1.) Describe the strengths your team possesses both individually and as a unit.
“The 2020 IHSA State Qualifying bowling team has an incredible ability to recognize what their weaknesses are, and has the motivation to put time and effort into improving those weaknesses to push them to the next level. In the seven years of coaching this program, I have not had a team that is this eager to work on what might be holding them back from reaching that next level because it might be tough or tedious.”
2.) You are headed to state with your bowlers this year. What do you think is the most important aspect of a championship?
“The most important aspect of a championship team is being cohesive. It’s not the team with the best players that win, it’s the players with the best team that wins. Our team is great with being reflective bowlers, watching not only what is working or not working for themselves, but what is going on with their teammates often times offering suggestions of changes to make to improve their performance, which affects the team’s performance. Bowling is an extremely mentally tough game, most people don’t realize this because when they bowl it is recreationally, but it is a completely different game when bowling at the competitive level of high school bowling. If you haven’t been to a tournament with 20-40 school teams competing, you have to come and see for yourself.”
3.) How did you prepare your bowlers for competition this year?
“Bowlers were prepared for competition by getting a head start during summer practice, by working on precision and accuracy drills, spare drills, working on how to read and adjust to changing lane conditions, and mental toughness (which is not easy).”
4.) Can you comment about any differences this year’s team has versus previous seasons?
“This team shares a lot of characteristics to last years team. They are very competitive, motivated, they have grit, and they have fun while doing it all.”
5.) What do you hope the boys take away from this season?
“From this season, I hope the boys take away a sense of accomplishment and that they appreciate the importance of goal setting and hard work to achieve those goals. This is something that I hope transfers into other areas of these young men’s lives as many of our state qualifiers are seniors and are about to graduate in a few months and move onto new challenges and goals.