EAHS bowling preview

Head Coach: Frank Telenko Jr., fourth season.

2006-2007 Record: 42-18 overall. Section Two champions.

Key Returners: Derek Boozer, senior; Ryan Lightner, senior; Jon Lee, senior; Megan Lee, senior; Melissa Lee, senior; Chuck Rubis, senior; Elisha Armold, senior; Harry Rehkugler, junior; Beth Garman, sophomore; Katie Boozer, sophomore.
This group has the ability to lead this team back into contention for the section title.
Captains Boozer and Lightner will be the team’s anchors and will put up 600 and 700 serieses consistently. Jon Lee, the team’s third captain, will be in the high 500s and is capable of a 600 series as well.
But the group’s biggest task (other than knocking down lots of pins, of course) will be showing the younger bowlers the ropes.
“I expect this group to lead,” Telenko said. “There are a lot of young kids on this team, and we plan to contend for another section title. This group knows what it takes.”

Key Newcomers: Danny Secord, freshman; Adam Fink, freshman; Tyler Lee, freshman; Shaun Meier, freshman; Beth Moyer, freshman; Steven Ritzman, freshman; Ethan Gruber, freshman; Aaron Maze, freshman; Garrett Amsbaugh, freshman; Katie Funck, sophomore.
The Bears have a ton of young bowlers, many of whom need to be ready to bowl at the varsity level when needed. Secord and Fink have already seen action, as both bowled in the team’s season-opening match.
Secord appears to be the most varsity-ready bowler of all of the newcomers, putting up a 524 series in his first match.
They will get to learn from a talented group of upperclassmen.
“This group is talented and hungry and they are expected to be ready to carry the torch,” said Telenko. “Many will get varsity time (and) they need to be ready to perform right now and be ready to take the leadership reins for next year.”

Key Losses: Andy Moyer, Andy Fink, Kyle Criste, Katielynn Scanlon.
All four of these bowlers were integral parts of last year’s successful team.
Moyer was the anchor of that team, consistently putting up excellent scores. Fink, Criste and Scanlon were also solid, consistent bowlers and helped the Bears win a lot of matches a year ago.
Their leadership and ability will be missed, but they did a good job grooming the current seniors to lead the team.

What they do well: Shoot spares.
Telenko is a big believer in the “spares win matches” philosophy, and he has hammered that into the heads of his bowlers.
“We are a great spare shooting team because we work on it every day at practice,” he said.

What they need to work on: Not playing down to their opponents.
Telenko said that one of the things his team needs to work on is bowling with the same consistency no matter who the Bears are matched up against.
“We tend to get caught up in bowling to our opponents. If we bowl a team that is not perceived as a strong team, we tend to bowl bad,” he said. “We need to learn how to win and worry about our self motivation.”
The cure to that problem lies with the seniors. The younger players take their cue from them, so the older bowlers must show that they will bowl at a high level consistently, regardless of the competition.

How they’ve fared so far: 4-0.
The Bears swept Manheim Central in their season opening match, 4-0, on Monday, Dec. 3 and are off to a good start.
In that match, Boozer led the way with a 712 series, followed by Lightner (618), Lee (562) and Secord (524).

Outlook:
There’s no denying that E-town has a very strong, capable team – especially with Boozer and Lightner in their starting lineup. So the Bears will need to live up to the expectations that will be placed on them as defending section champions. They have the target on their backs now, and they have to be ready to be on their game every match.
The Bears have an exceptionally large team (20 bowlers), and Telenko has big expectations for them, not only to win matches, but to learn the nuances of the game.
“I expect them to learn the game of bowling and act like a sponge during practice and matches. They need blind faith,” he said. “As a varsity program, we expect to win the section title again. We practice to win every day and my seniors want nothing more.”
Next year, the Bears will move back up to Section One, so this will be an important season for the younger bowlers to continue improving before making the leap next season.
But for now, E-town will continue punishing pins – and Section Two opponents.