With the sounds of pins crashing and teammates calling out adjustments between frames, the bowling team meets every Monday and Thursday to work on sets; these practices are built around consistency, communication and mental focus.
After winning the state championship in 2024 and landing at third place in 2025, the varsity enters the new season with expectations of returning to the top.
Bowlers on the varsity team also must keep composure under pressure in order to succeed as the whole game may rest on their shoulders, this composure consists of visual and literal communication between teammates.
Junior Nicolette (Jax) Fowler said reading oil patterns and observing teammates’ shots allows bowlers to anticipate adjustments before mistakes are made.
“Me and Addison Harvey throw a really similar shot with how our balls hook,” junior Nicolette (Jax) Fowler said. “So typically, if her ball is overhooking, I can expect my ball to overhook. It’s a lot of visual [analysis], and also just asking how the oil is playing out there.”
While there are many components that can help a team improve, Nixa’s varsity team utilizes this communication, careful analysis and consistent practice to improve the accuracy and mentality of the team.
Head coach David Evans said understanding ball motion is critical at the varsity level.
“Sometimes you can tell by the way the ball is rolling, how it lays up, whether it rolls out early or drives through the pins,” Evans said. “Sometimes it is just a hand position change, and you can see that physically. Sometimes it is an actual ball change or moving your feet or your mark on the lane.”
Evan centers the way he coaches students around their consistencies, and further said that no adjustments matter without repetition.
“If you’re consistently missing your mark or what you’re trying to do, then we can’t adjust. We can’t fix that,” said Evans. “You know, you have to be able to hit the same spot more than once in a row in order to be able to adjust. And know whether you need to change a ball or fix or whatever the case may be.”
Mental composure is just as important as a technical skill and Junior Lincoln Brown said he keeps his team’s impact in mind while competing.
“So, I really like to think about how this is going to impact the rest of my teammates,” Brown said. “A lot of the competitions have scholarship money. So I think about how that money can go to them, and how it could go to me as well.”
Brown said focusing on the broader outcomes helps him recover from difficult frames.
Development, however, extends beyond the varsity level. With a noticeable increase in participation this season, the program expanded to accommodate additional bowlers at the junior varsity level.
Junior Bradley Jones competes on junior varsity and said adapting to unfamiliar lanes is one of the biggest challenges bowlers face.
“I would say, adapting to how different lanes are, because we practice at Century lanes on Mondays and Thursdays, so we get used to what they have,” Jones said. “But whenever it comes to switching to different bowling alleys, they have different thickness on the oil, different patterns, different oil brands, so it can lead to flaws in the way that we normally play, and adapting to that is very difficult.”
Playing on a new lane, Jones competed at Andy B’s on Feb. 16. Where he and the team went on to win a majority of the games.
“We had a competition at Andy B’s, and we faced against one team for two regular games. We won our first, lost our second,” Jones said. “And then after that, we moved lanes, did bakers, which is basically just five people under one name, and we each got to do two frames of the game. And pretty sure we won all of those.”
Though not on the varsity team, Jones said his improvement has been measurable. Last year, he was recognized as the most improved male bowler on junior varsity.
“At the very beginning, whenever I started, I was shooting, I think 60s and 70s, and I have bumped up my average all the way up to, I think a 155,” Jones said.
What triggered his improvement was learning awareness over subtle actions he makes while bowling.
“I struggled with knowing whenever I was throwing straight or pulling my arm in, where to move my feet and I would make some steps longer than each other,” Jones said. “It would those little things, if it was an inch too far over, it would change the flow of where the ball would go and it would mess up everything.”
With long term development, there also must be an open mindedness and a willingness to work with the coaches and the rest of the team.
“If a kid is coachable, then the adaptability and all of that will come into play,” Evans said. “Attitude is really big with me. You know, if you’re not going to be a team player, if it’s all about you, it’s not going to fly, we’re not going to roll. … If they’re coachable, then attitude isn’t going to be that big of a deal.”
Jones said that emotional control is a large factor when determining who moves up.
“I had a friend, he is very, very good, but he couldn’t get his temper under control until this year, which caused him to throw really hard whenever he didn’t need to,” Jones said. “As soon as he got that under control, he could consistently bowl over and over again, good, and he could think straight to know what to do. And as soon as he got that just everything changed, and he was on par with everyone else.”
Practice sessions at both levels emphasize pattern recognition and repetition as the essential to building the skills necessary for competitions.
“I’d say probably 80 percent of my improvement came from practice,” said Brown. “Practice is the one thing that if you fail, it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t really affect you, and you can just redo. Competitions, It’s like you have to be perfect, you need those strikes.”
Bowling is an activity that almost anyone can try out, and all are welcome to meet, from beginners to experts.
“If anyone’s new to bowling, I mean, get into it, get on the lanes,” Brown said. “It’s a fun game, but once you get decently good at it, you start to really enjoy it. And I think there’s a lot to be learned from bowling. You can get scholarship money. You can make new friends. It’s just, it’s a big opportunity for people who are just getting into it.”
