On Oct. 21, the bowling team, led by Coaches Alex Hipskind and John Naisbitt, hosted a free bowling session for students who are considering joining the team at Suburbanite Bowl directly after school.

The idea behind the event was to raise awareness for the upcoming bowling tryouts in addition to giving students the chance to bowl for free.

“We were just trying to provide an opportunity for people who are interested in bowling, whether they are boys or girls, to see if it’s a sport they would like to try out for.  The school, and specifically Mr. Jones, the athletic director, was generous enough to fund this,” Hipskind said. “The idea is that if people don’t have to pay, they don’t have to worry if they have the funds to try to bowl, so they will be able to bowl for free for a day and see if it is something they want to do and come out for the team.”

More than 50 people showed up to bowl strikes, spares, and everything in-between.  The event ended  just after 5:00 p.m., and according to Michael McGarrity, senior, was a huge success.

“Bowling on Tuesday was a chance for me to rediscover my childhood passion.  I haven’t been bowling in a long time, and it was awesome that the department was able to put this together,” McGarity said.

Tryouts for bowling will be held on Monday, Oct. 27 and Tuesday, Oct. 28.  This year has seen an uncharacteristic number of students showing interest for the team, with a larger than average number demonstrating interest through the sign up sheet.

Hipskind hopes that this initial interest and opportunity to bowl for free will result in higher numbers and interest for tryouts next week.

“We were just hoping to get some numbers out, some people that have an interest in bowling, maybe people that haven’t bowled for a while and forgotten how enjoyable it is.  Maybe they’ll see that their friends are out for the team, and they’ll realize it’s better than sitting around doing nothing all winter so they might as well bowl,” Hipskind said.