by Maleny Mireles
She focuses on the pins after a daring release. He focuses on the piercing of his opponent. They focus on the availability of their teammates. New Prairie High School student athletes break the average sport barriers with participation in bowling, fencing, ultimate frisbee, and ice hockey. New Prairie’s Bowling Club contributes victories to the Michiana West Conference. They compete against schools including Plymouth, Riley, Penn, Clay, Mishawaka, John Adams, Bremen, South Bend Saint Joseph, John Glenn, Argos, and LaVille. The games, coached by Eric Van Overberghe and Jim Goodlink, require participation from five players from each team. Each compete against the opposing selected five and no overall points are awarded for losses in the individual games. The overall team score is based on the individual scores and the team is awarded an additional point for every individual game win. Senior Kali Dahms has competitively bowled for seven years. In the 2017-2018 season, Dahms received the most points earned individually. Senior Christian Palmer has competitively fenced for six and a half years. He was inspired by his uncle, who also fences. Palmer fences for Escrime du Lac Fencing Club in Mishawaka. He is coached by Notre Dame’s fencing coach, Gia Kvaratskhelia. A game that combines both soccer and football has also made an appearance at New Prairie. Evan Gnott, a 2018 New Prairie graduate, introduced the Ultimate Frisbee Club in 2017. Gnott gave the ownership to senior Remy Chirilla for the 2018-2019 season. The games are competitive against the club members, but Chirilla hopes to organize a competitive game against Michigan City. Ice hockey may be a popular sport for most schools, but the words are hardly mentioned at New Prairie. For senior Rhett Gulotta, it’s all he’s known for 11 years. Senior Ryan Albano and junior Nathan Middlebrook joined Gulotta to play club hockey.
The players whose school does not offer a hockey team are drafted into the teams that do.
The boys play for Adams Hockey Club, joining John Adams and Marian High School. The team is split into the Adams side and the Marian side for lettering purposes. The club competes in the Michiana High School Hockey League.