Quite a transition

[SequatchieBowler17]

Upcoming high-school bowlers in the state of Tennessee, this sport is beginning to lose its significance in large amounts, and very quickly. I can remember when I first moved to Tennessee my sophomore year and wanted nothing more than to make Soddy-Daisy's bowling team...

That year, Hixson's boys won the state title and overcame some tough competition in the process. Next season, my junior year, Columbia Central rolled over a lot of genuinely good bowlers and earned their state title. The previous individual winners have been hard-working and mentally indestructable in their journey to the top. My final year as a high school bowler, I watched as Hixson went co-ed, a team whose boys and girls had both won state titles just a couple years earlier, I watched Columbia Central struggle to form a lineup literally the season after their big year, I watched the individual title go from Gary Faulkner (amazing bowler) to Michael Poirier (most inspiring bowler i've ever met) and then almost to Matt Lyon who would rather spend time fishing for algae-ridden boots and work on his golf game (for absolutely no reason) than spend an hour practicing with some of his closest friends in the bowling alley.

I want to make him an example... If you're committed to the sport and believe you truly have the potential and desire to succeed at it, THEN DO IT ALREADY. Matt couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, couldn't convert single pins to save his life, at times had the mental game of a lunatic on drugs, and WE ALL SAT BY AND WATCHED HIM LUCK HIS WAY INTO BOWLER OF THE YEAR!!!! He will be the first to tell you that he did anything but EARN his 223 average this season, and I can't believe just months after this seemingly important event he'd rather do anything than work at his game. What's worse though is that he never ceases to think that he's way better than EVERYONE ELSE!!!

The point is bowlers, prove him wrong already. This isn't about Matt, it's about YOU. Bring bowling back from the grave toward which it is headed and let's start earning our titles again, not throwing the ball anywhere and watching the pins all fall seconds apart from each other like Matt does... It's like watching a soccer game where the goalie punts the ball and all the players watch it roll into the other goal to win the game. Bowling is better than this, and we can do better. Make people who deserve to win earn the victory. Because I can't stand to see another year go by watching someone who thinks the sport is a complete joke OWN IT. Thank you, and good bowling this next season.

[SDStarter2]

Upcoming high-school bowlers in the state of Tennessee, this sport is beginning to lose its significance in large amounts, and very quickly. I can remember when I first moved to Tennessee my sophomore year and wanted nothing more than to make Soddy-Daisy's bowling team...

That year, Hixson's boys won the state title and overcame some tough competition in the process. Next season, my junior year, Columbia Central rolled over a lot of genuinely good bowlers and earned their state title. The previous individual winners have been hard-working and mentally indestructable in their journey to the top. My final year as a high school bowler, I watched as Hixson went co-ed, a team whose boys and girls had both won state titles just a couple years earlier, I watched Columbia Central struggle to form a lineup literally the season after their big year, I watched the individual title go from Gary Faulkner (amazing bowler) to Michael Poirier (most inspiring bowler i've ever met) and then almost to Matt Lyon who would rather spend time fishing for algae-ridden boots and work on his golf game (for absolutely no reason) than spend an hour practicing with some of his closest friends in the bowling alley.

I want to make him an example... If you're committed to the sport and believe you truly have the potential and desire to succeed at it, THEN DO IT ALREADY. Matt couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, couldn't convert single pins to save his life, at times had the mental game of a lunatic on drugs, and WE ALL SAT BY AND WATCHED HIM LUCK HIS WAY INTO BOWLER OF THE YEAR!!!! He will be the first to tell you that he did anything but EARN his 223 average this season, and I can't believe just months after this seemingly important event he'd rather do anything than work at his game. What's worse though is that he never ceases to think that he's way better than EVERYONE ELSE!!!

The point is bowlers, prove him wrong already. This isn't about Matt, it's about YOU. Bring bowling back from the grave toward which it is headed and let's start earning our titles again, not throwing the ball anywhere and watching the pins all fall seconds apart from each other like Matt does... It's like watching a soccer game where the goalie punts the ball and all the players watch it roll into the other goal to win the game. Bowling is better than this, and we can do better. Make people who deserve to win earn the victory. Because I can't stand to see another year go by watching someone who thinks the sport is a complete joke OWN IT. Thank you, and good bowling this next season.

