First round for first best.

During the singles state tournament and unified state tournament with senior Zachary Compton, Hale would lose during the first round of each.

Coach Lenny Raley is proud of how all of the players played. Hale believes the overall season was pretty good, but the ending wasn’t the best. Junior David Scholtz has high hopes, but knows it will be challenging, for his upcoming senior year on the team.

This is the way the singles state tournament worked: Hale would bowl three matches. After those three games, they would take the total pinfall of all 32 bowlers and the top eight would move on. They would do the same thing, then the top four would move on, then the top two and then it would be the championship.

Feb. 8, Hale won the first match of the tournament against Butler High School’s singles competitor Peyton Troutt, 237-206, Bullitt East. The first match made Hale’s overall pinfall 237 placing him fourth out of the 32 bowlers meaning he qualified to move on.

Hale lost the second match of the tournament against Troutt who scored a near perfect match, getting nine strikes in a row. The score was 263-191. The second match would bring Hale’s overall pinfall to 469 placing him eighth out of 32 meaning he still qualified.

Hale would end up losing the third match, as well, of the tournament against Troutt, 194-158, Butler. The third match would bring Hale’s overall pinfall for the first round to 586 placing him seventeenth out of 32 meaning he no longer qualified, and would no longer move on.

Hale participated in the singles state tournament after placing runner-up in the singles regionals tournament, and he believed that that overall day went not so good after the first game. “I believe I definitely could have done better; having such a strong start at the beginning, then all of a sudden dropping down a million spots, but I can’t let that define me as a person. I’ve been told numerous times from numerous people that I am a very skilled player. I just wish i could have put on a show for others rather than disappointing some people, but high school bowling is just the start, upon graduating the real bowling world, and competition starts,” Hale said.

Hale would then bowl with Compton during Feb. 9 at around 10 a.m., at the unified state tournament. Their first match brought in a 172, and their second match brought in a 126. They would place seventh seed, go into match play, and would end up losing in the first round against the tenth seed, Bowling Green High School, by one point, 123-122, Bowling Green. “Zach Compton is a really good little bowler as a unified bowler; I think in the region, they alternate balls, and I think every ball Austin rolled was a strike. So, you can’t ask for much more than that, and little Zach, I love him to death, and he’ll be who he is, and we’ll see if we can get out of the first round, and get into the top eight, but I’m proud of them for getting here for the second time,” Raley said.

Raley believes that the season went good, to say the least. “Well, we had a good season; there’s no doubt. We had several new bowlers, so that means it was going to take some time for us to see how good we were, or were not. Our record won’t reflect it, but we improve tremendously, especially with the young kids. Austin Hale, our veteran leader, led us strong all season which is good. So, if you can improve from beginning to end, you should feel like you’ve been successful. So, the goal will be: hopefully, they all come back better, and that they work on it over the spring and summer, and that we will be stronger next year,” Raley said, “Zach Compton is a really good little bowler as a unified bowler; I think in the region, they alternate balls, and I think every ball Austin rolled was a strike. So, you can’t ask for much more than that, and little Zach, I love him to death, and he’ll be who he is, and we’ll see if we can get out of the first round, and get into the top eight, but I’m proud of them for getting here for the second time.” Raley noticed a few highlights from the season.

The main and best-scoring players from the season were Hale, senior Jackson Cox and Scholtz, respectively. “Well, David and Austin are returnees. Jackson just happened to be talking to him in class one day, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I bowl,’ so then I was like, ‘Well, why don’t you come on out?’ So, David and Austin carried us; Jackson had some really good games, but it was a little bit inconsistent. You always lean on your seniors, so Austin carried us the whole time, and then Jackson played his role and did a good job, I thought. David will have to carry us next year; he came in a little late, so he was a little behind, but picked it up immediately. It’s just a matter of a lot of practice, and I know Austin, particularly, practiced more than I could even imagine. David will do that as well; I think he’s determined to be better next year. Jackson was just a really nice addition to our group,” Raley said.

Raley is very proud of what the team has accomplished, this year, especially with the challenges they had to overcome. “I’m very proud of what we did even though the numbers may not look so great. We got Austin to qualify here for the state tournament, we got Zach Compton and Austin to go onto the unified state tournament tomorrow, and that’s the second time they’ve done that. So, we’ve had some good successes. We wish we had more, but the kids will get better.” Raley said, “The game of bowling is all about consistency. So, the biggest obstacle we had, even with Austin sometimes, was being consistent. Like, don’t have a high score, then come back with a lesser score, and that’s kind of hard for new people. So, their scores were up and down, up and down, up and down, but they got much better at the end. We did have three girls in the girls singles, and they did the best they could; they were all middle schoolers, two seventh graders and an eighth grader, so that was huge. Then, just again, like any sport, just being consistent; ‘Steady Eddy,’ and ‘Steady Betty,’ is what I call it. You just want them to get to a level and hang, and if you can get better, get better. So yeah, that’s pretty much the story of our season; just: ‘How can we become consistent?’” Raley faced some challenges this year with the bowling team.

