This year the NSAA welcomed bowling as an official winter sport. The Thunderbird bowling teams started off this season strong with the boys team record at 3-0 and the girls at 2-1.

Sophomore Hope Garcia said that many people that were on Unified Bowling crossed over into winter bowling.

“We all know each other and cheer each other on,” Garcia said. “It’s a really friendly atmosphere.”

Senior Logan Fullerton started out the season only knowing one of the thirteen people on the team.

“My favorite thing about bowling is probably the people I’m meeting through it,” Fullerton said. “In a school this big, there’s bound to be people you don’t know.” 

Fullerton says that the team is full of supportive people who create a fun yet competitive environment.

“It’s an interesting opportunity to meet new people who are either like me, and generally inexperienced with bowling, or those who have been playing basically their entire lives,” Fullerton said.

During a bowling match each team numbers off their players one through five. Each bowler bowls against the other team’s corresponding bowler. Whoever scores better against their opponent gets a point for their team. At the end you add up your team’s points and whoever’s team has a higher total amount of points also gets another point. 

After this process bowlers move into a team bowling called ‘Baker Style’. Each team gets ten frames and each bowler bowls twice. Three ‘Baker Style’ games are played and whoever wins two of the three games gets the last two points of the game. At the end whichever team has the highest number of points is the winner.

Sophomore Karla Diaz started bowling as something to do in her free time but found an amazing team in the process.

“We support each other through everything,” Diaz said. “It doesn’t matter if one of us gets a gutter; we always cheer for our team.”

Fullerton said his goal for the season is to work towards a point where he’s confident in the way he’s doing things.

“Bowling competitively is something I’ve never done before,” Fullerton said. “It’s exciting to do it in competition with others and work towards self-improvement.”