 

 

I completely agree SequatchieBowler... Scott. We are not in high school anymore, sadly. But we can encourage our past fellow teammates to work hard for everything they earn. My senior year of high school was, no doubt, the best I have ever bowled in my life. Even under all the pressure I had on me to bowl well. And I miss that. I also miss when we actually had to try to beat someone in Saturday Morning league. But now that league is a joke and first place basically goes to whoever has the most handicap, not who earned it. I mean to start league in the morning and already be down some 400 pins before you even throw your first ball stinks. Both Allyn and Matt have so much potential, but they would rather watch all that go down the drain by not practicing for months, then come into the bowling alley and still expect to average 210! It's redonculous! It hurts me to sit here and watch them all just not care anymore. Practice consists of trying to bowl the best game of your life, and in my opinion, that's and hour of practice wasted. They should be trying to perfect their release, or at least trying to make it better. Or even just working on their spares and mental game. But no. I don't foresee this happening at all in the near future and I am incredibly saddened. Not to say that I don't hope for it because I do. /huh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":huh:" border="0" alt="huh.gif" />

[SequatchieBowler17]

Haha, Im enjoying my summer man, I'll start practicing soon. Good luck everyone.

 

I've never said I'm better than anyone else or think I am. I'm not going to start an arguement on here because its foolish and childish. Why should it matter to you if I want to take a little break? Whatever emotional problem your going through, I hope you recover from it.

 

Matt, your're just lucky the rest of the Tennessee bowling community doesn't know you like we do... They would realize, just as we do, that most everything you do is, in fact, "foolish and childish."

You don't want everyone to think you're conceited, but you certainly come off that way sometimes, and you don't necessarily have to come right out and say that you're better than everyone to make it known that you feel that way. According to your post, bowling for you is not enjoyable anymore, so I don't see a reason for you to partake in something that you don't "enjoy." Taking a break is one thing, but not picking up a bowling ball for 3 weeks at a time is another.

Last season, I spent an entire month helping you get back on track by helping you with your swing, mentality, spare game, and timing. The result was you having the highest average in the state. Before that month of rehab, you wouldn't mean more to the team than a pair of sweaty gym socks. This time you don't have that privelege because of the way you treat people. You can wish everyone good luck all you want and try to come off as an angel, but you know what your true thoughts and actions are, and you know exactly why you're being confronted.

Finally, I knew you'd flatter yourself with thinking that this post was ALL ABOUT YOU. Don't flatter yourself; it's not. I wanted bowlers and bowling fans to know that it's time to step up and knock this season out of the park for the sake of the sport. No fights, no arguements, just good clean bowling and may the best team come out deservingly victorious. Matt, I still wish you good luck in the coming season, as do I to everyone else. I know the best will come out on top this time around.

[Luv2Bowl]

While I can appreciate people being able to express their opinions on this site, I do not believe it gives people the right to "personally" attack another. If the focus of this topic was to create awareness of bowling and motivate bowlers to do well in the upcoming season, then you would do well to put the focus on that and not slamming your fellow teammate. You state that this post is not about Matt, yet all of your comments are continuously directed at him and with putting him down. Very poor sportsmanship on your part. I think that this post is more about the transition that you are going thru and the realization that you will never bowl for high school again and will never have the chance to win either a team or individual championship.

 

I think you do Matt a disservice by saying that he "lucked" out on his average last year and being selected as Bowler of the Year. I don't believe any bowler just lucks out with an average of 223. It takes hard work and dedication, which Matt did last year.

