Bowl season

Mountain Brook is home to the winningest athletic department in the state of Alabama with 150 state championships, and now the school has added another sport it can shoot for a championship in.

The Spartans introduced a bowling program earlier this year by advertising tryouts to the student body and eventually selecting a group of boys and girls to make up each team.

 “My friends and I were initially surprised Mountain Brook had a bowling team but thought it’d be a good thing to do for our senior year,” said Anna LaRussa, a senior on the girls team. “It’s been a good way to hang out with my friends and meet some new ones.”

 “I wanted to join the bowling team to have a good time with my friends and get to play a timeless sport that everyone loves,” Bill Perry, a senior on the boys team said. 

The Alabama High School Athletic Association declared this season that boys and girls bowling be designated an “emerging sport” – that is, one to be tried as a non-championship sport for a period of time to see if enough interest exists to make it a full-fledged state championship sport.

Denise Ainsworth, director of programs for the AHSAA and who oversees the sport, said bowling was declared an emerging sport after a survey of schools indicated enough interest.

“Over the past few years, it’s been the fastest growing sport nationally at the high school level,” Ainsworth said. “We are always looking for ways to include more kids in athletics. Bowling is a way to reach a different group of kids who might not be interested in football, basketball or baseball.”

A major boost to the effort has been the cooperation from the bowling centers, which have agreed to provide lane space free of charge for two years, at least, plus free house bowling balls and shoes.

“The bowling centers have been just wonderful to work with,” Ainsworth said.

The Spartans will play all of their home games at Brunswick Riverview lanes, which is located on U.S. 280. 

Along with LaRussa, Madalyn Rosenthal, Mary Keller Greene, Lizzie French, Ella McAtee, Margaret Murray and Haley Fenn are a few of the players on the girls team. The girls team has split its first two games. It competed against Spain Park on Jan. 13 and Vestavia on Jan. 21. 

Boys team members include Brother Fitzpatrick, Gaines Hartley, John Null and Perry. The boys team is off to a tough start, having dropped both of its first two games.  

Both teams are led by Shane Stearns, who has been a longtime assistant coach for the Mountain Brook football and baseball teams. 

If at least 10 percent of AHSAA member schools field teams next year, it can become a championship sport once the association’s Central Board of Control approves it.

“We have 40 schools declared to participate right now, and we have right about 400 schools (in the AHSAA),” Ainsworth said. “So we’re right there. We think next year it should be a championship sport. We’re excited.”

Many people don’t realize bowling is a collegiate sport. The NCAA sponsors women’s bowling as a championship sport, and the NAIA sponsors both men’s and women’s bowling as an emerging sport.

There are no NAIA men’s teams in Alabama, but there are several in Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky. 

Most of the NCAA’s emerging sports are for women, prompted by the need to meet Title IX laws to provide scholarships to women. In Alabama, Alabama A&M and Alabama State have NCAA Division I bowling teams. UAB had one for several years until UAB President Ray Watts killed the program along with rifle and football in December. According to latest figures provided by the NCAA, there are 33 NCAA Division I women’s programs, 18 more at Division II and 10 at non-athletic-scholarship Division III.

That was not the primary focus for instituting bowling at the prep level, but if students can find yet another means to help pay for a college education, “that’s always a bonus,” Ainsworth said.

Gail Dent, a spokeswoman for the NCAA, said that its research group shows that in Division I in 2013-14, there were a total of 127 total equivalencies (scholarships) for bowling with 226 student-athletes receiving aid (at more than $3.2 million).  In Division II, there were a total of 34 equivalencies with 131 student-athletes receiving aid (at more than $719,000). 

So there may be some opportunities for Spartan bowlers to get scholarships, and if all goes well, next season they could be competing for a state championship.

 “This season has been a hard one, considering this is our first year for a bowling team,” Perry said. “But even if our team hasn’t won all of our matches right off the bat, we have more ambition to be the best than I have ever seen.

 “This season the team’s goal is to have a good time and maybe beat a few rivals here and there [Vestavia, Hoover] for the bragging rights,” Perry said.

And next season, just maybe a state title will be coming down the alley.

David Knox contributed to this report.