Within the walls of Airway Lanes lies a well-kept secret, the Portage Northern Bowling team. The premise of any great team is to perform at the very highest level. The bowling team here at Northern is no different. While they may be a lesser known sports team within the walls of the school, the bowling team has goals that they strive to achieve just like any other Huskie team.

“Our team goal as well as each individual player’s goal is to make it to states,” says Billy Edwards (11). “We’ve had plenty of boys go to states, but only ever had one girl make it from the girls varsity team, and we want to change that this year.” Billy is one of the more hard-working members of the team, practicing on his own at least three times a week.

The bowling team is an extremely hard working bunch of high school athletes. The teams meet twice a week during their season, the and practice hard on a wide variety of skills. These skills include follow through, where to stand on the approach, picking up spares, and hitting their mark, just to name a few.

Competitions take place every Saturday from November through March. That’s roughly as many months spent training and practicing as the basketball team does before their first games. There are Baker games, in which each teammate bowls two frames. There are also individual matches where they bowl against a specific opponent on the other team.

A great deal of work goes into making the bowling team a success, and the students on the team can credit the coaching staff for making sure the team works hard to do the best job possible in this upcoming season. Bill Louthen and Mike Schnieder have worked exceptionally hard in forming and keeping the team going through their passion for the kids as well as the sport of bowling. “We all owe Coach Louthen and Coach Schneider a lot for all the hard work they’ve put in teaching us to be the best bowlers we can be,” Edwards says.

“We owe a lot of the team’s success to the students and all the time they put into making themselves the best bowlers they can be,” Coach Mike Schneider proudly states. “Without the dedication of the students and the comradery that they share, the team would not be nearly as good,” Coach Bill Louthen declares.

The admiration between the student bowlers and coaches alike is extremely evident, and this chemistry will assist the bowling team in excelling in the lanes this season.

With a talented, hard-working team and dedicated coaches, the goals that the bowling team has set for themselves seem more than likely, they seem attainable. For if the season gets rolling for the team and they stay straight down their lane, there is no reason they can’t go to states and get a STRIKE!