Raley made memories this year, such as Hale at the singles regionals, and Compton at the unified regionals. “Well, it’s hard sometimes to just pick out one or two memories. We didn’t really have major highlights. We had some super-scores. I guess the highlight for me is how Austin performed in the singles region; he just came out smoking-hot. I think he had over 700 points after three games. So, he set himself up and qualified for the state tournament, so that’s definitely a highlight, along with him and Zack Compton in unified getting to state,” Raley said, “I started three years ago and Austin was already an intricate part. So, I’m gonna miss him. I gave him some grief, we had some laughs, we had some frustrations, but the kid is so dedicated to this sport of bowling, and that was always a joy to see. It’s just to watch the younger kids go from not bowling a lot, to really learning a lot; that was just a great highlight for me. Not that I did all the teaching, they did a lot on their own to get better. So, I was very proud of that. Just like I said, just the fact that they liked each other, we had a good group, and you win some, you lose some. So, we’ll just keep working on it.” One of the things that Raley is going to miss, about being able to coach this team, especially with this being Hale’s last year, is having a bowler that’s been here since his beginning on the team.

Hale believes that the season went pretty good. “This season, in my opinion, was probably pretty close to our other seasons. We lost a clutch bowler, Adam Young, but I think we got some good ones in return. We definitely didn’t win as much as we could have, but there’s not much we can do other than practice more.,” Hale said, “Me making singles is definitely a highlight to not be taken lightly. Others would include putting up a really good fight against DeSales at team region. Probably the most fun and focused I’ve been in my entire high school career.” Hale did notice a few highlights, from the season, like making it to the singles state tournament.

Hale is quite proud of his teammates, on how they did this season. “I’m pretty happy. Many people have shown significant improvement and grinding to be their very best; hopefully they can live on the sport even without me around, to keep them amped up,” Hale said, “I think this was probably my best year yet. I know it may sound cliche being a senior, but it truly was. I qualified for singles which is something no one else has done in Bullitt East, I’m told, and overall, I just put up a fight no matter who was in our way. Don’t sleep on the Hale.” Hale is also very proud of himself, especially with where he made it at the end of the season.

Some challenges that Hale, and his teammates, had to overcome, to get to where they did, were things like not getting upset after a bad shot. “Some challenges we had to overcome was mentality. A lot of our players still get upset or disappointed after just making one bad shot; bowling is a sport that you can not let get to you because i admit you do get some stupid reactions from the pins. That one bad shot does not define you as a bowler,” Hale said, “Some memories would include just bonding at practices and matches, and having a good time. Another one is trying to see who is truly the best on the team; if your team doesn’t have friendly rivalry’s, is that really a team? We can also never forget our first year doing chants.” Hale definitely made quite a few good memories this year, such as it being the first year with chants.

There are quite a few things that Hale is going to miss, about being able to play with this team. “I am gonna miss the chemistry I had amongst the players. I like to believe I opened up most of the teams’ eyes to exactly how fun something like bowling can be, and show how laid back the bowling community is. I’ll still talk to teammates even after I graduate, and maybe even show up to a few matches,” Hale said,  “I’m gonna miss the community. Someone who has earned a name for themself will say the same, because you went from just this random kid with just a basic knowledge of bowling, to all of a sudden a super competitive and skilled player. I made a lot of friends on other teams such as North Bullitt, PRP, Fern Creek and Southern, to name a few. Everyone is just so fun to be around and it keeps me in love with this sport I’ve known for so long.” There are also some more, and different, things that Hale is going to miss about just being able to play on the Bullitt East bowling team, overall.

Scholtz feels the season went pretty good. “I think the season went pretty good. We got new players, because they also started practicing with us, and got a whole lot better. For me, I didn’t do so good, just because I didn’t practice as much as I used to, from last year, just because I wasn’t actually planning on bowling anymore, until they wanted me to come back. So, I did not do my best this season, but next season, for my last year, I’m planning on doing better; hopefully going to state,” Scholtz said, “So highlights, I didn’t do my best this season at all, and coach, he was like the same from last year; he wasn’t really supportive, at all. He has never been supportive, but then, Austin Hale, it feels like I think he has improved, and has actually gotten better at everything, and then again, the whole team and the ‘newers,’ like I said before, started getting a lot better ever since they started practicing, and everything.” Scholtz noticed a couple of highlights, from this season.

Scholtz feels extremely proud of his teammates, along with himself. “I’m proud; we did pretty good. I honestly thought we were going to lose more games, honestly, just because we had new people that weren’t that good at this sport, and I was wrong. They ended up getting better, and we ended up winning more games. We didn’t do better than we did last year, but we still did pretty good starting off,” Scholtz said, “Some challenges; probably being able to focus, and not have any distractions, because if we have any distractions for the newer people, it would bother them more than it would bother me since I’ve been there, I’ve been to state, and all that.” Some challenges that Scholtz, and his teammates, overcame, to get to where they are, was the new bowlers.

Scholtz is going to miss quite a few things on being able to play on this specific team, overall. “Well, it’s going to suck, just because Austin Hale has been there ever since I started, and he’s been the one that’s mostly been carrying the team most of the time, except for when Dylan Young used to be on the team (school year of 2019-2020). But then, Jackson, whenever he started, he wasn’t the best, but then he got better and better, and he actually became pretty good,” Scholtz said, “Probably whenever we actually started to name strikes, and like a certain amount of strikes. I mean, me and Austin Hale would get high scores, and we would always get strikes after strikes after strikes nonstop, and then we’ll all get, ‘Oh baby, a triple,’ at some point or another.” Scholtz definitely made a lot of good memories this year.

Scholtz wants any good bowler to join the bowling team if anybody has anyone. “Well, if anybody has any good bowlers, please send them our way, because we’re losing our two best bowlers this year, and me and Austin Graham, are going to have to step up and carry the team,” Scholtz said.