by Grady Lapczynski
New Prairie Bowling advanced to regionals for the 3rd time in five years.
The teams consist of six girls and six boys, but only five are able to compete game to game.
New Prairie faces teams such as Plymouth, Riley, Penn, Clay, Mishawaka, John Adams, Bremen, South Bend Saint Joseph, John Glenn, Argos, and LaVille.
Head coach, Eric Van Overberghe, took the club under his wing five years ago.
Coach Van Overberghe has advanced to regionals in all 5 seasons of coaching.
Once an individual's turn is up, he or she will compete against a member from the other team. The bowler with the highest score earns an individual point, while their final score is added to the overall team score.
In the last five years, 3 female bowlers including Senior Kali Dahms, Shelby Lehman class of 2018, and Autumn Van Overberghe class of 2016 stood out for New Prairie and have all gone to Semi-State since 2013.
The girls as a team advanced to Semi-State once since VanOverberghe became head coach in 2016.
This year’s bowling team swept the competition and was undefeated on the year.
The boys’ team has only had one teammate, Sophomore Dylan Pohl, advance to Semi-State, which was this year.
“Ever since I was young I always enjoyed watching bowling,” Pohl said. He and five other male bowlers competed week to week in order to bring home their first bowling championship.
Pohl’s teammate Junior James Goodlink has been bowling since his childhood. Bowling runs deep in his family as he learned from his dad who also bowled all his life.
“I got into bowling from my dad who has bowled all his life and it just went on from there,” Said Goodlink.
The boys’ team has never made it to regionals or anything past. The farthest they have advanced is sectionals where they have been co-conference champs.
The team practices at Chippewa Bowl in South Bend and competes for championships all over Indiana.
All the bowlers on the team said they love the sport and hope to continue competing and continue bowling.