Only sixteen teams remain in the “Sweet Sixteen” round of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. Eight games will be played, and the winners of these games will advance to the “Elite Eight.” Eventually, the pool will be narrowed down to a “Final Four,” a Championship, and, finally, a single Champion.
A similar bracket style will be initiated at this year’s Texas state high school bowling tournament. Sixty-seven bowlers from across the state have qualified, and they will compete to secure the top sixteen spots, which will be arranged in a “Sweet Sixteen” bracket to determine a champion. The tournament, held at Bandera Bowling Alley in San Antonio, will take place this Saturday, March 29, 2014.
At this year’s competition, two of the sixty-seven bowlers will represent Jesuit’s Bowling team: Matthew Martin ’15 and Nathan Leiter ’14. These two bowlers had to consistently bowl well all season long to earn their place. Initially, they have to qualify for regionals, and in order to do so, they had to be one of the top eight bowlers in their district, a district filled with nine teams. After doing so, they have to be in the top 40% at regionals to qualify for state.
Nathan, after not bowling one of his best games, was “angry” and “sure that [he] had missed the cut.” However, he fortunately was able to qualify as the last bowler from Jesuit’s region.
Coach Kelli Mattacchione will drive the boys down on Friday morning. On Friday, they will bowl on the lanes for a warm-up, spend the night, and will bowl in the tournament on Saturday before heading back to Jesuit that same night. Bowler Michael Case ’15, though he did not qualify for state, will be assisting Coach Mattacchione in scoring.
Mattacchione explained that just “to make it beyond regionals you have to be pretty darn good,” and that “for two bowlers out of Jesuit to make it to state is awesome. We are only one of two private schools in the state of Texas that even has a team and represents at state.”
Martin and Leiter will not be the first two Jesuit bowlers ever to qualify for the state tournament. Leiter made it last year in his junior season, and Jonathan Mendiola ’12 qualified for state the year before that. Jonathan has been the highest state ranked bowler that Jesuit has ever had, ranking 33rd in the state in 2012.
As for Nathan’s performance last year, Mattacchione noted that “[he] had one bad game. And when you have one bad game, you are kinda out of it. He is one of those that you look at and say, ‘I gotta beat him’ because he is already state ranked; however, no one knows about Matthew Martin. He hasn’t gone to state yet. He could be the silent guy going in for the kill.”
To prepare, Matthew and Nathan have been practicing on their own because the rest of the team is already done with their season. Coach Mattacchione added that “this late in the season, there is not any special training they need. They know what they need to do and they practice on their own to get there. For special practice, I try to call the alley and get a freshly oiled alley for them to most closely resemble the conditions at state.”
As for the rules at state, each bowler will bowl three games; if they don’t make the cut they are done. However, if they are one of the top sixteen bowlers, they go best 2 out of 3 in the “Sweet Sixteen” bracket. The final match of the tournament, meanwhile, will be a single game, “do or die.” Normally, the cut average is around 210 or 220 per game. Anyone who advances at state has bowled at least ten games by the time they get to the final round. Coach Mattacchione even has seen bowlers bowl 300’s (perfect scores) in the past, and is “hoping maybe one of our bowlers can do it. You never know. It could be their day.”
Though Mattacchione acknowledges that the tournament is “mentally stressful and physically stressful,” she asserts that “mentally, they’re ready. They are the best as far as mentally ready to get the job done. That’s why they are going.”
Because of the physical stress, a lot of strategy must be put into practice to prevent arm tiring. Additionally, the oil patterns change on the lanes as more bowlers play on them, altering the bowling surface.
State tends to go a little quicker because there are not full teams, just individuals. However, state is a bit slower than regionals because there are more bowlers on each lane, further altering the oil patterns.
When asked her feelings about Matthew and Nathan, Mattacchione explained that “words cannot describe how proud [I am]. I am excited. I cannot talk about it without smiling. When I am there, I get the goosebumps. It’s an awe moment. I am trying not to be nervous because if you are nervous then they get nervous and it all goes downhill. I try to maintain one of those low coach profiles, let them do their thing, and if it’s really not working, I step in. That’s what all of our goal as bowling coaches is, to have them able to coach themselves. You don’t want to have to coach them at state. You want them to be able to go, ‘Oh, I’m doing this wrong,’ then fix it themselves.”
For Matthew, this will hopefully not be his last time at state. This year’s tournament should be able to serve as a learning experience for him, so that he can improve even more for next year’s tournament. He added that “I am not very nervous because this will be more of getting used to the atmosphere so that I am better prepared for next year than trying to win.”
For Nathan, however, this is his last time to suit up as a Jesuit bowler. It is his last chance to perform at state. In the words of Mattacchione, “Just like any sport, the second time around, you are going to be better. You are probably going to have the jitters and be nervous the first time you go to state, but hopefully, next year those should go away and he will have improved that much more to be an even better competitor. That is why Nathan is being looked at as one to beat because he is a senior, he is state ranked, and it is his ‘last hoorah.’ He should be ready. He probably wants this.”
Nathan and Matthew both appreciate their coach’s effort and support. Matthew referred to her methods of “[creating] a relaxed environment at practice. This helps because we bowl to have fun. Since we bowl to have fun, we don’t have as much stress to bowl our best each time which makes us more relaxed when bowling which helps us to bowl better.”
Hopefully, the two Jesuit bowlers will be able to bowl stress free on Saturday, and excel at the state tournament!
