players.
JV Navy Match:
Like the other two Jesuit matches, JV Navy faced no troubles against JV Marcus in a smooth victory.
Henry Bansi faced no bowler in this match, although across this entire match he would have dominated against anyone. His first game he put up a 104, which he matched with a 150 topping all other scores in this match totaling 254.
Anthony Ontiveros had a tough loss on the day. He lost his first match by one point, 100 to 99, and his second match he lost by twelve pins, 107 to 95.
Reo Mashburn had an excellent come from behind victory on the day. His first game he started out barely behind 117 to 126. Luckily, he won the second game 119 to 97, earning himself the second highest average for Junior Varsity Navy on the day.
Beau Bureau-Mitchell similarly found victory for the Rangers as he consistently outscored his opponent. The first game he came out with a 120 to his opponent’s 79. Following this up, he won yet again 105 to 93.
Finally, Henry Jiede began the day with an 86. This sadly fell short to his opponent’s 115. Coming in for Henry in the second game, Alex Lamburson scored an 89, which also fell flat to yet another 115.
Luckily, Jesuit pulled away with the point total across the individual games putting them up 5 to 2 going into the bakers.
Jesuit came out hot in their baker games scoring a 119, outscoring their opponent by 50. This primed Jesuit for a great team performance. While Jesuit’s next game was not as ecstatic as the first, they still came across the day with narrow win, 73 to 69 over JV Marcus. Bouncing back to their former dominance found in the first bakers game, the Rangers came up with a 96 shunning the competition by 27.
Altogether JV Navy showed an incredibly dominant baker performance over the course of the day. In the end they won 13 to 2, yet another dominant victory for Jesuit.
Over the course of this day, Jesuit has given up a total of 5 points out of the total 45. These performances point to a start of a highly competitive year for Jesuit regardless of a lot of setbacks they faced prior to the season. For example, Coach Howell’s abdication of his position of head coach at the end of last year, this set the Ranger’s into unseen territory. Regardless of this in tandem with the closing of their former home bowling alley USA Bowl, the Rangers appear to be as strong as before, looking to a bright start of their season.
Q and A with Captain Spicer
How do you think Jesuit’s first match lines up with your goals for the end of the season?
So far I think that the first match lines up very well with our team’s goal of qualifying for State, and many of my personal goals for the season. Overall we came out and showed that we were able to perform at a high level individually, and despite the first baker setback, showed that we could come together and dominate in baker games. Having several bowlers start the season averaging over 190 is an impressive feat, and if we continue to keep up the hard work we are primed to make our goals a reality.
What points of improvement do you think the team could follow?
One area I do think we could improve on as a team would be our baker matches. Losing the first baker match to Ursuline Academy did not feel good, however it gives us an idea on what we need to work on to reach our goals. I hope that we can improve our baker average throughout the season, and use our first baker game of the match as an example of what we must avoid if we are to make state and win out the remainder of our district competition.
Do you expect to see any major changes for the line ups?
I do not see any major changes in the line up after this week. Seeing as the starters in the match dominated in singles and baker games, there is no reason to change the lineup. We need to stay focused on the team aspect of this game, and must not focus on the individual placements of each bowler. Instead of focusing on the lineup, I hope we are able to continue to keep our eyes on getting the team to state, rather than individual people.
Do you expect to see Jesuit’s baker performance increase across the course of the season and how are you all working for these improvements?
I do believe that our baker performance will increase across the course of the season, especially after that first baker game of the match. After the first game I personally felt humiliated. We should not have lost that, and since then the team has significantly improved its baker game. We must remember that baker matches are team based, and hold great significance to the outcome of each match. If we continue to focus on our baker performances, we can raise our team baker average to over 200 pins per game putting us at the top of our district, and potentially even the region. We must use these next matches as a start to a higher baker average, and stay concentrated on taking these games frame by frame to show outright superiority over the rest of our district.
Conclusion
All in all, the Jesuit Rangers are starting the year off strong!
Stay tuned for more news about Jesuit Bowling on The Roundup!
