Striking it rich

It started out as something fun to do over two years ago.

One would never assume that now while watching Spain Park’s Julianna Cross bowl.

Cross looks up on the monitor and realizes it’s her time to step to the lane. She grabs her towel — a hand towel that appears to have been used heavily over the years — and begins wiping her hands meticulously, to ensure that no moisture or debris will alter her next frame.

She grabs her personal bowling ball and inspects it by spinning it through her hands a few times. Her fingers fit the holes perfectly.

She now turns toward the lane, her eyes peering over the bowling ball raised to her face. She aligns her feet with the target and flexes her knees. A few steps will get her from where she is standing to the foul line. Her approach has been repeated many times.

She knows that rolling the ball squarely into the front pin would cause an undesired split. She hits the front pin slightly off-center. In the blink of an eye, the pins are gone.

Strike.

Cross attempts to hide the smirk of satisfaction on her face. After all, there are several more where that came from.

“We’re all competitive, so winning’s obviously fun,” she said.

CATCHING ON

Bowling is in its second year as a sanctioned championship sport with the Alabama High School Athletic Association and has quickly caught on with the Spain Park girls team.

“Well, it started out as just kind of a fun thing, because the whole softball team did it,” said Caroline Parker, one of the Lady Jags’ top bowlers. “We just did it for fun. Then we realized that we were actually kind of good at it, so we just kept going.”

Cross and Parker are two of Spain Park’s top softball players. Mary Katherine Tedder recently signed to play softball at the University of Texas, and is a natural in the bowling alley as well. The list goes on.

C.J. Hawkins, who doubles as Spain Park’s softball coach, coaches the Lady Jags. Initially, that attracted solely softball players to compete on the team. But after two years of competing as a team — and one as a championship sport — the team is beginning to show some diversity. Volleyball players, a gymnast and others can be spotted on a given match day competing for Spain Park.

Hawkins is by no means a “bowling whisperer.” But she does boast extensive experience maintaining personalities and coaching individuals, two things that lend well to competitive bowling.

“Every game. Every tournament,” Parker said of when the team gets some sort of pregame talk from Hawkins. “She just tells us to stay focused and get as many pins as you can.”

As far as the technical aspects of the game go, the Lady Jags have essentially figured them out on their own, through showing up at the lanes several days a week.

“[Hawkins] doesn’t know how to correct us and we don’t know how to correct ourselves either, because no one’s done it before,” Parker said. “But we practice a lot. It’s all about repetition. That’s the only thing you can do to get better at it.”

After bowling consistently over the last few years, Cross has started to notice the effects of ill form, and is figuring out how to address them.

“A lot of times, if you’re leaning and your hips are not square, that influences where the ball will go,” she said.

That kind of technical talk comes from the same people who signed up for the team on a whim.

Parker admitted, “Now we take it really seriously.”

The Lady Jags back up Parker’s point. During a Nov. 14 match at Vestavia Bowl, for example, Taylor Harrington bowled with the varsity team with a broken finger. Parker tweaked her hip and continued to participate. Neither had second thoughts.

They won that day.

STRATEGY INVOLVED

High school bowling matches are divided into two categories: traditional and Baker. Matches begin with a traditional round, where five bowlers from each team complete the normal 10 frames and their total pins are combined.

The traditional round is followed by three Baker games, where the strength or weaknesses of a team become readily apparent. All five bowlers combine to make one game in a Baker game, meaning each player bowls two frames in each game.

The catch is that the players play in order, twice through. The person who bowls the first frame also plays the sixth frame. The one who completes the second, also the seventh, and so on. The strongest player is given the anchor spot and bowls the fifth and 10th frames, where extra pins are available.

“The fifth spot is definitely the most pressure,” said Cross, who occasionally takes claim to that spot, “because you can go into an extra frame. In the 10th frame, you need to get a spare or a strike.”

The scoring system in bowling can be complicated for beginners. Parker and Cross admitted as much but said they have a much better grasp on it now than when they started.

“It took me a long time to figure out how spares work,” Parker said. “It’s plus-10 whatever you get [on the next roll]. Also, the 10th frame is worth 30 pins and is so important.”

The Spain Park girls saw the boys team capture the state championship last season and are aiming for that accomplishment this time. The Lady Jags came in fifth at state last year, but believe they are a year better and equipped to make a run.