By Harlan Rose
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On Oct. 16 at the Schofield Barracks Bowling Center, MHS’ boys and girls bowling teams competed in the Oahu Interscholastic Association (OIA) championships. Utilizing their tried and true strategy of making spares, the girls team placed second behind Pearl City High School and advanced to the state tournament, along with five of the six boys that qualified individually for the OIAs.
“I felt pretty accomplished because honestly, Pearl City is pretty good,” said co-captain Sophomore Kirsten Ortiz. “We’ve been runner-up for the past how many years and it’s hard to beat a really good team and I’m proud of my team overall.”
In their weekly practices, the teams perfected a strategy that they utilized to their advantage at the OIA championships. “Our focus has been and will continue to be making spares and so we design our practices so that we know a lot of our focus is on spare shooting,” said Head Coach Corey Zukeran. Prior to the championships, the team supplemented their strategy with new tactics to help them secure a win. “These last two practices (prior to the championship) we had to play outside our comfort zone,” explained Captain Junior Karli Shidaki, “Usually everyone (plays) on the outside and this time we had to play more inside, so we had to throw the ball harder and have more accuracy than we usually do.”
Their strategy and preparations paid off at the tournament, as the girls team brought home second place. “I was really surprised because this year we don’t really have that top person,” said Shidaki. “Last year we had our two seniors that were really good and this year we kind of just have all five of us are (all) pretty much all (at the same skill level), so that kind of surprised me.”
Additionally, the teams received emotional support from their coach. “(Zukeran) gave us true, specific advice and that’s to keep up the tempo with the speed and stuff and to focus,” Ortiz expressed. Shidaki added, “(He said) just don’t think about it, just be happy, just be glad that you made it. When you make it that far, it’s good.”
While the girls were able to compete as a team at the championships, the boys only played individually. “The boys didn’t qualify as a team (so) what happened (was) we qualified six individuals to participate in the OIA championships and out of those six, five of them qualified individually for the state tournament,” explained Zukeran, “Which means for the state tournament, we will be able to compete as a team for the boys as well.”
The team then spent the next two weeks preparing for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) state tournament. In their preparations, the team decided to keep a positive attitude while practicing their strategy. “I’m just keeping my mindset clean and stuff and just telling myself positive things,” said Ortiz. Zukeran added, “Really what I’d like for them (to do at states) is just to kind of have fun as a team, whatever happens, happens, we’re fine with the result.”
The HHSAA state bowling tournament took place from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 at the KBXtreme Entertainment Center in Kona.