 

I have known and watched Matt bowl for several years and I find him to be a very well mannered and respectful young man and bowler. I think he shows good sportsmanship not only to his teammates, but also his competitors. I have never seen Matt act conceited or act like he is better than anyone else. You may find that balancing bowling with other interests may just make you a better bowler. Its crazy to think that you must spend every spare moment bowling to be the best. Having interests outside of bowling does not make bowling any less important. I applaud Matt for his response to you. I wish him well in the upcoming season and whether he comes in 1st place, 10th place or whatever place, I still believe he is a good bowler and will represent Soddy Daisy very well. We are all very proud of him!

[strikerbabe]

SERIOUSLY scott are givin the soddy bowling team a bad name.you are tryin start drama on this. if you helped matt get better this season then why didnt you win state? EXACTLY. if matt is as lousy as you say then i want to bowl like he does. at least he is more mature than you. i dont see why you are tryin to start a fight on here its beneath you. lets all just drop this and get back on the real topic. we are here to talk about bowling NOT to talk about how you think about matt. this is about tryin to get people to bowl not turn them from doin it.

[SequatchieBowler17]

SERIOUSLY scott are givin the soddy bowling team a bad name.you are tryin start drama on this. if you helped matt get better this season then why didnt you win state? EXACTLY. if matt is as lousy as you say then i want to bowl like he does. at least he is more mature than you. i dont see why you are tryin to start a fight on here its beneath you. lets all just drop this and get back on the real topic. we are here to talk about bowling NOT to talk about how you think about matt. this is about tryin to get people to bowl not turn them from doin it.

 

No fights necessary. I never intended to start a fight, but rather give some incentive for people to practice and work hard over the summer so they can compete with what is going to be thrown their way. As for not winning state, I would like to know how coming in 5th place with the flu is a short-coming... Because it's actually quite hard to do. I can't take away anything from Matt, and he obviously didn't cheat or do any such thing to get where he was. Furthermore, I don't even know who you are, nor do I really care. I do know, however, that this didn't involve you, and I'm perfectly capable of handling my own situations, so while I apprecaite your positive intentions, I will neither acknowledge nor accept any of the advice you're trying to provide.

I tried apologizing to Matt last night, and explained to him why I took the actions I took to get him to quit bragging to me about his accomplishments and my short-comings this season. However, he unfortuneately refused to cooperate with anything I had to say, so I wished him good luck for this next season and we're moving our separate ways. I thought maybe Matt's father and I could discuss this matter like civilized people and resolve it, but he wanted nothing more than to tell me how little class I had when he approached me yesterday, so I was unable to present my side of the story to him. So much for that... Good luck bowlers and please don't take what I've said out of context anymore... It's quite a simple concept to understand: Practice and get better; don't let your abilities go to waste because you don't feel like bowling for 3 months at a time. Matt, if I've gone too far, I'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize since it seems this might be my last chance to do so. Whether you accpet it and/or return it is completely up to you, but I think if you'll face your faults, as am I, you'll realize that we're both better because of it. I honestly am sorry, and I wish you good luck this season.

[SequatchieBowler17]

While I can appreciate people being able to express their opinions on this site, I do not believe it gives people the right to "personally" attack another. If the focus of this topic was to create awareness of bowling and motivate bowlers to do well in the upcoming season, then you would do well to put the focus on that and not slamming your fellow teammate. You state that this post is not about Matt, yet all of your comments are continuously directed at him and with putting him down. Very poor sportsmanship on your part. I think that this post is more about the transition that you are going thru and the realization that you will never bowl for high school again and will never have the chance to win either a team or individual championship.

 

I think you do Matt a disservice by saying that he "lucked" out on his average last year and being selected as Bowler of the Year. I don't believe any bowler just lucks out with an average of 223. It takes hard work and dedication, which Matt did last year.

 

I have known and watched Matt bowl for several years and I find him to be a very well mannered and respectful young man and bowler. I think he shows good sportsmanship not only to his teammates, but also his competitors. I have never seen Matt act conceited or act like he is better than anyone else. You may find that balancing bowling with other interests may just make you a better bowler. Its crazy to think that you must spend every spare moment bowling to be the best. Having interests outside of bowling does not make bowling any less important. I applaud Matt for his response to you. I wish him well in the upcoming season and whether he comes in 1st place, 10th place or whatever place, I still believe he is a good bowler and will represent Soddy Daisy very well. We are all very proud of him!

