This year’s team is off to a striking start.

With only one loss out of the seven matches, and a six-match win streak; the hopes are high for the team this season.

This is Lenny Raley’s first season coaching a bowling team. Even with previous seniors departing, it has had only resulted in more people coming out for the bowling team. With only one senior leaving from last year, not much has changed. 

Raley has been a coach for the past thirteen years. Although, this is his first year as a bowling coach. “I’ve coached thirteen years here at this school, in different sports, so I know it starts with relationships and just trying to get to know the kids a little better. And so, I am who I am, and I bring a competitive type of thought process, I guess. But yet I let them kind of lead the way, since I’m learning myself,” said Raley. 

Even though Raley does not have lengthy experience, he is consistent with how he coaches his players, regardless of what sport. “By the older kids being leaders, by example, I’m sure they’re going to pick up on how to get better, but bowling is unique,” said Raley, “But if I can roll a straight ball, I just ask him to roll a straight ball. I rolled one ball this year, and it was a strike, and so I’m done.” The four best bowlers on the team are senior Dylan Young with an average of 199, senior Logan Parrish with an average of 193, sophomore Austin Hale with an average of 190, and then junior Adam Young with an average of 181. 

A tactic that Raley uses as a coach, is to try to help these kids mentally handle the matches, and keep what they have already accomplished so far. “The main thing I’m just trying to, is maintain what they’ve done. They do have their own coaches, some of them, and so, I just try to help them mentally handle the matches, and try to make it enjoyable for them,” said Raley. 

Raley didn’t know any of the seniors on the team of last year, but he still knows that when a sporting team loses a senior, it loses one of the key players. “Anytime you lose seniors, you lose some leadership, you lose kids with experience that know kind of the ins and the outs. I’m not sure how many seniors they lost, but it’s always, in other teams and other sports, you hate to see them go, but life goes on, and you just tell the ones who are back, “It’s your turn.” And so, the seniors this year stepped up, and have done a really good job of being leaders, and I really appreciate that,” said Raley. Raley believes the seniors of this season have stepped up a lot.

Although, the senior that did leave, in Adam Young’s opinion, was a great motivator, and it was hard for them to lose him. Although, they just use that motivation that they had from last year, and just carry it on throughout this year. “To be honest, it doesn’t really give us the motivation, and it doesn’t give us the motivation as much. A bowler we had last year, Brandon, he was really motivational, but that just had a lot to do with it,” said Adam Young, “We use stuff we used from last year; we just carry it on, throughout this year.”

Although, in most everybody’s opinion, the seniors this year have really stepped up into their new leadership roles. “The seniors this year; they stepped up a lot. Ones improved a whole bunch, since last year. Really only lost one senior last year, that didn’t change much,” said Adam Young.

Now, the bowlers that have joined this year, goes from any grade level at Bullitt East that randomly joined this year, all the way to an eighth-grader that goes to Eastside Middle School. “One’s an eighth-grader, his name’s Jake, and then some girls that are doing it for the first time. And it’s just like any sport, it’s all about practice, you got to put in the time to master your craft, and so if they’ll continue to put in practice time, and getting better, the ones that are stronger will get better,” said Raley.

With a six-match win streak to start the season off, and the team ranking third in the region, quite a few people have high hopes in this team. “Well, we started off really strong, this is my first year coaching, so I wasn’t real sure what to expect, but we have bowled five matches and are five and zero (at the time). So, it’s been really good for us, I expect great things. Were ranked third in the region, so I know we got some tough matches coming up,” said Raley. 

Adam Young also even believes that this is the best team so far. “I think this is probably our best team so far,” said Adam Young. 

Check out the next match Dec. 18, at Dixie Bowl, at 3:45 p.m., against PRP.