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Steeleville bowling begins inaugural season

Posted November 11, 2016 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Editor@heraldtrib.com

Steeleville High School's newest sport began its inaugural season on Monday, as the Warriors' bowling team took on Lebanon for its first-ever match.

The team also faced Carbondale on Wednesday and will have had more than a week off before its next game, a rematch with Lebanon, on Nov. 21 at St. Clair Bowl in Fairview Heights.

"We are very young," said Steeleville coach Tommy Craig, who is guiding the team as a volunteer. "A lot of these kids have some basic skills, but they have to be able to hone them in to compete.

"The kids we played (against Carbondale) were juniors and seniors and you could see the difference."

Steeleville's seven-person team is made up of four sophomores (Nick Beshears, Christian Braun, Noah Middendorf and Brea Evans) and three freshmen (Hunter Smith, Logan Barnett and Robert Dodson), giving Craig two more years to establish the program without the attribution of graduation.

"I think it's great for the school," said Steeleville Athletic Director Bryce Bainter. "It gives kids who aren't as interested in other sports another outlet.

"It's convenient for us because we have a bowling alley a few blocks from the school."

Steeleville lost its matches to Lebanon (647-471, 609-428 and 570-428) and Carbondale (861-564, 860-650, 1027-561), but they were a historic beginning for the fledgling program.

The Warriors will also face Waterloo (Dec. 5), Herrin (Dec. 13), Harrisburg (Dec. 19 at S.I. Bowl in Carterville) and Freeburg on Dec. 27 to wrap up their seven-match schedule.

"Our goal at the end of the year is try to improve every match and get better as the year goes on and go into next year looking to compete at a higher level," Craig said.

Steeleville is competing as an independent school in bowling and Craig was hopeful that the sport could expand to other area schools to help cut down on the travel it takes to find competition.

"Everything's either up in the Metro-East or down around Marion and it would be nice to have local competition," he said.

One drawback to that is the availability of bowling alleys. Star Lanes in Sparta recently closed and Chester's bowling alley, King Pins, sits abandoned and rotting along Route 3 north of the city.

"Tell these local schools to get involved," Craig said. "I know there's interest from other schools to get something going.

"We went in as an independent and I had to call around to find people willing to bowl us."

Craig said the biggest cost associated with the sport is travel, as most of his team members have their own equipment and the Legion is helping the Warriors with the cost of lane time.

"If you would get into the bowling tournaments, then you talk about money getting involved," he said. "Around $200 per team with some of the tournaments I was looking at."

Bainter was asked about the possibility of Steeleville joining a conference for bowling in the future.

"I looked into getting us into the Cahokia Conference for bowling, but I looked into it a bit more and felt like it would be best to ease into it rather than head first," he said. "I felt like a better route was a couple of matches here or there to see how we stack up."

"We talked about trying to offer it to other schools and I think the other towns around here don't have a bowling alley that's accessible to them," Bainter continued. "Just like any other sport that's not mainstream, you have to do it for a year or two and hopefully it will catch on with other schools."

Craig is hopeful for the future. Middendorf recorded Steeleville's high score of 170 against Carbondale, while the team's high series award went to Smith with a 408.

"There's a lot of opportunities for these kids to get scholarships for college through bowling," Craig said. "After we got this program started, kids from other schools have started picking up on it and saying 'Hey, we want a bowling team.'"

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