CORNING BOWLERS PULLING DOUBLE DUTY AS THEY FUNDRAISE AND PREPARE FOR NATIONALS (2024-05-17)

Southern Tier Sports Report
It was a magical season for the Corning Hawks bowling team this past winter, as they brought home a state championship.

The bowlers thought that’s where the story of the year ended. That was before they found out they had a chance to bowl at the national tournament in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in June.

“As a team we are very excited,” senior Camryn Stefanini said. “It’s an opportunity we didn’t think we’d have. It’s very nice that we get more time as a team, practicing with the guys is very nice. It’s a great group of guys to spend my last year with and just have as much fun as we can.”

The bowlers are working hard to get ready for nationals, and are excited for this chance.

“We are very excited,” Zach Sturdevant said. “It’s a neat opportunity for all of us. It’s going to be something new. We are trying to get to a point where we can be comfortable and know what we are going to do boing into this. Other than that, everyone is excited and can’t wait to go to nationals and see if we can take it.”’

The bowling team is hosting a fundraising tournament at Crystal Lanes from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday to raise money for the trip to nationals. The entry fee for the tournament is $25 a person and there are automatic strikes in the third, sixth and ninth frames.

There is a 50/50 and basket and ball raffles and all funds raised will help offset costs for each bowler to attend nationals.

“It’s good to see all the people coming to support us and what we are trying to do,” Sturdevant said.

The fundraising tournament should be something fun for the team.

“We are very excited,” Stefanini said. “We got a lot of support from the community doing it. A lot of people signed up. Some people signed up who are not even from the area, some even are high school teachers who signed up. It’s very nice they are willing to give up a Saturday, especially on prom day, to support our team going to nationals.”

Because nationals is outside the regular season for high school bowling it’s not considered a school event, so the athletes are having to fundraise for the event at the same time as they prepare for nationals.

“Doing both at the same time is a little difficult,” Stefanini said. “Fortunately we have a great community giving us support the whole way and diving it to allow us to go to nationals. Everyone at leagues, even just people at the bowling ally just coming in from the community have donated. Businesses have donated, a lot of people want us to go there and do well and are willing to help us. It’s very nice to have people behind us.”

“It was difficult, but it’s good to have people there supporting us as we raise money to help us go to nationals,” Sturdevant said.

Finding out they were going to nationals was a bit of a happy surprise.

“For me it was hard to understand, because I didn’t realize what was going on until I got explained about it all and was told we qualified for it,” Sturdevant said. “When I heard that I was pretty excited. I talked to everyone else on the team and we were all pretty excited when we got told we got a chance to go to nationals. Everyone had high hopes and we were all just happy and glad we could do something.”

The Hawks had a chance at nationals a couple years ago, but were never able to go. Now, they are excited to get the chance to compete at the event.

“When we learned we were able to go we were very excited to have a chance to go,” Stefanini said. “Two years ago when we could have went, unfortunately we were not able to because of Regents exams. This year it’s not on Regents exams week, and because it’s so close we are able to do the round trip and all of us can be there.”

Preparing for nationals is a chance for the Hawks bowlers to spend more time together as a team.

“It’s fun because we get to spend more time with each other, and especially with the people who are also leaving this year, which are the seniors,” Sturdevant said. “It was hard on all o us leaving states. We didn’t know until a couple days later we get to go to nationals. When we got home from states it was hard on us because we knew we weren’t going to se our two seniors again. We qualified for nationals and now we get to spend more time with them before we send them off.”

All the time together is special.

“It brings us a lot closer,” Stefanini said. “Spending more time with them, getting guys in lanes more often, being able to practice all the time. It really creates a bond you wouldn’t get from anywhere. You have to learn how other guys take some things so you can tell them how to adjust on lanes, or approach it different. Definitely in bowling chemistry is different, but we have a great thing going now. It makes us a more formidable foe as we go into nationals to compete.”

The Hawks bowling team is like a family, and preparing together for this event just makes that family closer.

“It brings us together more than anything,” Sturdevant said. “It’s something we are all aiming for and is bringing us closer together more than anything. It really just shows you how much Corning is more like a family than it is random teenagers getting together and just bowling. Every match we went to this year, every tournament we’ve done we have always stayed together and helped each other the best we could. This team is more of a family than it is just friends.”

The team is excited to head to nationals and see what they can do.

“When we go to nationals and we see what we can do and hopefully we can bring it home for Corning,” Sturdevant said. “I think everyone next year coming back, I think it will help us raise more of our team spirit than individual spirit. Everything we have done to get to this point is because of team bonding and really sticking together and helping each other out.”

The whole nationals experience is different than normal tournaments.

“I am very excited to see what we can do at nationals as a team,” Stefanini said. “It will be different. It’s a bigger tournament than we are used to as a team, but also excited to see what we can do as team and how we work together. Normally we bowl three normal games or six normal games. But, here we bowl two normal games each person and then we go into bakers. So we are practicing bakers and practicing for the tournament, we will see how it pays off.”

Finishing well at nationals would be great, but the most important thing for the Hawks bowlers is just to do their best.

“It would be really exciting for us (to finish high),” Stefanini said. “But, I think it would be even more exciting if the team goes up and we all work as a team as we did at states to win. Being at our best is being as a team, not five individuals. If we produce the same amount of team work as we did at states we have a chance to go far at nationals.”
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STSR FILE PHOTO.


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