By Travis Smola
Vicksburg’s varsity bowling teams are showing marked improvement in the early part of the season.
The boys’ and girls’ teams currently split their time between league and conference play. One of their more recent conference matchups was a split with the boys defeating Paw Paw, but the girls losing. Still, they are doing markedly better than last year when they finished near the bottom of the Wolverine Conference.
“We’re doing pretty good this year,” head coach Ed Mullins said. “The kids have a great time.”
Early in the season, there have already been some notable individual performances too. Junior Kylie Kalleward had ten strikes in a row in a recent matchup for the girls’ team. Mullins said she handled it well, given the pressure of the situation. For the boys’ team, sophomore Lucas Hetrick has already bowled two excellent games over 250.
It’s still early in the season, but looking forward there is good competition to be had. Mullins noted that Portage Northern seems always to field a good boys’ team. Otsego and Plainwell are other tough opponents to watch.
As far as a season-long outlook for the teams is concerned, Mullins has high hopes. “Our goal is to end up in the top three at the end of the season,” Mullins said. He’s also hoping to see some individual athletes accomplish some big things as the year progresses.
“I’m hoping to have at least two kids go to state [tournaments],” Mullins said.