JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
The Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Bowling Center has long been a hub of recreational activity for active-duty members and their families, retirees and civilian employees.
Since 2010, the center has also played a major role in molding high school students into accomplished bowlers, and this weekend in Fort Worth, more than two dozen of those young bowlers - including the boys' and girls' teams from Steele High School and the girls' team from Randolph High School - will strive for the pinnacle of their club sport: the state championship.
"The kids have done really, really well," Steve Barinque, bowling center manager, said. "The Steele boys' team made it to state in their first year, and since then, either the boys' or girls' team has qualified for the tournament. This is the first year that both the Steele boys and girls have qualified."
The Randolph High School boys' and girls' teams are competing in bowling for just the first time this school year, but the Randolph girls qualified for the state tournament by placing third in San Antonio Northeast District 1 with a 4-4 record. The Steele girls won the district title with an 8-0 record, while the Steele boys placed first with a 4-2 mark.
Bowlers from Steele and Randolph also qualified for singles competition at the Texas High School Bowling Club 2015 State Team Championship Tournament. Boys who earned the right to compete at the state tournament were Jaylen Harris of Steele, who was district champion, and Trey Fisher of Randolph, who won the region title. Girls who advanced were district champ Sydney Strohm of Steele, region titlist Angelica Anthony of Randolph, and Megan Eaglehouse and Amber Perez of Steele.
Three other high school bowlers who practice and receive instruction at the JBSA-Randolph Bowling Center will also compete in Fort Worth in singles competition and with their teams. They are Jordan Dawkins and Sabrina Fautheree of Judson High School and Parker Johnson of Clemens High School.
Sydney, whose parents are Bill and Rae Strohm, said she has been bowling since she was 7 years old.
"My parents did it, so I was always at a bowling alley," she said.
Years of practice - four of them at the JBSA-Randolph facility - enabled Sydney, a 16-year-old junior, to develop as a bowler. Her progress was especially evident this year, when she averaged 217 pins a game in 15 district games, up from 190 last year, to win the district title.
"It was rewarding to see all that hard work pay off," she said. "The summer going into this year I made a big leap because of my dedication to practice."
Jordan, son of Gary Waters and Debbie Dawkins, started bowling when his grandmother gave him a bowling ball for his 11th birthday. He won the district boys' singles championship by averaging 222 over 12 games.
"I didn't think it was possible to have that high of an average," the 16-year-old junior said.
Jordan, who hopes to bowl at the collegiate level and on the Professional Bowlers Association tour, said he benefits from his practice sessions at the JBSA-Randolph Bowling Center and the instruction he receives at the facility.
Barinque, who serves as Steele's head coach and provides oversight for the Steele and Randolph programs, said the Randolph and Steele teams practice at the bowling center on Fridays. In addition, some members of the teams come to the facility on Saturdays and Sundays, when youth leagues are in action.
"They take advantage of the coaching and pro shop that we have here," he said. "They start out as beginners and we develop them into competitive bowlers. It takes a lot of practice and dedication."
Barinque said he and other bowling center staff members also coach the young bowlers at national tournaments in cities as far away as Detroit and Buffalo, N.Y.
"We follow the kids to major tournaments," he said. "That's how passionate we are about these kids. We spend a lot of hours with them."
Like Barinque, pro shop manager Jeff Hardin, who also coaches the Steele team, derives satisfaction from mentoring the students.
"The biggest things I get out of it are to see them enjoy bowling and learn life lessons along the way," he said.