After a successful season last year, EGR Bowling looks to continue their success in a new season. With a difficult schedule ahead of them, they’re just focusing on enjoying the time they spend together.

The successful season last year is putting pressure on the team to keep it up, though, despite a difficult schedule ahead.

“Last year the varsity team did very well, so they made our schedule difficult. This year we have two to three matches every single week, bowling against some of the best teams in the state,” Ethan Rappaport ‘23 said. 

Bowling has one of the busiest schedules out of any winter sport, with 23 matches in total. Out of those 23 games, seven of them are home. The home facility is Clique Lanes.

“My goals are to improve every week and enjoy it,” Jack Lado ‘23 said.

Despite all the fun, being on the team is hard work, between matches and practices, it’s no easy schedule. Usually, the boys bowl three to four games per day.

“At practices we do drills as well as bowl for a score,” Lado said.

Practices last an hour and a half, and everyone has their own lane to bowl on. With matches on top of that, they have a grueling schedule. The grind is a large part of the appeal for some on the team, however.

“Just seeing how little, the little changes you make, can make a big difference. Throwing the ball down the lane, and those little changes can cause you to get strikes,” Rappaport said

“A 150 is a good score for the team,” Lado said.

Matchdays can get intense for the bowling team. And especially with games occurring so frequently, it is important to work hard at the practices.

“Every player on both teams go head to head against someone on the other team. And then in one of the games, everybody bowls in one frame, so everybody bowls twice per game,” Rappaport said.

The team plays their home matches at the Clique Lanes downtown on most Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. 

A match that is expected to be a tough one for the team is Northview. 

“Northview is probably the best team around here,” Lado said.

Despite the big expectations and hard work, the real reason to join the team is for the sense of community that you get when you’re there.

“My favorite part is the camaraderie and the way that everyone roots for each other,” Lado said.

It’s that sense of community that drives the team forward and encourages them to keep working, but still have a good time while doing it.

“The team is competitive to an extent and we want to do well, but we also have a lot of fun and are not overly serious,” Lado said.

Despite the small number of bowlers the team still brings high energy to all their matches.