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Saturday, December 1, 2007
Bulldogs Rolling Wright Along
Western Arkansas, AR
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“Everyone likes bowling; within 5 minutes a shy ninth grader can be given a high-five from a senior on the football team,” says Greenwood High School bowling coach Tad Wright. Wright’s Bulldog bowling teams have had plenty of reasons to enjoy the sport. The Bulldogs boys team is coming off a state championship, while the girls team was state runner-up in just the school’s fourth year of bowling. This year Wright feels “the girls team has a great chance to win state.” The Lady Bulldogs are led by three returning members from last year’s squad. Whitney Fuller, Laura Sharum and Stephanie Little will be on a mission to win the state title. “We have really come together since I was a freshman; we have a lot of fun,” says junior bowler Whitney Fuller. On the boys side of the alley, there will be some big shoes to fill with the loss of all-state bowler Jacob Wright off the 2007 state championship team. David Miller, Michael Bailey and Kevin Meadors will lead the Bulldogs in search of back-to-back state championships. “A lot of the big teams will be gunning for us. Its like football, when you win the state championship, everyone wants to beat you,” says Bailey, who also plays the clarinet and is the Greenwood High School drum major. Bailey also goes on to say, “Coach Wright makes it fun, he worries more about having a good time than winning, but he did get pretty excited about the state championship.”
“Bowling is the fastest growing sport in the nation,” as stated by Wright. “It brings a lot of kids together that might not normally hang out with each other.” Wright goes on to say , “That is the great thing about bowling; we have all kinds of personalities that come out to bowl.” This year, the Arkansas Athletic Association has nearly 70 high schools sanctioned for bowling. This is the third year for the AAA to recognize bowling as a high school sport.
High school bowling matches are made up of two teams with 6 bowlers on each team. In the course of a match, the teams bowl 2 games of 6-on-6 and 4 games of Baker style. 6-on-6 is where each bowler on the team bowls two games and total pins decide the winner. The match then switches formats to what is called Baker style. Baker style bowling is when the team has 5 bowlers bowl 2 frames each. The Baker style format is also used in collegiate bowling.
The High school season starts dropping pins the week after Thanksgiving break. Greenwood has a 10-match season, and hosts the Greenwood Holiday Classic on December 27. The district championships will be February 1 and the state championships follow on February 8. All three tournaments will be held at Bowling World in Ft. Smith.
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