A sport that sometimes gets shoved to the sidelines amid football, basketball, soccer, and other such programs, Signal Mountain High School’s bowling program proved to be one of only a few thus far this year to make it to State competition … for the first time ever!
This achievement capped a Cinderella season for this program that has existed since the school opened in 2008 but one that doesn’t usually get much notice.
That changed this year when a small group of seniors joined the teams, which already had players working hard to improve their games. All were thrilled to welcome newcomers to the program.
Coach Mark Bracher, who’s been with the program since inception, noted that two prior teams a decade ago averaged higher than this year’s team, but couldn’t get over that hump of winning the first game in the regions. He’s also had four guys advance to individual state competitions.
So what made this year different?
“It’s hard to narrow it down to just one thing,” Bracher said.
The first thing he noted had to do with the eight seniors (four boys and four girls) who decided to bowl this year. “I rarely get seniors who just decide to bowl their senior season,” he said.
Even better, “All eight showed up with a team spirit and a competitive spirit I had not seen before from such a large group of bowlers,” noted Bracher.
“The senior boys started practicing in June, the senior girls started practicing as soon as they joined the team, and Britton Williams joined after volleyball season ended. Britton exemplified the drive of the seniors - as soon as Britton joined, she practiced almost every day for the first two weeks she was on the team - and this was in the middle of our season!”
Bracher and bowling standout Landyn Sanders said it helped that most of the seniors had also played another sport so had some natural athleticism. “Athletes that throw ‘kinda’ normal” is a big advantage.” Landyn noted.
Another factor was overall improvement from veteran players, including those who advanced from middle school.
“This year, our three freshmen stood out,” Bracher said. “Reed Hampton improved his match average by 27 pins, from 105 to 132; Henry Nord improved 33 pins from 134 to 167; and Carson Gayton improved about 54 pins from a 113 average to a 167!”
Matt Sanders, Landyn’s dad, came aboard as a new coach to provide expertise that Bracher said he and assistant coach Gene Nelson didn’t possess.
“Matt was really good at figuring out different bowling balls to try for different styles and lane conditions,” Bracher said. “This helped the brand new seniors and the freshman improve a lot during the course of the season.”
And, Signal Mountain Bowling had a “really big schedule” compared to other teams in the area.
“I scheduled 32 matches, but more importantly we bowled at eight different bowling centers this season,” Bracher said.
“This provided the bowlers experience with several different lane conditions and opponent ability so they were intimidated by neither by the end of the season. We won our district matches at Dayton, the region championship at Cleveland, the sectional round at Hixson, and then won a State Tournament match at Smyrna.
“This helped me get their attention in the post season and explain they wouldn’t always have to bowl well,” he said, adding, that, “they just had to bowl better than the other team.”
Lastly, a little bit of luck never hurts.
“Landyn got one of the luckiest strikes I’ve ever seen in the 11th frame of the last Baker game against Blackman (in a state sectional) to clinch the victory and send us to State,” Bracher marveled.
Winning the individual game against Blackman in the sectional round was when Bracher finally realized these boys were going to State.
He thought they might have a chance after pre-season practices in mid September when he knew one of the new seniors (Clay Cooper) would be a starter and that another senior (Noah Riley, who hadn’t bowled since eighth grade) would be good enough to replace another bowler lost to transfer. Those two, in addition to veteran players, gave the team a fighting chance against region kingpins Rhea County and Walker Valley, which they beat in district and region tournaments.
Landyn had bowled as an individual at State before but said the entire team was nervous being there for the first time this year.
Cooper agreed it was “exciting” to go to State (which he’d not done in other sports he’d played) and also “very intimidating” to drive up to the State venue and see the parking lot packed … for bowling.
He described Round 1 in the quarterfinal against Sevier County as “a pretty rough game” but one that Signal Mountain ultimately won.
“They seemed a lot more intimidating by [our team] just knowing that we’d never been to State,” said Cooper, “but once we got going, we really rocked it honestly.”
In a semifinal, Signal was pitted against the state titleholder (and eventual state champ again) to whom they lost, but Landyn was proud that “we had them and their coach worried for a while.”
So, can they do it again next year?
Yes, they just need to backfill those seniors to the fairly young team. And keep the momentum going.
Landyn is one of two juniors, with most other returning bowlers as current sophomores or freshmen. He and others have already been recruiting.
Their main points: Bowling is fun and easy to learn.
Those were the main two reasons that attracted Cooper and Eli Herlevic, who said, “It’s a very fun sport to learn.” Cooper added that it also is “very much an independent sport compared to a team sport, so it can be a very competitive and exciting.”
