The MCHS Girls’ bowling team finished 6th at the state bowling tournament for class 3A earlier this week, finishing the pre-bracket with 2654 total pins, bypassing Davenport Central three games to two, and finally falling to Dubuque Senior.
“When we first got there I was nervous and excited all at once,” said Kylie Novak, a junior on the team. She’s the team’s anchor in most games, with the highest average score. She added, “There were a lot of people there cheering us on and keeping us going through the day.”
Throughout the course of the tournament, the girls bowled almost twenty games, possibly more, according to Novak.
For the girls, this has been a goal all season. “It was a big thing for everybody,” said junior Abrianna Collins. “He’s [Coach Larry Collins] gone to state once with an individual but not as a whole team.”
“I have never had a more talented group of girls in the ten years I have been coaching,” said coach Larry Collins. “I couldn’t be more proud of what the accomplished.
But in the beginning, even having a season seemed to be an impossibility. Referring to the size of the team, Abrianna Collins said, “The numbers definitely went down. We almost didn’t have a team this year and we almost didn’t have a team last year.”
Abrianna Collins worked to recruit new faces for the program, and now says that “Those girls are now in varsity and the only reason we went to state.”
The lack of numbers isn’t the only reason that the girls’ run at state seemed so improbable. After Mystic Lanes, Mason City’s local bowling alley, burned down, the bowlers were forced to commute 40 minutes to Charles City’s alley, the Comet Bowl, three days a week.
“Not many people gave Mason City a chance to be competitive after the fire,” Larry Collins said, “They [the team] put their lives on the back burner for nearly four months of the year in order to get to our goals.”
“Pun intended: They rose from the flames and became better as a result,” said Larry Collins.
“We ride a bus with the boys all the way to Charles City and all the way back home,” said Abrianna Collins. “From being in school at seven o’clock in the morning all day to Charles City, it’s definitely a lot.”
“I have never had a more talented group of girls in the ten years I have been coaching,” said Larry Collins. “My message to the girls all year was that they need to stick together as a team in order to be successful – that means in both the good times and the hard times.”
The team broke the school record at the state meet for high bakers score with 259 pins. “You don’t just get lucky and do that,” said Larry Collins. “It takes dedication, heart, and teamwork. We have all of those.”
