Rolling to the end of January, the Clarke bowling teams were enjoying their nearly dual-perfect seasons, as the girls stood at 11-1 and the boys 10-0. Then on Sunday, Jan. 25, the team and community woke to news no one wants to hear - an overnight fire had destroyed Alley Bowl, Osceola’s only bowling alley and home of the Clarke bowlers.
With just eight days until the girls’ regional competition set to be hosted at Clarke Feb. 2 and boys’ regionals Feb. 16, the team was left scrambling to replace bowling balls, shoes, uniforms, supplies and practice lanes, while the state athletic association sought an alternative location.
“There’s no playbook for this one,” Clarke Superintendent Dr. Kurt DeVore said at a meeting Jan. 28.
Despite what could have overshadowed their entire season, Osceola and surrounding communities rallied behind the Indian bowlers, who didn’t let the loss of Alley Bowl slow them down, as both teams, along with five individual qualifiers, made appearances at state.
Following their respective state competitions, both teams and coaches sat down with GoClarkeTV’s Chris Dorsey and Tim Riddle to discuss their seasons and time to Waterloo’s Cadillac XBC.
Girls team
On Feb. 2, the girls team of junior Essa Jones-Clark, senior Emily Glenn, freshman Kaitlyn Glenn, senior Abbi Nash, senior Haylee Tipton and junior Libby Wright took first at the state qualifying meet held in Adel and hosted by Clarke with a score of 2,294, advancing them to state as a team. Also coming out of the meet were three individual qualifiers - Essa, Abbi and Haylee.
At the state meet, the team came in fifth place with a final score of 2,555. That score was their highest of the season, and the second-highest in school history for the girls team.
Individually, Essa placed 10th with a score of 598, Haylee 28th with 494 and Abbi 29th with 463.
It was early in their season when the girls felt they “clicked” with one another. As their chances at making an appearance at state got closer, they didn’t let it go to their heads.
“We just kept bowling every frame, every game, keeping each other up,” Essa said.
For others, it wasn’t until the post-season that the team’s hard work started to seem worth it.
“We ended up placing first at regionals and then going to state it was like, ‘yeah, I’d say we’re pretty good,’” Emily said.
Haylee agreed that it was around regionals that she started to feel the energy build as a team, but was a bit wary individually.
“Last year, I missed state by two pins, so I was really nervous that I was going to miss it again by a couple pins,” she said. “Then I was just kind of in my head for the first game, and then I got out of it and I say it went pretty well.”
Bowling coaches Craig Wisniewski and Jeff Giza believed in the girls’ chances of making it to state from the start.
“I told [these girls], we’re going to state from the first week,” Giza said. “Give us a little bit of talent and we’ll take them quite a ways.”
Walking out at Waterloo just solidified to the team what their hard work had been for.
“Emotions were definitely high because of everything that had been going on,” Abbi said, “then walking out, just realizing that we’ve made it, and we’re there, and really pushed so hard for it just was [a] great feeling.”
Yet despite the nerves, Essa said it felt like any other meet.
“We’re just bowling. Whatever we place, we place,” she said. She went on to have one of her highest series at the state meet, a 598.
According to Wisniewski, having seen the team finish just behind the eventual state winner and runner-up at Ottumwa just prior to regionals showed to everyone else how good the team was on and off the deck.
“We actually stuck together, helping each other during meets,” he said.
Boys team
The varsity boys team of sophomore Bryce Giza, senior Brett Orr, senior Tayton Dudney, senior Cooper Ciecalone, junior Adyan Mathews and sophomore Cole Jacobsen traveled to Council Bluffs Feb. 16 where they walked away with a score of 6,347 and first place to move on to state as a team, with Bryce and Cole qualifying individually.
Similar to the girls, it was at the start of the season when the boys and coaches knew they had something special with their team, as they struck out strong from the get-go.
“When we set our goals - 3,000 to start the year was our initial goal,” Giza said. “Once we started getting our goals to where we were one of the top guys in the state, I think they knew we might be kind of special this year.”
