Bowling gets rolling as prep championship sport

After a successful season as an emerging sport last year, bowling strikes this school year as an official high school sport.

Bowling is the newest championship sport offered by the Alabama High School Athletic Association, beginning with this school year. The state championship tournament is scheduled for Jan. 29-30, 2016, at Oak Mountain Lanes in Pelham. Two regionals will be at Tuscaloosa and Foley.

“We are extremely excited about adding bowling to our list of winter state championship sports offered to our member schools,” AHSAA Executive Director Steve Savarese said. “The sport was offered last season as an emerging sport under jurisdiction for our member schools. The growth of the sport in such a short time has been outstanding.”

A total of 43 schools fielded bowling teams last season. Already that number has grown to about 80 schools based on school sports declarations received for this season, said Denise Ainsworth, the AHSAA assistant director responsible for the sport of bowling. 

“We think that number will grow even larger before the season gets underway,” she said. “I think once they give out the blue trophies this year, the number of schools will skyrocket. It’s going to be the fastest growing sport in Alabama.”

Among the schools already declared for this season are Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Spain Park, Oak Mountain, Mountain Brook and Chelsea.

Todd Evans will coach the Vestavia Hills boys team and Debra Broome returns as the girls coach. The Rebels will compete in Region 5 along with Mountain Brook and Huffman, Ramsay, Altamont, Sulligent, South Lamar, Northridge, Paul Bryant and Central-Tuscaloosa.

Schools participated in regular-season play only last school year.  

Ainsworth said the format for the 2015-16 inaugural season will include two regional bowling tournaments at the Gulf Bowl in Foley and Leland Lanes in Tuscaloosa with qualifiers advancing to the state tournament at Oak Mountain Lanes. The South Regional at Foley will be Jan. 20-21, and the North Regional at Tuscaloosa is set for Jan. 21-22.

The sport will include a championship for girls and for boys in a combined Class 1A-7A. Schools fielding only a coed team will compete in the boys’ division. 

The first day allowed for practice is Oct. 5 with the first date for a contest set for Oct. 26. Varsity teams will be limited to 18 dates and five regular season tournaments. Middle and junior high school teams will be allowed a maximum 12 regular-season play dates and two regular-season tournaments.

“Bowling is a sport that includes a segment of our student population that may not be competing in other sports,” Ainsworth said. “It also is a sport that is attracting teachers who may not be currently coaching a sport.”

Bowling was offered by the AHSAA as a championship sport for girls from 1972-77 along with badminton and archery. However, all three were discontinued after the 1977 season.  It is the first championship sport added by the AHSAA since slow-pitch softball began its conversion to fast-pitch softball in 1995. Boys and girls soccer was added in 1991.

The AHSAA currently offers 24 championship sports, including cheerleading, with 12 for boys and 12 for girls. Cheerleading is a sports activity endorsed by the AHSAA with the state championships being administered by an outside source. With the addition of bowling, that brings the total to 26.