After a fire destroyed Alley Bowl early Sunday morning, the race has been on to find a temporary home for the Clarke bowling teams as the 2025-26 bowling season winds down. A big piece of that involved finding a new site for the girls’ Class 1A Region 3 meet which had been set to take place in Osceola Monday, Feb. 2.
“There’s no playbook for this one,” Clarke Superintendent Kurt DeVore said Wednesday morning at a Clarke County Development Corporation meeting. “It’s evolved very quickly.”
A meeting of district athletic directors Wednesday morning solidified the new site for the meet: Adel’s Family Fun Center. The No. 1 seed going into regionals, Clarke will still be the host team for the event as they go up against six other teams - Creston, Greene County, Madrid, Mount Ayr, Nevada and West Central Valley - as they seek to roll their way on to the state tournament. The Clarke girls’ team record as of Jan. 28 stands at 11-1.
In the days since the fire, support has been pouring from Osceola and surrounding communities in for the bowling team to help them replace all of their equipment that was lost or damaged in the fire. With 22 bowlers - 12 varsity and 10 junior varsity - shoes, bags, primary balls, “spare” balls (balls used for picking up spares and similar) and other items need replaced in short order. While most of the bowling balls were salvaged, the design of bowling ball cores today leave them susceptible to extreme temperature fluctuations that can result in them “popping” or cracking when rolled.
With talks that Alley Bowl was also to be the host side for the boys’ regional meet Sunday, the final location is expected to be released tomorrow. The Clarke boys bowling team are currently undefeated at 10-0.
Monday’s regional competition for the girls begins at 10 a.m. Tickets for the event can be found online at bound.com.