Strike-ing opportunity
What Unified Bowling is all about and why people do it.
Aaron Franz walks away after his turn in the Unified Bowling meet in Gerring
November 22, 2019
You walk into the bowling alley and you see about 45 high school students bowling, coaching, and cheering on each other on. This is Unified Bowling.
As described by the North Platte Public Schools website, Unified Bowling is “a bowling team comprised of students with an intellectual disability (athletes) and students without an intellectual disability (partners). Each team is made up of one athlete and two-four partners.”
It was brought together by our previous athletic director and resource teacher Tessa Matuszczak. She was made coach of the sport. The first year they only had 13 kids, the second was made up of 18, last year was made up of 29 kids, and this year they have 45 kids. “I was approached because I am the resource three teacher for the high school and my students are the ones who are going to be the athletes and that’s why they approached me about it,” said Matuszczak.
.
“I really like building connections with everybody and meeting new people, and it introduces you to a crowd that you usually wouldn’t hang out with,” said junior Bri Ady. She joined her sophomore year because she had a couple other friends wanted to join. “I didn’t really know what it was about, and then I started and I was super excited about it,” Ady said. Her favorite part is the practices. “It gives you a place to bond with other people.” Senior Camden Trevino agrees with her, “I really like the team.”
Unified Bowling has practice on Mondays and Tuesdays and has meets on Saturdays. The meets consist of bowling 12 games,and it usually lasts about four or five hours.They don’t just stay in North Platte; they go to other towns and bowl against other schools. Unified Bowling has meets in Kearney, Scottsbluff, and Lexington. “Most sports, it’s all about winning, and it’s like a competition between teams and stuff but in unified it’s all about having fun and making sure everyone is involved,” said junior Aaron Franz.
Junior Zach Alexander in position to bowl during the Gering meet on Saturday.
Their State-qualifying meet is on Saturday at Wild Bill’s Fun Center. Trevino says his favorite part about bowling is beating Alliance and is hoping to do that again this weekend for a better seed at the State tournament.
Above all, they just want to compete and have fun. “It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are it’s just that you’re out there and having fun trying,” said Franz
