Up Front
EVERYTHING BOWLING, ALL THE TIME
TOUCH FOR MORE
GATORADE HIGH SCHOOL PLAYERS OF THE YEAR HIT THE LANES
STAR ATHLETES LEARN THE HARD WAY THAT BOWLING IS A SPORT, TOO. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Consider the debate settled:
Bowling is, after all, a sport. Well, at least for the 2014-15 Gatorade High School Players of the Year. That conclusion be- came painfully apparent when nine of the 12 honored athletes hit the lanes together at Lucky Strike in Los Angeles on the eve of the awards banquet.
As Jason Jordan of USA Today
put it, “If their bowling skills had to get them to Tuesday night’s awards banquet, it would likely never happen.” That is because the players,
TOUCH FOR MORE
who earned accolades for excel- ling in football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls
basketball, boys and girls soc- cer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track and field, com- bined for an average of 120. Ben Simmons, a 6-foot-10
forward for the Montverde Academy basketball team in Montverde, Fla., retreated to the pool table after getting smoked by his dad, Dave, on the lanes.
LESSON LEARNED: They may be star athletes, but the 2014-15 Gatorade Players of the Year learned the hard way at Lucky Strike in Los Angeles that bowling is every bit a sport as any other they have played.
“I don’t bowl at
all. I guess I need to start,” he said over billiards. “I’m looking a lot better here.” The star ath-
letes learned something else about the sport of bowling: It is uniquely accessi- ble to people of all ages, abilities, and conditions. Rachel Garcia, a right-handed softball pitcher who compiled a
26-2 record with a 0.21 ERA last season for Highland High School in Palmdale, Calif., busted her knee during the state title game and subsequently had surgery. That did not stop her, as she hobbled up to the foul line on a crutch
and bowled nonetheless. “The worst part? She
actually looked on par with the competition,” Jordan quipped.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ////////// AUGUST 2015 12
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