"Bowling Blind"

A"dore" me

Truthflly speaking, you cannot quantify the value of adding or subtracting one player to any team in one tournament or game. It is just unfair to generalize such ideas based on "does X player make everyone around us better" in 3 days but after one tournament for the Lady Commodores of Vanderbilt, they have found one great problem that every team wishes they had: they have 6 of them that makes them better.

It is amazing to think back to April of the 2007-08 season, that the last time Vandy took to the lanes, they were in defense of their national championship and basically had their ticket stamped to at least defending their title when they were up 3-0 to Maryland-Eastern Shore in the national semifinals...then things fell apart. Whether it was bad breaks for Vandy, lucky breaks for the Lady Hawks, Sharom Brummel outcoaching John Williamson, or one team was flat out better than the other when the pressure was on the line, 3-0 became 3-4 and Vandy had authored nothing short of a collapse and went home titleless.

In the world of college sports, you only get so big a window to be the best and to make runs at winning titles. Winning one national championship is always self fulfilling in itself but the chance to win two makes great teams historic and make no mistake about it: the 2007-08 'Dores were supposed to be historic. They had the same roster from the 2006-07 championship team and added to their future with solid players in Amanda Halter, Brittney Garcia, and Ellen Morrison. But there was something missing from the 07-08 team that never was properly looked at until they were defeated and those in charge didn't know who their future was. They thought it would be Morrison but she struggled with the ever changing and drying conditions of NCAA bowling and is still in transition. They thought Garcia was talented but raw and somewhat emotional and maybe too emotional to be effective. When evaluating Amanda Halter, they didn't see talent but they saw stability and depth from a bowling standpoint and coupled with her straight game and loft was another Karen Grygiel...in the future.

Strange as the world is, the future is now and now Garcia and Halter, along with new freshman Brittni Hamilton and the core of Micha Peloquin (hi, honey!), Tara Kane, and Josie Earnest took step one into taking the 2008-09 season and making last year seem like it was 20 years ago by coming east and taking down Farleigh Dickinson in the title match to win the Fright Knight Invite (yes I know it was riveting to say 5 times fast) this past weekend.

"It's my blog...she goes up...I have a bias."

When 6 players contribute to a victory, you revel in the 'team effort' idea behind the win and make no mistake about it, this unit of 6 showed something that arguably no Vandy team showed at any point last year and that is bowling character in the face of adversity. Through Saturday's traditional 5 team games, Vandy had opened up a big lead into their Sunday baker games only the pinfall did not carry over and was only used for seeding in Sunday's brackets. Due to the travel and short time slot, only the top 4 teams in pinfall could win the tournament, with the winner of the 1 vs 2 matchup (Vandy vs. FDU) would get a bye into the championship match while the losing team faced the 3 vs 4 winner (Deleware St. vs. New Jersey City University) to see who would be the other finalist.

(Note: had you tried to read the bracket system on paper Sunday it was color coded and done very well to explain how the seeding would play out yet even after seeing it, one might have felt they walked into a rainbow on an acid trip not quite sure knowing what was going on...much like how St. Peter's and Morgan State looked all weekend which was about 20 female Art Shell Faces while bowling and no, that was not meant to be a male pig but to say that these teams were getting beat up pretty good and they had no shot.)

Of all the strange ironies, FDU just ran over Vandy like they were standing still and it looked like the tape had been replayed from the UMES semifinal match (or just watch the Met bullpen door open and you know what I felt like in 2007 and 2008) and despite being up over 400 pins on FDU through all the pinfall bowling, this was what mattered and Vandy had to get through two teams to win the tournament and sure enough, they took on Deleware State and the same thing was happening, only this time it was more prevelant off the lanes.

FDU has Mike Lopresti, who for all the rather unpleasant things I say about him and how he looked like a maroon oompa-loompa this weekend, is a damn good coach and evaluator of talent. He out coached Williamson by leaps and bounds by getting his best players in the right slots in the lineup to be succesful. It was not that Williamson had the wrong 5 players, he had them in the wrong spots. From a spectator's perspective, the player with the best look from the first shot she threw for the 'Dores on Sunday was Tara Kane yet she was not in the anchor slot, which is reserved justly for Earnest but Kane was not 4th or even 1st to start. John Williamson had his two seniors in Peloquin and Kane, bowling 2nd and 3rd respectively. Hamilton looked shaky and nervous, Garcia was her usual risk-reward self and Earnest looked like she was in need of some help at the bottom and never got it. The end result was 4-2 Knights.

