[Stardust]

Their high school soccer season ended in October, but three John Hardin girls are getting their kicks in as members of another Lady Bulldogs sports team.


Drawing by TONY AROS/tonyaros.blogspot.com
From left are three John Hardin soccer players and bowlers in senior Chelsey Cobler, junior Samantha Mazzorato-Smith and senior Anjelica Dones. The artist is a 2004 Central Hardin High School graduate.
On the soccer pitch, seniors Chelsey Cobler and Anjelica Dones and junior Samantha Mazzorato-Smith helped John Hardin to a 9-8-2 record this past fall. In the bowling alley, the three have helped the Lady Bulldogs’ inaugural team to an 8-3 record and top-four finishes in all three of their tournaments entering Saturday’s first John Hardin Invitational at Dix-E-Town Lanes.

While soccer helped the three form a strong bond, it wasn’t what helped them to all join the bowling team together.

“Those two might have talked about it, but I just came out because of my other friends, not the soccer friends,” Mazzorato-Smith said. “They were just here.”

Choreographed or not, the trio’s arrival has been indeed helpful.

Mazzorato-Smith is fifth in the 36-player area in single-game average (125.48), while Cobler (119.7) is 11th and Dones (111.7) is 19th. All three have had the Lady Bulldogs’ best series at least once.

Lady Bulldogs coach Jenny Brown said she never has to question the trio’s work ethic.

“They have excellent sportsmanship with regard to coming out and doing their best when they’re here,” Brown said. “Just like on the soccer field, they make the most of the time that they’re here as far as holding up their end of what they need to do to support the team. And it’s bittersweet that two of them are seniors, because they aren’t as invested in the team compared to some of our other bowlers, who won’t be in their first year and last year at the same time.”

Cobler has been on a surge, rolling nearly eight pins above her average 11 times in her last 14 games. She didn’t have much of a competitive background in the sport before practice began in October, saying she bowled mainly with family and friends.

“I’ve been here way more than I used to,” said Cobler, who uses a 10-pound ball and rolled a personal best Feb. 4 in the Hardin County Tournament of Champions. “Now it’s just like instead of, ‘Hey, we’ve got nothing else to do,’ instead it’s, ‘Let’s go bowling.’ And now that I have the discount to bowl here, it makes it better too.”

Cobler utilizes a straight-ball attack, albeit admittedly not by choice.

“I don’t know how to do those little curve thingies, but I’ve always wanted to learn. What I have learned is that it’s actually very difficult to do that,” she said. “I’m gonna learn one day.”

Dones didn’t break 132 until her 12th game of the season, but has – pardon the pun – been on a roll in her last nine games with three scores of 155 or better. Central Hardin junior Keri Johnson (seven times), North Hardin freshman Ally Eastman (twice) and Dones (twice) are the only area girls to hit 173 multiple times this season.

Dones said bowling and soccer share at least one similarity not commonly thought about.

“In soccer, if you’re right-footed, you have to point your left foot to where you want the ball to go,” said Dones, who has signed to play soccer for Union College. “It’s the same in bowling. If your toe is pointed a different way, that’s where the ball is going to go, too.”

But there’s also one major difference, Dones pointed out.

“Bowling’s a lot less intense,” she said with a laugh. “There’s a lot more concentration in bowling than soccer. … The concentration is different because in soccer, it’s more of an adrenaline rush. In bowling, I’m more nervous. But then again, I’ve been playing soccer a lot longer.”

Mazzorato-Smith has been a model of consistency, in attendance and scoring. She and junior Karen Ledford have rolled in all 27 possible games for John Hardin. Mazzorato-Smith has spent all 16 weeks in the top five of the girls’ area single-game average and she is 1-of-5 area girls who have kept every game above 97.

“Consistency is a big thing, when you have the same feel of the ball every time,” said Mazzorato-Smith, who has a personalized 10-pound ball and plans to use a 12 next year.

Mazzorato-Smith said bowling has taken on a whole new dimension since she started doing it competitively instead of just with friends.

“At first, if you didn’t get a spare or strike, it was like no big deal,” she said. “Now it’s like, I can’t believe I missed that.”

Mazzorato-Smith admitted she was a bit narrow-minded before joining the team.

“I think the best part has been expanding your horizons,” she said. “I had never thought about bowling as a sport. But now it’s here – and I’m getting kind of good at it.”

http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/content...kicks-0309

[Stardust]

WHAT:John Hardin Baker Invitational.

WHEN:10 a.m. Saturday.

WHEREix-E-Town Lanes.

WHO:The host Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs, plus both teams from Central Hardin, North Hardin, Green County, Nelson County and Taylor County.

FORMAT:Round One (blind draw for lanes for one regular five-person match with no dropped scores. Team scores determine placement in three-team pool for Round Two). Round Two (After Round One, teams are seeded and divided into pools. Each team rolls two baker games against the two other pool members). Round Three (top two teams from each pool in Round Two roll two baker games each). Round Four (Four teams with the highest two-game scores from Round Three are seeded 1-4, with 1 playing 4 in one best 2-of-3 semifinal and 2 playing 3 in the other semi). Round Five (the two finalists roll two baker games each with the two-game total determining the champion).

AWARDS:Team trophies for places 1-6 for each gender. Individual trophy to the top male and female bowler on the top three teams. Medals to the members of the highest-scoring baker game of the day for both genders.