A-K Valley athletes of the week: Plum’s Addison Then, Springdale’s Patrick Wylly

By: Ted Sarneso
Saturday, February 15, 2025 | 2:42 PM

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Addison Then

School: Plum

Class: Junior

Sport: Bowling

Claim to fame: Then bowled a team-high 618 series to help Plum (10-0) repeat as WPIBL champion by defeating Hempfield in the team championships Thursday. Then was also named to the all-tournament team. She led the East division in pin average (196), high game (246) and high series (643) in the regular season.

How did you get started with bowling?

I started bowling on my local junior league when I was about 8 years old.

What do you love most about it?

I love the friends that I’ve made along the way. They’re all amazing. Seeing all the progress throughout the years and getting more serious about it in the last few years have also made it enjoyable.

What did it feel like to have the girls team finish as section champions?

It was great. I knew we could do it and it would be a lot of hard work. It’s not easy to get up there and bowl your best. If you have a bad frame or bad game, you can’t stay on that bad motivation, you have to move on. Having a good, supportive team definitely helped with what we did on Thursday.

How did it feel to lead the East section in pin average?

It was really mind blowing. I saw it as a really big accomplishment that I’ve been working towards the last couple of years. I was really happy to see a result from all my hard work.

What was your best match all year?

I feel like all my matches were similar, but towards the end of the season we played a lot at our home lanes at Nesbit, where we play our best. The team as a whole had some really good games there.

Were you nervous at all heading into the team championships?

I was. In the back of my head, we had the potential and the ability as a team to do well. We just had to come together knowing what we needed to do to come away as champions.

What was it like going up against Hempfield for that title?

It was great. Going into the playoffs and the finals, we knew who our competition was and knew that Hempfield was one of them. We knew what we had to achieve both personally and as a team to beat them. As a group we had to keep each other motivated and bowl our best.

How did it feel when you heard you were named to the all-tournament team?

I was very excited. I didn’t bowl as high as I wanted to, but looking back I bowled good enough for what I and the team needed. It was a good day for me, and it was nice to see the hard work pay off.

How are you preparing for the individual championships?

A lot of practice. We have our team practices once a week, and I’ve been going to a lot of individual practices with my coach and working through some problems here and there. With bowling being such a mental game, we just try to work through that part as well, learning to move on from performances we don’t like.

The team took first at the Bearcat Challenge earlier in the year. What was it like from your perspective to win in back-to-back years?

We knew the teams that were going to be there and knew we won it last year, so there was the motivation to go out and win it again. We knew we could, so I was happy we came together as a team to win it.

Do you have a routine before you bowl, how you prepare for a match?

I don’t do much to prepare before a match. I do wear the same hairstyle for every match. The day of a big match I do a lot of self-talking, self-motivating to try and get myself in the mentality of staying positive even if I don’t bowl as well as I would like. It helps me relax.

Have you ever bowled a 300 game either in practice or a real match?

Have not, but it’s one of my goals. I think a year ago, I bowled my highest game of a 288 and had strikes on the first 10 frames. There’s a lot of mental play that goes into it.

Have you bowled at Junior Gold?

I’m going for the first time this summer. I’m very excited. I know it’s going to be very hard and will take a lot of practice and a positive mental game.

What were your goals at the start of the year?

Get close to or over a 200 average, try and get close to a 600 series for every match, which I came close to doing. As a team we wanted to win our section, win the team championships in the WPIBL and to make it back to states, where we placed third last year.

Do you have a favorite subject in school?

One of my favorites is psychology.

Any hobbies outside of bowling?

I play volleyball for school and club, and it’s fun. It’s a nice thing to stay in shape and a lot of fun to do something outside of bowling.

What’s a warm vacation spot you like to frequent?

Orlando or Destin, Fla. Destin has a lot of nice beaches, and of course Orlando has Disney. It’s nice to go down there and enjoy time with family and get away from the winter Pittsburgh weather.

Patrick Wylly

School: Springdale

Class: Senior

Sport: Basketball

Claim to fame: Wylly, a guard/forward, scored 15 points to power No. 21 Springdale (14-8) to a 42-33 play-in game win against No. 12 Jefferson-Morgan in the Class 2A playoffs Thursday. It was the first playoff appearance for the Dynamos since the 2021-22 season and their first playoff win since 2019-20. Springdale advanced to play No. 5 Northgate in the first round Monday night.

