Girls bowling was once a very popular sport at Niles North; before the pandemic, Girls Bowling had more than enough players to fill all the Varsity and JV positions. However, since the pandemic, the numbers have dropped dramatically, going from a peak of over 20 people on the team to a struggle to keep more than 4 players for the whole season. This drop in numbers has led to recent promotional efforts in hopes of changing how girls at NN see the sport of bowling, which appears to be one of the reasons for this decline.
“When the pandemic hit two things happened to the team: we graduated 9 girls and COVID happened, and we haven’t been able to recover from those events.” Girls Bowling Coach Richard Lee said. “We’ve reached out to head coaches of other sports, the freshman P.E. classes, our athletic department is supposed to be promoting our programs, we’ve been trying to get announcements for homeroom, whatever I can do within my means. Without a coach’s representative to help promote the team, it’s very difficult to get word of mouth about the team.”
As Boys Bowling had done, Coach Lee would hold an informational meeting regarding the Girl’s Bowling team’s schedule on Oct. 30. White posters would be put up around the school to promote it but these meetings did not hold much of a turnout. There have also been plans to put up posters announcing and promoting the team’s first practice session on Nov. 13.
There appear to be two reasons why Girls Bowling has become so unpopular at NN: a negative stigma on bowling as a ‘lame’ sport and the graduation of the team’s most active players. In general, bowling is seen by some as an activity more than a sport, with some students unaware that there are even competitions in high school bowling. Not to mention that an exclusively female NN bowling team is relatively new, having been around for only the past few years. Before that, the team was Co-Ed, and at one point, even combined with Niles West’s bowling team. While Boys’ Bowling at NN has seen a rise in popularity this year, especially with football and golf players, Girl’s Bowling seems to be fading more and more into obscurity with everything against a potential resurgence.
Interestingly, the sport was once Co-Ed due to a lack of participants. The Girls’ Bowling team would be created with the intent of creating a different environment than the one the boys were providing.
“I started the team because I was bowling on the boy’s team my freshman year and I just didn’t really care for the environment,” former Varsity bowler Gabriela Potempa said. “I was more familiar with a ‘girl’ community so I talked to Coach Lee and I got enough girls to make a real Niles North Girls Bowling team; the first year of the real Niles North Girls team was the year after I graduated, 2020 – 2021.”
Another thing to note is that the winter sports available for girls at NN is somewhat limited. Aside from bowling, girls are only offered gymnastics, track, and basketball along with Co-Ed dance and cheerleading. Bowling could be one of these sports explored by the students but seems to be the girls’ last choice for extracurricular activities.
The team gets to do real matches with other schools and participate in tournaments and all that kind of stuff. Bowling is not a sport people hear as a ‘real’ competitive sport. Not a lot of high schools have a bowling team either, it’s a super Midwestern thing. The team has a community that is really unique to the school just because it’s a sports team but it’s not as individually competitive as some of the other sports can get. I think that the time you spend in a more casual sports setting creates such a beautiful relationship. The team was something that had a strong community that I didn’t have when I was on other sports teams when I was in high school.”
— Gabriela Potempa
The sport of ten-pin bowling and its decline in popularity is not exclusive to the Girl’s Bowling team either. Boys Bowling had trouble maintaining an active and full Varsity team in the past couple of years and some would agree that bowling itself is not so popular with today’s kids and high schoolers
“I’ve talked to students in my classes, the hallway, put up flyers and brochures, worked with other coaches as well,” Asst. Girls Bowling Coach and Paraprofessional Tom Marinis said. “I hope to see more students coming out. Last season we had four players so it would be great if we could get it above 10. Hopefully, we can get underclassmen involved, it’s a great way to get involved and represent our community. It’s a great thing to add to college and job applications, whatever someone might want to do after high school. Bowling was something I used to do often; back when I was in junior high our gym class would go bowling. I think some familiarity with the sport is something missing with the students. It’s a great sport and the really great thing about it is that both the best bowler and the worst bowler on the team could both leave feeling great about what they did. You can still get out there and get your all-time high, it’s not necessarily a win/lose sport.”
Small things appear to be the reason for the unpopularity of Girls Bowling and coaches will need big changes to overcome them. As the boys did, the world team will need support from Student Activities, other coaches and teachers, the Athletic Department, and students to spread the word about the upcoming Girl’s Bowling season on the 13th. Promotional meetings and colorful posters turned boys’ heads leading to a full Varsity and JV team this 2023 – 2024 season. Maybe with the same effort, coaches like Lee and Marinis could see that change as well this year, giving a rebirth to the once-new and popular Niles North Girls Bowling team.
