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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Nothing Spare About It
Collin County, TX
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By: Robert Hughes
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Photo(s) By: Robert Hughes
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PISD club teams hope to make bowling a UIL sport
Even though high school sports weave a strong thread in the fabric of Texas culture, there is a challenge to engage more students in athletic activities. Bowling is one sport helping to bring them into the competitive realm of secondary education. And teams from Plano are leading that drive to engage students in Collin County, enticing them to compete in a very social environment.
“I think that’s what attracts them to bowling, that they see it as a social, more relaxed atmosphere,” Plano Wildcats head coach Luis Benavides said. “But then once they get involved the competitive juices kick in -- they see it’s not just fun but extremely competitive and they want to get better at it.”
New high school bowling clubs in Texas are rolling out every year. When the Texas High School Bowling Club was chartered in 2001 it was with 32 teams, statewide. At the start of the 2007-08 season THSBC featured 117 teams in 29 districts.
“We always wanted to start high school bowling across the state,” Benavides said. “I approached all three (Plano) schools and East said yes so we started with East, and once we got them going the other schools followed suit.”
Teams have five players. Junior varsity bowlers compete side-by-side with their team’s top varsity, with boys and girls battling on neighboring lanes. Although they bowl together, only on occasion is it a co-ed competition. If a boys team needs a player they will put a girl on the roster, but Benavides said that’s rarely a problem.
What’s most important to Benavides is the impact team bowling is having on the students he coaches and their families.
“We’ve got something that’s reaching the disengaged kids, and that’s a critical thing in our society,” Benavides said. “Not everybody’s an athlete and this is something for kids to latch on to and get involved with, and that’s the most rewarding thing we have here.”
After finishing second to Allen in North Central District of Region II the Wildcats boys team made the trip to the state tournament March 29-30 at Copperfield Bowl in Houston. Each year since 2001 a Collin County team has made it to the Sweet 16 or deeper.
This year the Plano East boy and girl teams made it to Houston as did the Plano West girls.
Every year on the lanes, and in life outside the alley, Benavides is impressed by how much his bowlers learn.
“We see tremendous growth, from the time we get them to the end of the season, in their abilities and scores,” he said. “Parents, at the end of the year, come to me and thank us for getting their kids involved.”
Benavides’ previous teams have had a measure of success. The Plano girls team earned a berth in the Final Four last year and in the 2004-05 season, the Plano boys team made it that far.
But in a way Plano’s bowling clubs are all his teams. Benavides was the key figure in the startup of Plano ISD bowling.
He said Texas high school bowling leagues mirror University Interscholastic League rules and standards as closely as possible. Someday he hopes bowling will be a UIL-sanctioned sport. Every year Benavides gets five minutes in open meeting to plead his case to the league for inclusion. Each time he is turned down.
Pursuit of UIL sanctioning is a passion for Benavides, a tough sell to a seasoned group of former athletic directors. He said the UIL is worried that it would pressure school districts to implement programs, adding to their budget demands.
“He (UIL Director William Farney) said specifically (if we here from) athletic directors, superintendents and principals that they want this program, then we will say yes,” Benavides said. “So now I am at the grass roots level trying to get administrators to come watch our events,” adding that he is confident bowling will be sanctioned but that it will take several years, at least.
But in the UIL’s absence THSBC provides a venue for ninth and tenth grade students to roll with their senior high school peers under the big school’s name. Benavides said forty percent of his team’s roster comes from T.C. Jasper and Vines.
Club bowling is not a dead-end activity on the way to higher education. Texas Bowling’s Web site lists three colleges recruiting bowlers. College bowling featuring name-brand universities can be seen on CBS College Sports Network.
So what makes a good bowler?
“Mostly, someone who’s coachable,” Benavides said. “Even someone that’s not necessarily coordinated, or someone that’s not the strongest physical specimen, if they are willing to do the work, and listen and learn, we can make a bowler out of just about anybody,” adding that it doesn’t hurt to be athletic.
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