DuPage County bowlers head to O'Fallon ready to strike

Glenbard South junior Kyle Bailey stood on the cusp of perfection.

Competing Saturday at the Hinsdale South boys bowling sectional with the Glenbard co-op team - five bowlers from Glenbard East, three from Glenbard South - Bailey had delivered 11 straight strikes.

A 12th would do it.

"I felt the pressure, but my teammates were there cheering me on, so that took a little pressure off my shoulders. So I was more excited than scared," the right-hander said.

In fact a crowd had gathered behind the Lane 26 runway at Brunswick Zone Woodridge Lanes, coach Jerry Maculitis close in, the better to provide immediate feedback.

"I was very nervous about the last one," Bailey recalled, before he spun his Motiv Forza GT down the boards. "I kind of yanked it a little bit and it went right through the head pin."

But all 10 fell, and Bailey had his first 300 game while posting the sectional's second-best series, 1320.

With teammates Tom Reiche and Robert Morris-bound Jake Jordan also averaging better than 200 a game and sophomore Anthony Pope averaging 174 the Glenbard squad nicknamed "Sweast" placed third in the sole sectional to advance DuPage County bowlers to this weekend's finals at St. Clair Bowl in O'Fallon.

Lake Park trailed only St. Patrick at Woodridge Lanes, coach Greg Edwards' Lancers advancing for the 16th time in 17 years of the state series, the most of any program. Hinsdale South senior Ben Smith advanced individually as did Lisle junior Brandon Williamson, his third straight trip.

It's the first advancement for Glenbard's "South with East" co-op; Glenbard East fielded a boys squad the past five seasons.

"It's pretty exciting," Bailey said. "I've gotten really close with all the guys because I didn't really know what to expect with the co-op. But it's actually been a lot of fun so we're all super-excited to go down there.

"If you bowl good you have a chance. It's always unexpected because everyone could have their good days, everyone could have their bad days when they go down there. So you've just got to find out when you go down there."

By Thursday evening all 24 qualifying teams and 30 individuals probably will have arrived, securing practice slots at St. Clair Bowl.

Lisle's Williamson will use the time wisely. Experience has taught him to leave nothing to chance.

"I've kind of learned that you can't take any pin for granted," said Williamson, who like Bailey has a part-time job at a bowling center.

"As soon as you let off the gas you're down 20 places. Every bowler there is really, really good," he said.

As a freshman downstate in 2017, Williamson finished the first day in 11th position; after the second and final day he'd slid to 46th. He also finished in 46th as a sophomore, 41st after the first day.

Interestingly, Williamson's finals average as a freshman was 206.9 pins and as a sophomore it was 198.7. Finishing seventh at the Hinsdale South sectional he averaged 216. In the league he's in at Lisle Lanes, Williamson averages 215.

"I'm not going to rush things," he said of this weekend. "I'm not going to think too far ahead. I'm going to try to play it shot by shot and not try to put that much pressure on myself. I do that a lot and it's not good for me."

Lake Park's Andrews has cultivated pressure-relieving methods. The Lancers coach will "keep them loose, tell them jokes," he said.

It's worked. Lake Park has eight top-10 finishes including the 2009 championship and runner-up finishes in 2004 and 2010.

Though this Lancers squad may not equal those upper-echelon teams, Edwards is optimistic.

"Any given Sunday," he said. "Anybody can get hot at the right time and the right place, as long as you go out there and execute and focus on what you're trying to do and not get caught up in what (opponents) are doing. Because there's no defense in this game."

As a team Lake Park placed second to St. Patrick at the Hinsdale South sectional. Sophomore Jason Gutkowski, who bowled a 300 game at sectional as a freshman, led the Lancers with a 216 average; senior Jordan Fischer rolled an 1195 over the six games. At the Glenbard East regional Fischer led all bowlers with a score of 1407, an average of 234.5. Last year's state champion, Hononegah's Nick Sommer, averaged 226 in the finals.

Each of the eight boys Edwards listed in his sectional lineup bowled a minimum of two games, the only advancing team to do that. He said his bowlers are "man enough" to let him know if they're winded or if a teammate is the better choice to continue given his particular skills as the lanes' oil patterns break down.

If Lake Park can bowl with St. Charles North, Columbia, Hononegah, Harlem, Minooka, Richards or the Lincoln-Ways it's liable to be a joint effort.

"Teamwork makes the dream work," Edwards said. "If we stick together we can accomplish anything."

The boys are back

In 2017-18 Timothy Christian celebrated the 50th year that longtime friends - we're talking longtime, since kindergarten - George Bosman and Ken Huizinga worked the scorer's table together for Trojans boys and girls basketball games.

The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association will recognize the duo, and their commitment now in its 51st season, by inducting Huizinga and Bosman into the IBCA Hall of Fame. They and many others will be saluted May 4 at Redbird Arena in Normal.

"It means all the world, really," Bosman said Monday during Timothy's inaugural MLK Trojan Shootout.

"Both of us have loved basketball our whole life," he said. "We were never stars on a high school team, we were subs or on the bench or whatever. But we love the game and it's so much fun to teach the game, not only to love it yourself."

Both men taught and coached for decades at Timothy Christian and still lead Saturday morning basketball sessions on top of this season's slate of games at the scorer's table.

"Coaches make it, and the referees make it. It's something that timers and scorekeepers make it," said Huizinga, who with Bosman will enter the IBCA Hall as a "Friend" of basketball.

"Yeah, we've been doing it for 50 years," he said, "but it's a labor of love."

Also gaining induction are the College of DuPage 2000 and 2002 women's teams and its 2002 men's team, all of which won national titles; Bob Mattingly, the first boys basketball coach at both Waubonsie Valley and Aurora Central Catholic; Elmhurst's Jay Lyons, an assigner of officials and one himself; Wood Dale official Ken Falkner; and Dominic Cannon, who briefly coached York's boys.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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