NC student bowls top score at state bowling tournament
At the recent Washington State Bowling Proprietors Association high school championships in Tacoma, you could have heard a pin drop. Lots of them, actually.
For 43 years, the WSBPA has sponsored programs for high school bowlers who, until 2001, didn’t have an opportunity to compete on behalf of their schools. For the past eight years in the 4A classification and the past two in 3A, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has sanctioned bowling in several Washington districts.
But none of those are local districts, so Spokane-area high school bowlers compete in a local league as they attempt to qualify for the state WSBPA tournament. This year, North Central High School finished third and Shadle Park seventh in the highest boys’ division in the event.
Greg Olsen, executive director of the WSBPA for 30 years, says that he’s working closely with the WIAA in an effort to get more districts to recognize girls bowling as a “lettered” sport.
“Our goal would be to not have any girls teams in our tournament,” he said. “That would mean they’d be bowling for school teams and have the chance to earn a letter. Basically, we’d like to put ourselves out of business with the girls.”
Some 60 high schools in the state are offering bowling as a girls’ varsity sport this year, and Olsen says it’s the fastest-growing interscholastic sport in the country, particularly because of Title IX and also because it’s relatively inexpensive to put a program in place.
North Central’s program has enjoyed particular success in Spokane, with several team and individual award-winners in recent years. Under coach David Marcoux, NC has four teams of seven bowlers each, the largest program in the area.
Marcoux, originally from Los Angeles, has been coaching high school bowling for 12 years. Formerly the owner of a small business and now retired, he teaches a bowling class at Gonzaga University, works with disabled kids at the lanes weekly and every Saturday hosts a huge drop-in program for youths ages 6 to 21 in addition to his NC coaching responsibilities.
He’s been bowling since he was 12, but got hooked on coaching several years ago when he had the opportunity one day to work with a young man with multiple handicaps and a friend who had come to bowl.
“This kid didn’t knock down a pin for 11 frames, and every time his buddy helped him to pick up the ball and roll it again. On his next try, he got a strike, and the entire house was watching when it happened. It was a great thrill, and I decided then to run a program for disabled kids, which I did the next year.”
That day also sent Marcoux in a new career direction. He returned to college at age 60, volunteered for a couple years and is now in his third year as an instructional assistant in the special education program at NC.
Two of his NC bowlers have won scholarships to NCAA schools in the last five years – it’s a little-known fact that 29 Division I and 15 Division II colleges and universities offer athletic awards in the sport.
After qualifying as the lowest-ranked team in their division at the state tournament, North Central had the highest individual game with team captain Alex Earle posting a 279. Teammate Lance Berg, a Havermale High School student bowling for NC, had a 269, and the Shadle Park girls finished second in their division.
The other members of NC’s third-place team were Kevin Uddman, Robbie Winchell, Zack Zappone, Tony Swanson and Nick Harris.
Marcoux loves the sport and loves coaching it. He especially appreciates the handicap system which levels the playing field for less-skilled bowlers, while the most outstanding have the opportunity to bowl in scratch events.