 

Luv2Bowl, I can honestly say that you've put up a compelling and very powerful argument. This is probably the first post I've seen on this sight that has actually successfully proven a point, so I genuinely praise you for your sophisticated and relevant remarks. However, I don??™t believe that my original post was triggered at all by my realization that my high-school bowling days are over; I came to terms with that during the very last ball I threw??¦

You??™re right when you say that my post was personal toward Matt, but I had a point to prove. Matt constantly reminds me of his accomplishments and my short-comings from this past season, and only when it??™s just me and him around, no one else. So it is typical that you find him to be well-mannered and respectable standing in your shoes??¦ As for me, Matt was well aware of how high my expectations for myself were for this past season, and when he reached his goals and I didn??™t, Matt thought it would be perfectly fine to capitalize on that by repeatedly boasting to me about how much better he performed in the state tournament. As we all know, this is quite true. There is nothing that can be taken away from him for his record-breaking achievements, and I??™m quite certain that luck isn??™t the main reason for his successes.

Matt knows very well that he purposefully irritated me day after day at school and at practices by gloating to me. He even blatantly admitted it to me that he only does it because he knows how much it meant to me and he likes to watch me get upset about it. No matter how hard I tried to be civil with him, he always took it one step further each day. After dozens of attempts to bring his bragging to an end, I realized that it would take more than just words to get him off my back, especially since he tried to act so proper and humble around everyone else. It will be hard for you to understand my viewpoint since you were a victim of this two-faced trick he played, but rest assured that I would never do something like this unprovoked??¦ I recognized how Matt put so much emphasis on his reputation to the public eye, so I figured that the only absolute way to end his immaturity would be to expose his actions publicly. Apparently this worked quite well since he didn??™t even come within 20 feet of me yesterday at the bowling alley, much less talk to me.

Before I had completely given up on him, however, I offered to practice with him a few times several weeks ago. Upon receiving the offers, he told me he??™d be glad to join me for practice, but would inform me later of other plans he??™d made that overlapped perfectly with the scheduled time, which basically resulted in him ditching me. This didn??™t happen just once, nor twice, but three different times in a 5-day span. Once I??™d realized he was enjoying intentionally standing me up, my last nerve had been pinched and I told him he could find another teammate with whom to practice, and he couldn??™t have cared less, even after I tried to reach out to him. He made it clear that he thought he could make it just fine without me (which he might be able to do) since he beat me last season, and after hearing this, I decided it would be the final time he would ever rub it in my face again, so I posted the new forum, and haven??™t heard a single remark ever since. Matt doesn??™t want people to know how he truly acts, but he certainly pushed me way too far, and I tried to help him AGAIN, and all he wanted to do was push me away??¦ What a way to be ???well-mannered and respectable.???

[Mjl4soddy]

Luv2Bowl, I can honestly say that you've put up a compelling and very powerful argument. This is probably the first post I've seen on this sight that has actually successfully proven a point, so I genuinely praise you for your sophisticated and relevant remarks. However, I don??™t believe that my original post was triggered at all by my realization that my high-school bowling days are over; I came to terms with that during the very last ball I threw??¦

You??™re right when you say that my post was personal toward Matt, but I had a point to prove. Matt constantly reminds me of his accomplishments and my short-comings from this past season, and only when it??™s just me and him around, no one else. So it is typical that you find him to be well-mannered and respectable standing in your shoes??¦ As for me, Matt was well aware of how high my expectations for myself were for this past season, and when he reached his goals and I didn??™t, Matt thought it would be perfectly fine to capitalize on that by repeatedly boasting to me about how much better he performed in the state tournament. As we all know, this is quite true. There is nothing that can be taken away from him for his record-breaking achievements, and I??™m quite certain that luck isn??™t the main reason for his successes.

