ORHS bowlers are excited to compete for their school

At their Aug. 22 meeting, the Oak Ridge Board of Education approved the first new Oak Ridge High School sport in quite some time, a new bowling team, which will compete at the TSSAA level. Although TSSAA has sponsored bowling only since 2001, it’s become a popular team at many schools, according to Athletic Director Joe Gaddis, who, along with former principal Garfield Adams, pushed to add the sport to the school.

ORHS math teacher Julianne Fowler, who helped coach bowling at South-Doyle High School, pushed the move to add the sport at ORHS and is the first bowling coach at the school.

For several years, ORHS students who wanted to compete in high school bowling competed for Hardin Valley Academy in a cooperative program that allows athletes in one school that does not offer a sport to compete for another school that does. Since HVA has offered bowling from the beginning, several Oak Ridge students have bowled for them.

“I know our bowlers who bowled with HVA are very thankful for the opportunity to bowl for HVA and will miss the friends they made, but they are definitely looking forward to representing their own school," Fowler said.

Fowler continued: “I believe others have tried before me, but the stars seemed to align this time. Last year, the form we fill out to co-op with Hardin Valley had already been submitted when I started asking more questions, so we were too late. So I set my sights on this year. It is not an overly hard sell because we have lanes in town, have a balance of guys and girls, and do not require a lot of money.” 

Coach Gaddis said, “Student interest has been really high, especially for a first-year sport at ORHS. The boys' team of nine bowlers is already 5-1 and look tough. The girls' team, which has six team members, is 2-2, and they are getting better every match. We are pleased to be able to field such strong teams already.”

Fowler says the Oak Ridge Bowling Center has been excited to have hometown teenage bowlers practicing and competing at their lanes. Hardin Valley has used the ORBC as their home lanes for years, but now the Wildcats can call it home, too.

In high school bowling, a team is structured of at least six bowlers with a few subs of each gender. A match contains one head-to-head game of the home 1-6 ranked bowlers against the visitors' 1-6 and five Bakers games in which five bowlers bowl a frame each and rotate through so they bowl two frames in a game. Teams receive points for winning head-to-head matchups, winning Bakers games, and overall pin fall. Bowling practices usually consist of the bowlers bowling three games − sometimes in the head-to-head (1 through 6 - like tennis) format.

The TSSAA bowling season began in late September, but Oak Ridge's matches began after fall break and will run up until Christmas break. Oak Ridge Bowling will play 16 matches with schools from Knoxville at ORBC, Family Bowl, Western Avenue Strike and Spare, and Fountain Lanes. The district tournament will be right before Christmas break. The region tournament is in early January and the State Tournament is in mid-January and is held in Smyrna, Tennessee. Bowlers can qualify for the State Tournament as individuals or as a team. Last year, ORHS student Lilly Woods qualified for the Women's individual tournament while bowling for HVA.

ORHS Roster

Boys Team: Troy deForest, Lewis Niad, Adam Fouche, Bradley Bowers, Braden Hunt, Owen Hensberry, Thomas Barnett, Atticus Harris and Jacob Prickett.

Girls Team: Lilly Woods, Jo Eastgate, Anna Steiner, Paige Flinner, Giada Moore and Emma Cagley.

Allen Etheridge is an English teacher and sports information and assistant athletic director for Oak Ridge High School.