Nord, who also “played up” as an eight-grader, agreed with others that it really helped to have lots more people on the team, which kept the momentum going. He’s hoping others hop on and join the team for summer and fall practices as they prep for their fall season.
Unlike other programs, Coach Bracher is flexible in allowing students to participate in other sports with parallel seasons as long as they practice bowling when they can. He likes getting other athletes because he said they understand “the value of practice, the value of team, and a drive to win.”
“I’m hoping with the success of this year’s teams that bowling will be more popular at the school,” Bracher said. “I don’t have specific examples, but I know the students are always fighting a stigma with being on the bowling team.”
Hopefully, that won’t happen again after this year’s trip to State.
Girls Team
Not only was this an exciting season for the boys’ bowling team, but also for the girls, who ended their season as district champs for the first time ever!
Signal Mountain’s bowling team didn’t have a female bowler until its third season, when Cayla Knight had to bowl with the boys until she recruited others to help organize the first full girls’ team in 2011-12. That rush lasted until 2016. A couple of girls bowled for the 2018-2019 season, but it wasn’t fun for the two-person team because it meant they had to score zeroes for the missing players.
Georgia Bartlett was one of four freshmen to join last year for the core of this year’s team. She selected bowling as a completely random choice when looking at a list of sports on the school website soon after moving from Baltimore and has never regretted it.
“Bowling is such an easy sport to pick up,” she said, “and the coaches taught me to bowl pretty well. If you just put some effort into it, you’ll learn.” Bartlett improved her average from 100 to 148 in a year.
Bartlett loves the “family atmosphere” among bowlers and their families and said it was so much more fun this year with extra players. She feels confident that the five or six underclass players will return and is confident the team will improve and could go beyond district next year.
Special Olympics
This year also was the first time Signal Mountain had a Special Olympics team to compete in that division at State. Sam Goff and David Heinichen were the main two players supported by top members of both our boys and girls teams in various contests. This unified team earned third place at State in its inaugural run.
While all teams were bowling to win, having fun seemed to be the underlying theme at practices and matches and was reflected in recaps and photos.
“This was a fantastic season, and I had a lot of fun,” said Bracher, who noted that SMMHS Principal Michael Carson “makes fun of me for my rousing pre-match speeches, but the message is ALWAYS ‘Have fun’ and all I want for these kids is to HAVE FUN!”
So, if you’ve got a SMMHS student looking for something to do and just wanting to have fun, tell him or her to contact a member of the bowling teams or email Bracher at [email protected].
by Melissa Barrett
This achievement capped a Cinderella season for this program that has existed since the school opened in 2008 but one that doesn’t usually get much notice.
That changed this year when a small group of seniors joined the teams, which already had players working hard to improve their games. All were thrilled to welcome newcomers to the program.
Coach Mark Bracher, who’s been with the program since inception, noted that two prior teams a decade ago averaged higher than this year’s team, but couldn’t get over that hump of winning the first game in the regions. He’s also had four guys advance to individual state competitions.
So what made this year different?
“It’s hard to narrow it down to just one thing,” Bracher said.
The first thing he noted had to do with the eight seniors (four boys and four girls) who decided to bowl this year. “I rarely get seniors who just decide to bowl their senior season,” he said.
Even better, “All eight showed up with a team spirit and a competitive spirit I had not seen before from such a large group of bowlers,” noted Bracher.
“The senior boys started practicing in June, the senior girls started practicing as soon as they joined the team, and Britton Williams joined after volleyball season ended. Britton exemplified the drive of the seniors - as soon as Britton joined, she practiced almost every day for the first two weeks she was on the team - and this was in the middle of our season!”
Bracher and bowling standout Landyn Sanders said it helped that most of the seniors had also played another sport so had some natural athleticism. “Athletes that throw ‘kinda’ normal” is a big advantage.” Landyn noted.
Another factor was overall improvement from veteran players, including those who advanced from middle school.
“This year, our three freshmen stood out,” Bracher said. “Reed Hampton improved his match average by 27 pins, from 105 to 132; Henry Nord improved 33 pins from 134 to 167; and Carson Gayton improved about 54 pins from a 113 average to a 167!”
Matt Sanders, Landyn’s dad, came aboard as a new coach to provide expertise that Bracher said he and assistant coach Gene Nelson didn’t possess.
“Matt was really good at figuring out different bowling balls to try for different styles and lane conditions,” Bracher said. “This helped the brand new seniors and the freshman improve a lot during the course of the season.”
And, Signal Mountain Bowling had a “really big schedule” compared to other teams in the area.
“I scheduled 32 matches, but more importantly we bowled at eight different bowling centers this season,” Bracher said.