Matt knows very well that he purposefully irritated me day after day at school and at practices by gloating to me. He even blatantly admitted it to me that he only does it because he knows how much it meant to me and he likes to watch me get upset about it. No matter how hard I tried to be civil with him, he always took it one step further each day. After dozens of attempts to bring his bragging to an end, I realized that it would take more than just words to get him off my back, especially since he tried to act so proper and humble around everyone else. It will be hard for you to understand my viewpoint since you were a victim of this two-faced trick he played, but rest assured that I would never do something like this unprovoked??¦ I recognized how Matt put so much emphasis on his reputation to the public eye, so I figured that the only absolute way to end his immaturity would be to expose his actions publicly. Apparently this worked quite well since he didn??™t even come within 20 feet of me yesterday at the bowling alley, much less talk to me.

Before I had completely given up on him, however, I offered to practice with him a few times several weeks ago. Upon receiving the offers, he told me he??™d be glad to join me for practice, but would inform me later of other plans he??™d made that overlapped perfectly with the scheduled time, which basically resulted in him ditching me. This didn??™t happen just once, nor twice, but three different times in a 5-day span. Once I??™d realized he was enjoying intentionally standing me up, my last nerve had been pinched and I told him he could find another teammate with whom to practice, and he couldn??™t have cared less, even after I tried to reach out to him. He made it clear that he thought he could make it just fine without me (which he might be able to do) since he beat me last season, and after hearing this, I decided it would be the final time he would ever rub it in my face again, so I posted the new forum, and haven??™t heard a single remark ever since. Matt doesn??™t want people to know how he truly acts, but he certainly pushed me way too far, and I tried to help him AGAIN, and all he wanted to do was push me away??¦ What a way to be ???well-mannered and respectable.???

 

 

Well, I don't get near you anymore because i don't want anything to do with someone like you, Never did brag to you everyday when I was around you, but if you take it like that then post it to people who care.

At first you told me that the reason why your making up stuff was to motivate me, but now that everyone is starting to see what your about.. you start to change that into looking as if its my fault. (Which it isn't) Now I know your gonna make some big long paragraph up with more junk about me to counter this post, but I'll refer to you that it won't have any effect on me but will CONTINUE to show how you are.

I still don't know where you get this bragging from, you bragged to me all the time, but I didn't think much of it. You TRIED to say that I come off as an angel when I showed good sportsmanship, but now look at you. Changing story after story to try and come off as one. If your going to try and make up lies about someone, then make it seem as if you have a clue about what your talking about. I'm tired of this drama, and I don't want it to spread throughout my teammates, I don't want this garbage to distact them.

 

CUT THE DRAMA!

[stephenr]

After skimming threw a couple of these posts i am very sad to see what has become of our sport.A sport that is dearly beloved by me and many of my peers.Matt is a great bowler and i had the chance to pair with him again in Chattanooga at state this past spring.I believe his resume on the year rightfully deserved the bowler of the year title and nothing can erase whats set in stone.I dont think bowling is dying but i do believe kids aren't caring for it as much as they use to.This site is suppose to be about getting kids pumped up for the sport not bashing it.PLEASE dont make the same mistake I did and let your personal beliefs try to outshine the accomplishment of a very good bowler.Even though i had nothing to do with this argument I believe its a foolish one to be having.

[SequatchieBowler17]

After skimming threw a couple of these posts i am very sad to see what has become of our sport.A sport that is dearly beloved by me and many of my peers.Matt is a great bowler and i had the chance to pair with him again in Chattanooga at state this past spring.I believe his resume on the year rightfully deserved the bowler of the year title and nothing can erase whats set in stone.I dont think bowling is dying but i do believe kids aren't caring for it as much as they use to.This site is suppose to be about getting kids pumped up for the sport not bashing it.PLEASE dont make the same mistake I did and let your personal beliefs try to outshine the accomplishment of a very good bowler.Even though i had nothing to do with this argument I believe its a foolish one to be having.

 

Stephenr, you're absolutely right. Matt, I apologize, plain and simple. I hope I can be forgiven, and I hope this next season will be a good one.