Youth bowling rolls on with community support

By Kathryn Menue
Editor
BELVIDERE – With America’s most popular sports taking up most of the air time on television and getting most of the media attention around the world, some sports seem to fall through the cracks.
The Superbowl has just wrapped up the football season for the year with an unexpected win for the Denver Broncos in what most people think was Peyton Manning’s last game. With the end of football, the world will turn their attention to basketball’s March Madness, and then to the beginning of the baseball season, which will draw everyone back into football season.
With these sports taking up the limelight of professional athleticism, other sports seem to fall behind in popularity, such as tennis, golf, and even bowling.
However, the Belvidere/Boone County community does not seem to follow the main stream of sports like expected. Belvidere and Belvidere North High Schools have both done exceedingly well in the bowling tournaments across not only northern Illinois, but at the state level as well.
With such enthusiasm for the bowling sport rolling its way through the area high schools, youth around the community are becoming more involved with the sport as well, even before they are old enough to play in the high school leagues. Much of that is thanks to Concordia Lanes of Belvidere encouraging local youth to hone their skills in the wonderful world of bowling.
Many area youth have taken advantage of this opportunity, competing for fun on both Saturdays and Monday nights. This past week was no exception to that rule.
On Saturday, Feb. 6, the local youth hit the lanes yet again, bringing with them some high scores.
In the youngest division, Cora Jones scored a high game of 59.
In the Bantams league, Mason Kahl nearly doubled the high for the Cookies and Milk by scoring a 115 game with a 206 series.
In the Preps category, there were three individuals who topped the high scorers chart with impressive scores of their own. Parker Morris made the list with his high score of 159 with a 372 series. Jessica Plodzien scored high as well with a 108 and Jackie Van Fleet had a high series of 287.
In the last division, the Junior/Majors, Joe Gallagher scored big with a 192 game and a 571 series. However, he wasn’t the highest scorer of Saturday. Rachel Nelson scored a 199 game with a 545 series.
On Monday, Feb. 8, the high scoring continued.
Noel Capadanno, of the Cookies and Milk division, scored a high game of 55.
In the Bantams category, Addyson Blume hit the list with her high score of 97 with a 175 series.
In the Preps division, Branndon Fowler scored a high game of 103 with a 280 series, while the other Preps division bowler, Adriana Wright, scored a 105 with a 242 series.
In the final category, the Junior/Majors, Kevin Jenks made the list with a 191 game and a 490 series. Morgan Dawley also made the list with a 142 game and a 393 series.