Before the season started, you and your fellow seniors stated that your goal was to make the playoffs. What was the feeling like when you finally accomplished that goal?

I thought we exceeded expectations for ourselves as a team. Making the playoff was big for us, we contended with some big teams in our section. Losing to Clairton the first time was rough, but we beat them the second time and knew we had a shot at the playoffs.

What was the week of practice like heading into the game against Jefferson-Morgan?

It was a lot of film, a lot of in the gym early, out of the gym late. It was intense, but we kept it light on our feet because of the high-stakes playoff game.

How did you guys stay focused on the long bus ride to face the Rockets and get warmed up after sitting so long?

We’ve gotten used to those long bus rides and what to do when we got off them. We have California and Frazier in our section, which are pretty far. In our away game to Greensburg central Catholic, the trip took an hour and 40 minutes because we had issues on the way. We focused on our shoot around before the game and got in the zone when we hit the locker room.

How pumped were you guys at the final horn?

It was exciting. We felt it at halftime, when we really had the edge on them and we just held on from there. When it finally blew, we were pretty excited, pretty pumped. First playoff win in a long time.

What does the win mean to you and the team?

It’s big because as a team we didn’t think we’d get this far. Seeing how the team, which isn’t that outstanding individually, really came together under our new coach. There were a lot of things we weren’t expecting, but we made it work this season.

What do you think it means to the Springdale community that’s backed you all year?

Again, it’s big. We always have big crowds for our home games, even though we know it probably wasn’t going to be a competitive game, people still came out to watch. Even at Jefferson-Morgan, we had a good number of people show up. It’s big for them to watch us go on a little playoff run, and I hope they’re excited.

How battle-tested is this group after playing in the same section with Greensburg Central Catholic, Jeannette and Clairton?

Our section being one of the toughest sections kept our experience hard. GCC and Jeannette are two of the top three teams in Class 2A, so we have an edge over teams that come from sections that are a lot softer. We’ve had some tough games, and I think that gives us some experience and an edge.

What will you guys need to do to pull the upset against Northgate?

They’ve got some great players, got some big guys. We can’t really contend with size, so our plays need to be rock solid in our minds and crisp on execution. We just have to stay focused in these days of practice leading up to the game. One huge plus is it’s a shorter bus ride, only 30 minutes.

What was it like earlier in the year, learning Coach Ruppert’s new system in such a short amount of time?

It was interesting. I was pretty comfortable with the previous coach, Coach Phillippi. It was pretty short notice for me coming out of soccer season, and I couldn’t make a lot of the open gyms and Coach Ruppert was trying to get as much time as he could with the team. When I did finally get with him, I thought he was a great coach. He put in some sets that we ran pretty well. We stepped up and learned them. It was rough to learn the system he liked to play, but it turned out for the best.

What was it like going through a roller-coaster year after starting 8-2?

Our 8-2 start gave us some fire, and that definitely helped. We experienced rough losses to Clairton and Riverview. That last one really killed us. Our bounce back is what united us as a team. It was in the film room where we really made strides, looking at what we did right, what we did wrong. Then we got back into the gym and did the best we could to correct those mistakes.

As a team captain, what’s it been like leading this group?

I felt honored. Leading the group has been a blast. I’ve got my fellow co-captains Garrett Myers and John Duku and having the experiences we’ve had has really helped us to play our roles as captains. The guys buy into what coach has to say, which makes our jobs easier, not too much enforcing going on. We’ve been blessed to have such a good group.

You mentioned you played soccer, what position did you play?

I was a midfielder.

Favorite hobbies outside of basketball?

I really like skiing and golf.

Did you get any opportunities to go skiing during the season?

Yeah, I went for the most of January, every Sunday, I went up to Seven Springs. It was great weather. We were blessed this season.

Favorite pre-game meal?

I keep it simple, just some yogurt and some chicken.

Do you have a favorite subject in school?

I like math because I think I’m good at math.

What are your future plans?

I’m hoping to get a bachelor’s degree in computer science at a four-year university. Not sure which university yet, but I’ve been applying and getting in.

Tags: Plum, Springdale