Sparkman Sweeps Bowling Championships
The clanging of pins knocked to the ground, hitting the others on the way down. The ball rolling down the lane. The cheers of excitement from competitors, coaches and fans.
These sounds will not be heard again until next winter.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association bowling season has ended and a new champion in the large school division has been crowned in both the boys’ and girls’ categories.
This year, the same school rolled past the competition and took home both titles within hours of each other.
The Sparkman High Senators captured the wins at Oak Mountain Lanes in Pelham on Jan. 29. The boys defeated Hoover in the finals by a score of 1,607-1,578 – a difference of just 29 pins. The girls, for their part, overtook Thompson 1,492-1,292 for their first title since they won the inaugural crown in 2016.
Third-year head coach Lisa Ivey, who coaches both teams, certainly put in the work to help her students become champions.
The boys’ team defeated Auburn in the opening round and Hewitt-Trussville in the semifinals to set up their championship round against the Buccaneers.
On the girls’ side, the Senators beat Baker and Spain Park before overtaking the Warriors for the title.
Bowling became officially sanctioned by the AHSAA in 2016, and has been steadily growing since then.
Due to the popularity of bowling, the sport was divided into divisions this year. The small school division consisted of schools that fall in the 1A-5A classifications. The large school division was made up of schools in the 6A and 7A classifications. In the small school division, the East Limestone boys and Satsuma girls took home the crowns.
On the individual side of the awards, Thompson’s Gracie Connelly had the tournament’s top series for the second year in a row with a score of 628.
Daylin Tolgo, a senior on the Senators’ team, helped her team to victory turning in consistent scores of 800 in the quarterfinals and 865 in the semifinals. With a 222 in the championship match, she captured the 6A and 7A division’s second best three game series with a score of 596. Tolgo also earned the Class 7A individual state title.
The record of only one school repeating as champions on the boys’ side continues to be held by the Spain Park team for yet another season, when the Jaguars won back-to-back in 2016 and 2017.
The four-time defending champion on the girls’ side, Southside-Gadsden, was upset in the quarterfinals by Stanhope Elmore to guarantee a new champion would emerge from the 2020- 21 season.
Will another repeat champion emerge on the boys’ side next season? Can the Sparkman girls create a dynasty of their own, or will Southside-Gadsden be back to continue theirs?
The 2021 season will have no shortage of storylines.
Written by: Reagan Cofield
