The Greenwood girls and boys bowling teams have just concluded their regular season with two matches last week. Head Coach Austin Moreton and volunteer assistant Barbara Brown will now lead their teams into post-season play starting Monday at the conference tournament in Texarkana. Should either squad qualify as a team for the state tournament, it will be held in Jonesboro the following week (Feb. 7th). In the conference tournament, the top five teams and individual bowlers, boys and girls, will receive an invitation to state.

The GHS boys had a strong regular season, posting a 7-2 overall record, while a young group of Lady Bulldogs also finished above the .500 mark at 5-4. Other conference teams include Alma, Texarkana, Harrison, Hot Springs, Lake Hamilton, Hot Springs Lakeside, Mountain Home, Russellville, Siloam Springs, and Van Buren. The only team on that list Greenwood has faced so far this season is Alma, winning all four matches over the Airedales and Lady Airedales.

“I believe our boys have an excellent chance of making state this year,” said Coach Moreton, who has run the numbers and knows his Bulldogs are right there in terms of average compared to state qualifiers last season. “Our girls are [almost] all new and they are improving. But I think we’ve got a chance [to reach state] if we come out and take care of business,” said Morton of his Lady Bulldogs, who qualified for state last season.

Bulldogs

After beginning practice on Halloween, the GHS boys opened their regular season before Christmas with victories over Ozark and Hackett, then stretched their winning streak to four matches with additional wins over Lamar and Alma after the holiday break. They then lost consecutive matches to the two 6A schools in Fort Smith, Northside and Southside, before closing out their regular season slate with three more wins over Alma, Ozark, and Lamar.

Greenwood’s home lanes are located at Bowling World in Fort Smith, the site of the season’s first outing for the Bulldogs on December 12th, a 700+ pins victory over Ozark. The GHS boys racked up 2,391 pins to 1,672 for the Hillbillies. Two days later they returned to take down Hackett by an even wider margin of almost 1,000 pins.

After the holiday break, the Bulldogs rolled over Lamar by 352 pins and Alma by 342 pins before falling to Fort Smith Northside and Southside. The Grizzlies beat Greenwood by less than 200 pins and the Mavericks slipped past the ‘Dogs by less than 60 pins. The final three matches for the GHS boys were against Alma, Ozark, and Lamar, all wins by a comfortable margin to account for their 7-2 record.

Leading the way for the Bulldogs during the regular season were sophomore Parker Pierce and junior Nate Garvin with averages of 185 and 181, respectively. Both players had two games each in which they scored higher than 200. For the season the Bulldogs are averaging 2,430 pins per game.

Other player averages include junior Will Hutchinson at a very respectable 174, Dylan Pierce at 171, senior Ben Bryan at 167, and Dylan Nicholson at 146. Those four players, along with the two named above, played in all but one match during the regular season. Juniors Isaiah Dollarhyde and Jackson Wagner, along with Eric Holmes and Mason Blevins also competed at times.

Hutchinson is a returning starter from last season, according to Coach Moreton. “He competed for us at state last year. He was one of our top bowlers as a sophomore,” said the coach. “He’s doing really well for us this year [too]. Ben Bryan is also a returning starter and he’s doing an amazing job.” Nate Garvin got a lot of varsity time last year as well and that experience is paying off this season, said his coach.

“Our boys team has really impressed me,” said Moreton. “They are all motivated to be great and it’s shown in our scores this year. Parker and Dylan Pierce are brothers and they have taken the initiative. They are very invested in bowling. They go about five times a week with their dad. They came out last year, but came out late, so they didn’t get to compete.” Dylan Nicholson came out last season with the Pierce brothers but had to wait until last fall to compete in varsity action, and he is doing a fine job as well with the fourth highest average on the team.

Moreton uses an eight-man rotation to fill the six slots allowed for competitive varsity matches. Unlike their female counterparts who compete in other sports besides bowling, none of the GHS male bowlers participate in other forms of athletics, so their main focus is bowling, a skill and sport that can be practiced independently throughout the year.

Lady Bulldogs

In December the GHS girls won their two opening matches as well, downing Ozark and Hackett by 185 and 300 pins, respectively. They were defeated by Lamar in early January by a margin of nearly 400 pins but beat the Alma Girls by more than 150 pins. The Lady Bulldogs then endured a pair of rough outings against the two Fort Smith schools, losing to Northside by over 700 pins and to Southside by more than 450 pins.

The still learning and growing GHS girls then closed out their regular season schedule with wins over Alma and Ozark, before falling to a very good Lamar team for the second time. The Lady Bulldogs topped Alma by about 250 pins and Ozark by over 450 pins. Their loss to Lamar was much closer than their first outing against the Lady Warriors, losing by less than 100 pins.

Greenwood’s top four female bowlers all have averages above 110, starting with team leader Lorelai Graham at 130 with high scores of 142 and 147 on the season. Brianna Wilson is second on the team with a 118 average with a high score of 132. Rylee Daniel and Raylee Wagoner both come in at 111. Both players were remarkably consistent during the regular season. Daniel has a high game of 119 while Wagoner’s best effort was 125. Alexis Wieser has a season average of 99 and Janie Witherington comes in at 83. Julia Witherington has averaged 73 pins per outing. The GHS ladies averaged 1,461 pins per match this season.

For the GHS ladies, “Brianna Wilson and Rylee Daniel are our only returners from last season,” said Moreton of the two juniors. “Last year were had eight girls and this year we have seven, but the good thing is we don’t have a single senior. They should all be back next [season]. We have five new girls this year.” Most of the Lady Bulldogs are also volleyball players and one is a cross country runner.

Among those newcomers, Lorelai Graham has become the performance leader for her teammates. “She’s a sophomore and has done well for us. Raylee Wagoner has bowled well, and Alexis Wieser and the Witherington girls (Janie and Julia) are bowling decent and are continuing to improve,” said the coach.

Moreton is in his second season as bowling coach and has learned a lot about the game himself. His goal is to build the program up so that his teams compete well at the end of each season in the conference and state tournaments. Now he has what every coach longs to have, regardless of the sport, and that’s a group of young players who will be around for one, two, or three more years to really get something going in the right direction.