The Wildcat bowling program kicked off the 2021- 2022 season on Monday night at Collier Lanes vs the Southfield Warriors.
According to ‘Cat Coach Claude “Jr.” Lafnear, the crowd was large. “Everyone’s hearts were full of emotion when we returned to competition after the attack on November 30 and the loss of Justin Shilling,” he said.
The boys’ varsity team split baker games and then won 7 out of ten matches to win 23 ½ to 6 ½. Thrilling the crowd was junionr Jason Paslean in Game 1. Jason tossed 10 strikes in route to a 276 game that included 8 strikes in a row. Also bowling well for the Wildcats was junior Tommy Mace who rolled games of 217 and 210.
“The boys were excited to get started and ready to get to some sort of normalcy. They had Justin on their minds and in their hearts in this match and have dedicated the season to him. We haven’t had the normal amount of practice and structure so we’ll get better as the season goes on. We did a good job but made a lot of mistakes. We’ll have to clean those up and I know we will,” Lafnear said.
The girls had a thrilling match but fell short losing 16 to 14. They started well winning baker Game 1, 173 to 130. They struggled in Game 2, losing 130 to 128 but won the baker totals 301 to 260. Armed with a 6 to 4 lead the ‘Cats never got rolling in the match play. They were only able to win 4 of 10 matches. Winning two matches for Oxford was senior Ashley Bales. Also winning matches was junior Olivia Hoffman and junior Macey Strevel.
“This is the youngest team we have ever entered a season with. We will get better as we go and this will be a much better team in February than we are now. The Ladies battled and showed toughness in this match. I’m proud of their effort and it was awesome to see them smiling and competing,” Lafnear said.