In this week’s edition of This Hits Different, Shelby Cassesse tells the story of a local student who turned a class assignment into a new sports program at her school.
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Deer Lakes student turns assignment into bowling program
For seven years, a Deer Lakes high school bowling team was on the table, but could never get final approval.
Last year, junior Kaylee Lipp thought she would take things into her own hands.
“In my English class, for my final, I had to write a persuasive letter,” Lipp said. “And the teacher said that we could send it to whoever we wanted. So, after years and year of trying and it didn’t go anywhere, I thought that this letter would be a good opportunity.”
Talk about the power of persuasion. Kaylee's letter asking for a bowling team at Deer Lakes made it to the school board and they finally gave their stamp of approval.
“It was so exciting, because I’ve been wanting this ever since I was a freshman,” Lipp added. “So I just felt like we did the work to make it happen. It was so exciting.”
Greg Germanich, who owns Deer Lakes Bowl, applied immediately to coach and got the job. Assistant Kevin Hindman came on board quickly, partly persuaded by nostalgia. As a high school student, he convinced the board at Knoch to sign off on a bowling team.
“I knew that they had been working on it for a long time,” Hindman said. “I wasn’t really part of the process. But then (Germanich) came in one day and said, ‘I’m the coach and you’re the assistant.’”
The kicker? It all fell into place just two weeks before the season started. Germanich knew he had a solid group of girls with plenty of experience to start a team, but the boys team was a different story. There was some concern only a few would come out, but…
“We had 23 kids this year on our team, which was probably one of the biggest – if not the biggest – team in our section,” Germanich said.
Among the 23 kids was Emily Warren, a senior who has been bowling competitively for ten years, but never had a school team until now.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s really cool how far we’ve gotten, too. I don’t think anyone saw it coming.”
Not only is the Deer Lakes girls bowling team new… they're good. With a roster full of girls planning to play at the next level, the team recently placed third out of 27 teams in the WPIBLs. Regionals are up ahead.
“We were second in average all year in the WPIBL,” Germanich said. “For a first-year team. So they know they can do it. It’s just a matter of if they can keep their focus and don’t get nervous.”
The team has impacted different people in different ways. For some, it led to college offers, others their first team experience. For Senior Elizabeth Callendar, it's helped her come out of her shell.
“At first I was really quiet, but then I kind of grew into the bonding,” she said.
Success in competition has been fun, but Warren says what's been most meaningful has been the effort to get there and the bonding experience that comes only with being on a team.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” she said. “All of our random cheers and celebrations are always something that you look forward to. So it’s kind of motivation to do better and throw the best ball possible.”