GREENFIELD — For the second straight year, Greenfield-Central’s girls bowling team qualified for the national championships.
This time, they will be able to go.
The 2020 U.S. High School Bowling National Championship was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns.
The Cougars had earned the spot by placing sixth in the state tournament.
Qualifying and not being able to compete was quite a disappointment. It was also extra motivation to try to qualify again, with hopes the tournament would still take place.
“It was one of the hardest pills to swallow knowing that opportunity was taken away from them,” Charlton Cavette, the G-C bowling program coordinator, said. “Getting that email (from the U.S. High School Bowling Association), it stunk. It put a damper on a lot of things. A lot of tears were shed.
I think they took that for what it was worth. Yes, it was a sad moment, but it added more fire to everybody, including the coaches.”
There were no seniors on the 2020 team, so G-C was returning a very strong roster. After getting through sectional, regional and semistate competitions, the squad went on to the state finals.
The Cougars earned a third-place finish and an opportunity to go to nationals, again, which is on schedule to take place this weekend.
They will play in Dayton, Ohio, which was also to be the site for the 2020 event, as one of 22 girls teams competing for a national championship.
“I am very excited (to be competing), especially since last year it got canceled due to COVID. I think all of us are excited and pumped up to be able to actually go and experience it,” senior Macy Huber said. “With me, being a senior, it’s my last time. It’s exciting to be able to go. COVID didn’t stop it like it did last year.”
The tournament’s team competition begins at 9 a.m. today. An individual tournament starts Sunday and will wrap up on Monday. All the bowling will take place at Poelking Lanes South, a 50-lane facility.
Six G-C bowlers will participate, including seniors Kayla Blaszak-Trice, Elyssa Colwell and Huber; juniors Cassie Knapp and Victoria Titus and sophomore Lauren Sherman.
“I’m super excited. I feel like last year it kept getting closer and we all thought it was going to happen,” Colwell said. “This year, we finally get to do it. It was much more of a push to get there (this season).”
“It feels great,” Knapp added. “I’m glad we didn’t have any seniors last year. (This year’s seniors have) been bowling their whole lives. They got another chance. They’ve been working for it their whole lives.”
It’s the fifth straight year Greenfield-Central has had a national qualifier.
A co-ed team qualified in 2018. In 2017 and 2019, the Cougars had individual representation. Last year was the first time a girls team had qualified.
Chavette said, at first, it was a struggle to even get a girls team together. He was initially hired to coach the girls program.
“This group is special to me,” Cavette said. “When I took over (in 2017), I was the girls coach and I was pulling people off the side and putting them on the team. The following year we had to go co-ed because we didn’t have enough girls.”
That changed when the current group of seniors helped put together an all-girls team.
“The demand was high the following year,” Cavette said, referring to the season after going co-ed. “We had a lot of talented girls and they wanted to get a girls team going. They pulled it together and got the girls together.
“All this was forged by the senior group, the whole team camaraderie, team spirit. It’s obviously manifested to the highest place by any team in school history. No team has gotten higher than (third).”
G-C will hope to do well this weekend, but it will have to do it without one of the top players.
The team will be without their top bowler from the 2021 season, senior Tandess O’Neal. She is unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict. O’Neal qualified for the national tournament all four years, either with a team or as an individual.
“I’m disappointed I can’t go, but I’m super proud of them and how hard they are working,” O’Neal, who will bowl at Marian University next season, said. “They’re out here working every week and I’m very excited for them.”
Aubrey Harter, another team member, will also not be able to attend, nor will coach Dave Evans. Cavette will fill the coaching role this weekend.
The competition will be the first for the group in three months. The sectional, regional, semistate, and state ran consecutive weekends in March.
“This is huge,” Colwell added. “We’ve all been bowling for years. Finally getting that last hurrah is super exciting. It makes it feel all worth it.”
