Gateway bowlers ‘just don’t let the other team win’

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, February 1, 2019 | 7:48 PM

After last season’s mass departure of talent, there weren’t very many people who gave the Gateway boys bowling team much of a shot this season.

But here the Gators are, locked in at second place in the Western Pa. Interscholastic Bowling League’s East Division standings and on the cusp of getting back to the WPIBL team championships for the second straight season.

“Not many people gave us a chance to do that because I only had one returning starter,” Gateway coach Joe Bowman said. “They’re bowling as good as they did all year.”

Gateway (6-2) sits two games back of East Division leader Plum (8-0) and has a one-game lead over third-place Woodland Hills (5-3). The top two teams in each of the WPIBL’s nine divisions make the postseason.

The Gators have a match against Valley (2-6), a rescheduled contest that was postponed because of last week’s polar vortex, and were scheduled to finish the regular season against Redeemer (1-7) on Wednesday. Both matches finished past deadline for this edition. The WPIBL team championships are set for Wed. Feb. 13 at Plum’s Nesbit’s Lanes.

In past seasons, Bowman coached the girls team. This time, he switched and decided to guide the boys. The first thing he did was change the way the Gators practiced. Instead of rolling balls down the alley for 21/2 hours, each practice begins with a 30-minute round-table discussion that provides insight and a critique to each bowler.

“It’s how you coach, how you prepare the kids mentally and that type of thing,” Bowman said. “I don’t now if other coaches coach the way I do.”

Bowman preaches quality and not quantity. By the time his Gators step on the lanes, they have been briefed as to what they need to do to get better.

“A lot of our kids are theatrically inclined, so I was like, ‘We’re going to start with notes,’ ” Bowman said. “The boys are in that intermediate to advanced stage of the process.

“We have discussion. Go over the previous match. I kind of go over what went well and what we struggled with. Teaching points. You can see the difference in their attitudes, their game and approach to each other.”

Bowman’s approach to coaching has made a difference for a team that returned just one starter: standout senior Dom Rocco.

“He is a captain, I’ll tell you that,” Bowman said about Rocco. “He’s a really good captain because the rest of the team are all sophomores. He’s a talented kid. He’s done a lot of stuff.”

With Rocco and his 195 average occupy the the No. 5 anchor spot. Up-and-coming sophomore Liam Brown (166 average) bowls from the No. 4 spot. Bowman praised Brown’s transformation from a rookie to savoy sophomore.

“He’s matured the most because he just started bowling last year,” Bowman said.

Following Brown at the No. 3 spot is another sophomore in Cody Beckwith (155). Sophomore Nathan Clark (151) holds down the No. 2 spot in the order, and sophomore Mason Servallo (149) bowls leadoff for the Gators.

Bowman spoke highly of Clark.

“(Clark) kind of just came in, and is just the type of kid who wanted to learn,” Bowman said. “You’d never know that this is his first year.”

No matter how this season shakes out, the Gators won’t be sneaking up on anybody next season.

“There is something special about our kids, and it’s just something that they hooked together and go,” Bowman said. “They just don’t let the other team win.”

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

Tags: Gateway