By Lenaia Powell
Of the many stellar sports teams at Apopka High School, bowling is by far one of the best. Even though a majority of sports and clubs have new coaches/sponsors this year, including the bowling teams, they seem to be as successful as ever. Mr. Jenkins, the current coach, has been given the opportunity to relive his bowling days and work with these extremely talented students, who are state champs.
“This is my first year. Coach Hauser did [coached] for four years I think, before he moved on to Windermere High School, so this year I was asked to come out and coach and I did, so this is my first year,” said Coach Jenkins. Coach Jenkins was a previous head coach of AHS boys’ basketball, and currently he is an assistant coach of our girls’ flag football team.
“We have the varsity team, which consists of probably the top five bowlers, then we have the JV team which consists of the other bowlers, male-wise, and then we have a girls varsity team. Our varsity boys team, they pretty much all go together but we have three or four of our JV guys who are really competitive and sometimes they practice with the varsity team.” Jenkins explained.
Jenkins has always been a prominent figure here, whether it be as a coach or dean, excluding when he briefly went over to Boone. This year, he had a certain hope when he accepted the job of bowling coach. “I was hoping when they first wanted me to do it, I have a son here, I thought maybe he would wanna go into bowling. I kinda did it hoping he would do it but when I got out there… it’s exciting, I’m glad to be out there.” While his son did not join the team, Jenkins still has a healthy relationship with him, and coaching bowling has proved to be rewarding in itself. However, Jenkins does not necessarily “coach” the extremely talented team. He described it as “overseeing,” while two other volunteer coaches stepped in.
“They do the technical stuff, I’m kinda like the overseer, but those guys are taking the guys and teaching them how to bowl, they’ve been bowling for years and years, so they kinda teach technique and stuff. I’m like the hurrah guy, getting kids up and ready to go.”
The bowlers really enjoy having coaches Doug Campbell and Bud there to help, and they even have existing relationships with them.
“They’re great, absolutely great. ‘Cause my ball has a… sometimes it will be random and it has a turn to the right, and when Bud wasn’t there I asked Campbell and I asked him what I was doing wrong, and he was like ‘okay go up there and bowl’ and he figured out it out. Quick and efficiently too, only took two frames to figure it out.” said Arianna Rodriguez, junior, co-captain of the girls’ team.
In addition, Gage Stelling, senior, captain of the varsity team has known Coach Bud for his whole life.
Gage Stelling
“He was actually coaching my brother before I was born so he’s been throughout my family for over twenty-something years,” said Gage.
There is also diversity between how much experience the bowlers have. For instance, Ari had only been bowling recreationally before making the team, and both the captain, Gage, and co-captain, Keith, are in their eighth year.
Going to bowling is also very looked forward to amongst the students, which makes it nice to have practice every day of the school week, excluding Fridays, for an hour and a half after school.
“Yeah, ‘cause we pretty much dance around whenever someone gets a turkey, all you can hear going through the building is, we call it the turkey dance on the girls’ team, it’s pretty much just *high pitched turkey gobbles*,” said Ari, expressing how much fun practices are.
“Yeah, it definitely is. Every time I go, my goal is to just do the best I can so I can make my living out of doing what I love so I don’t have to work, I just enjoy my day and I’m earning money by just having fun.” Gage explained how he hopes to continue bowling after high school.
Such a reputable team has gained recognition throughout the whole city, as Apopka declared November 15th, 2017 as Apopka High School Bowling Team Day.
With 14 wins and a state champ title for the fifth year running, it’s no wonder our teams always keep up a positive attitude not only for the school but for each other.
The team with their fifth state championship award