“This provided the bowlers experience with several different lane conditions and opponent ability so they were intimidated by neither by the end of the season. We won our district matches at Dayton, the region championship at Cleveland, the sectional round at Hixson, and then won a State Tournament match at Smyrna.
“This helped me get their attention in the post season and explain they wouldn’t always have to bowl well,” he said, adding, that, “they just had to bowl better than the other team.”
Lastly, a little bit of luck never hurts.
“Landyn got one of the luckiest strikes I’ve ever seen in the 11th frame of the last Baker game against Blackman (in a state sectional) to clinch the victory and send us to State,” Bracher marveled.
Winning the individual game against Blackman in the sectional round was when Bracher finally realized these boys were going to State.
He thought they might have a chance after pre-season practices in mid September when he knew one of the new seniors (Clay Cooper) would be a starter and that another senior (Noah Riley, who hadn’t bowled since eighth grade) would be good enough to replace another bowler lost to transfer. Those two, in addition to veteran players, gave the team a fighting chance against region kingpins Rhea County and Walker Valley, which they beat in district and region tournaments.
Landyn had bowled as an individual at State before but said the entire team was nervous being there for the first time this year.
Cooper agreed it was “exciting” to go to State (which he’d not done in other sports he’d played) and also “very intimidating” to drive up to the State venue and see the parking lot packed … for bowling.
He described Round 1 in the quarterfinal against Sevier County as “a pretty rough game” but one that Signal Mountain ultimately won.
“They seemed a lot more intimidating by [our team] just knowing that we’d never been to State,” said Cooper, “but once we got going, we really rocked it honestly.”
In a semifinal, Signal was pitted against the state titleholder (and eventual state champ again) to whom they lost, but Landyn was proud that “we had them and their coach worried for a while.”
So, can they do it again next year?
Yes, they just need to backfill those seniors to the fairly young team. And keep the momentum going.
Landyn is one of two juniors, with most other returning bowlers as current sophomores or freshmen. He and others have already been recruiting.
Their main points: Bowling is fun and easy to learn.
Those were the main two reasons that attracted Cooper and Eli Herlevic, who said, “It’s a very fun sport to learn.” Cooper added that it also is “very much an independent sport compared to a team sport, so it can be a very competitive and exciting.”
Nord, who also “played up” as an eight-grader, agreed with others that it really helped to have lots more people on the team, which kept the momentum going. He’s hoping others hop on and join the team for summer and fall practices as they prep for their fall season.
Unlike other programs, Coach Bracher is flexible in allowing students to participate in other sports with parallel seasons as long as they practice bowling when they can. He likes getting other athletes because he said they understand “the value of practice, the value of team, and a drive to win.”
“I’m hoping with the success of this year’s teams that bowling will be more popular at the school,” Bracher said. “I don’t have specific examples, but I know the students are always fighting a stigma with being on the bowling team.”
Hopefully, that won’t happen again after this year’s trip to State.
Girls Team
Not only was this an exciting season for the boys’ bowling team, but also for the girls, who ended their season as district champs for the first time ever!
Signal Mountain’s bowling team didn’t have a female bowler until its third season, when Cayla Knight had to bowl with the boys until she recruited others to help organize the first full girls’ team in 2011-12. That rush lasted until 2016. A couple of girls bowled for the 2018-2019 season, but it wasn’t fun for the two-person team because it meant they had to score zeroes for the missing players.
Georgia Bartlett was one of four freshmen to join last year for the core of this year’s team. She selected bowling as a completely random choice when looking at a list of sports on the school website soon after moving from Baltimore and has never regretted it.
“Bowling is such an easy sport to pick up,” she said, “and the coaches taught me to bowl pretty well. If you just put some effort into it, you’ll learn.” Bartlett improved her average from 100 to 148 in a year.
Bartlett loves the “family atmosphere” among bowlers and their families and said it was so much more fun this year with extra players. She feels confident that the five or six underclass players will return and is confident the team will improve and could go beyond district next year.
Special Olympics
This year also was the first time Signal Mountain had a Special Olympics team to compete in that division at State. Sam Goff and David Heinichen were the main two players supported by top members of both our boys and girls teams in various contests. This unified team earned third place at State in its inaugural run.
While all teams were bowling to win, having fun seemed to be the underlying theme at practices and matches and was reflected in recaps and photos.
“This was a fantastic season, and I had a lot of fun,” said Bracher, who noted that SMMHS Principal Michael Carson “makes fun of me for my rousing pre-match speeches, but the message is ALWAYS ‘Have fun’ and all I want for these kids is to HAVE FUN!”
So, if you’ve got a SMMHS student looking for something to do and just wanting to have fun, tell him or her to contact a member of the bowling teams or email Bracher at [email protected].
by Melissa Barrett