From watching the boys over the last few years, the coaches knew this year was going to be state or bust.
“I knew what we had and I knew what we were capable of,” Giza said.
At state, the team ended up finishing in fifth place with a score of 3,181, which set a new school record and broke their record set earlier in the season of 3,177. Bryce qualified in the top eight with a score of 720, and went on to win seventh with 257. Cole finished in 29th with a total preliminary score of 582.
With nerves a bit high going into the state meet, Tayton said once practice began everyone fell into their grooves. All agreed the biggest contender of the day was the dry lanes as the meet went on.
“It was such a proud moment to just finally realize that we’re actually here now and we’re here as a team. It’s not just one or two people make it individually,” Bryce said. “We made it fully as a team. I just felt like it was a great moment for us.”
Going into the individual competition, Cole said he wanted to bowl as well as he had at regionals. As a sophomore, he will take what he learned this year and apply it onward.
“It was really fun and knowing that I have two years left to improve, it kind of boosts my confidence more, even though I didn’t do too well,” he said.
Despite not finishing as high as he would have liked, Bryce was still happy to have made it to state individually.
“I’ll take seventh out of 32 - it’s still not bad,” he said.
Overall, the boys reflected that it was a fun season, pointing to the van rides, hotel stays and games played that helped them bond and build the One Tribe mentality that spilled over onto the lanes.
Challenges
The road to state was not without its challenges post-fire. While some equipment that was housed at Alley Bowl was salvaged, it could not be used.
Faced with having to find all new equipment so late in the season, the team was met with generous donations from businesses and community members. Still, there lingered the new challenge of breaking in and learning the quirks of new balls. The cure was to practice until their arms were sore.
“We practiced, practiced, practiced to get 50, 60 games on all those balls and obviously it paid off,” Giza said.
Kaitlyn said she had been confident in her old ball, but it wasn’t until practicing at Adel for Regionals that she “clicked” with her new one. Emily said mentally, she just had to remember she knew what she was doing.
“I just remembered that just because I have new stuff doesn’t mean I don’t know how to bowl and I just need to figure out where I need to stand and my mark,” Emily said.
The practices were important not just for breaking in their new equipment, but also to come back together as a team.
“Unfortunately, tragedy kind of brought everybody back together a little bit and for the betterment of the team,” Wisniewski said.
The support shown to the Giza family, who own Alley Bowl, after the fire was inspiring.
“To see everyone come and help through the tragedy was pretty amazing,” he said.
Wisniewski echoed the sentiments.
“I’d like to thank all the community members that had reached out and donated to help the kids get their new equipment and everything. And that outpouring of support for the team was awesome just to see that we have each other’s backs as a town,” he said.
The bowlers thanked the community for their support not just after the fire, but throughout the season as well, echoed by Coach Giza.
“We’ve had an amazing following all season,” Giza said. “We, by far, had the biggest crowd at state… the support’s been insane and amazing.”
Future
With three seniors on both teams, Wisniewski and Giza are already looking to next year’s teams. For the girls that may prove more challenging, as in general there seem not to be as many girls who go out for school bowling.
“It’s going to be hard to replace three seniors like [them],” Wisniewski said. “It’s been a great season. Hopefully we can keep building forward for the future.
On the boys’ side, there is a healthy roster of junior varsity players ready to step into varsity shoes. For every meet they bowled, Giza said Clarke’s JV beat the other team’s varsity team.
“Both the boys and the girls team… just the camaraderie we’ve had all year has been amazing,” Wisniewski said. “This year has just been, for me as a coach… it’s just been a privilege and an honor to coach these young men and women all year long.”
“It’s been awesome to just see them want to work so hard and not have to push them really to even do so,” Giza said. “So it’s going to be hard to find a group that will want to work as hard as these guys. So it’s been a pretty special group and I’m going to miss it.”
While the future of a bowling alley for Osceola and Clarke’s home meets remain uncertain (Mount Ayr is a possibility for a practice site next year), one thing is not - the Clarke bowling team will continue to roll along, knocking down more records as they go.