DSU has Kim Terrell, who for all the rather pleasant things everyone has to say about her and how she is one of the great major bowlers in women's bowling history, is another damn good coach and evaluator of talent annnddddd of lane play. In their matchup against Vandy, Terrell saw the lanes on fire and made the edict to her five players: same ball, same line, same layout, same method. And it looked for all the world that the Hornets were going to sting (yes, corny but deal with it) the 'Dores to the consolation match. DSU was striking and sparing and seemed to be a unit while the Black and Gold looked lost-from the players on the lanes and espicially the coaching staff of Williamson and Travis Loeffler, who at times in the FDU match were 10-15 feet apart from each other showing little in the way of unity. However, two things happened that turned the complexion of the tournament in Vanderbilt's favor. First off, the Terrell-ettes failed to execute enough to win matches and in an error of her own, may have failed to get her best players bowling in the key baker positions. The second thing was Kane moving to the leadoff and Peloquin to the 4, with Halter coming in for Hamilton at the 3 slot.

Halter had the right style for what was happening on the lanes: speed and loft with precision on the quick drying heads while Hamilton was just off. Halter stepped in and Williamson threw her in a non-pressure spot in the lineup in a pressure filled situation and suddendly the express got rolling. Down 2-1 and 3-2, Vanderbilt roared back to beat Deleware State 4 games to 3 to get the rematch against the Lady Knights of Leonia. The next 5 games were a formality: Kane and Garcia (later Hamilton for Garcia) stayed sharp, Halter continued to channel her inner James Posey and then the talent came out. Peloquin jumped left and started becoming Dave Huested, Jr. and Earnest started splitting the 16 board like she was a Weber and the end result was 'Dores 4-Knights 1...game over.

"Vanderbilt+Halter-Grygiel=TEAM"

When this season began, Williamson had one major issue to contend with that no coach in the bowling nation had to deal with. He had to integrate a lot of big names into a small collective unit and then try and get the best 6 players to travel to every tournament. With 6 bowlers, things are simplified greatly for a coach and their staff. First of all, his/her players can bowl and not worry about looking over their shoulder at seeing the backups foaming at the mouth to get in, espcially if you are struggling as a bowler. Secondly, with only 5 bowling balls to bring per bowler, a coaching staff has to evaluate 30 bowling balls. Don't think it adds up? Lets look at Sacred Heart for a second: Coach Becky Kriegling likes to bring the entire school with her to the tournaments and at points has as many as 12 bowlers traveling. You can bring up to 5 balls per person in an NCAA tournament and if all the bowlers bring the max amount that is now a rather unmanageable sixty bowling balls that Kriegling, and assistant Steve Peloquin (yes, Michelle's father which leads to so many other stupid questions that I heard over the weekend) have to sand or shine or tape up or glue grips or remember specs...blah, blah, blah. It becomes impossible to manage. The last thing in bringing 6 is that if you have a team over 10 bowlers, bringing only 6 justifies the rest not traveling in that more than 25% aren't in competition. Perhaps the last item of note is where Williamson's gamble paid off the most because he had a delicate choice to make when assembling his team, mainly did he take his top three seniors in Peloquin, Kane, and Grygiel along with Hamilton and Earnest as the other two locks and then take one more between Morrison, Garcia, Halter, Ashley Belden, Katy Lammers and Kaitlin Reynolds or not bring Grygiel, sub her out for either Halter or Garcia and then take the best of the remaining cast? Williamson went with Halter and Garcia, and kept Morrison, Belden, and Grygiel off the traveling squad.

(One more note on Sacred Heart: they do have a 3rd person on staff in Jaime Smith but she is called a "stats" coach. Surprising for a team that has always had a nice lineage with left handed bowlers that Smith, a left handed bowler is not more involved in the bowling decisions espicially with two lefthanders on the team.)

This is not to say that Karen Grygiel deserved to be held back but on a team of 6 where 4 spots are taken up, two for 7 is a near impossibility to make without pissing someone off. Williamson chose to go with a combination of talent and good team players that was missing on his team in previous years. Say what you will about Grygiel's potential as a player in her career, she has won a lot in her bowling years but she is a mentally soft player when things do not go right. Accepting being the 6th woman on this team would be a devastating problem given her past success and her at times, penchant to pop off. The only logical way to have her travel is to have her start every block of bowling and cross your fingers on a player who is in transition in her game to have a perfect look and not bench her for fear of losing her in the long run mentally. Ask any coach alive with a last year player on the decline in terms of skills and they will say it is the toughest thing to do in sports because of their pull on a team's young players and overall psyche..it spells disaster. Having Halter and Garcia thrive in their opening tournaments as main-event players will only help the team's future as well as their present.

This isn't to say that these two will have their growing pains this season or that Hamilton will struggle with the game at a higher level as well or that Kane's lack of bowling knowledge will hamper her ability or that Earnest and Peloquin won't be in teacher mode throughout this season and not be in shotmaker mode for every game but their success of the younger players in the first tournament will allow the core to be the big time players that they have always been. In the college sporting world, young and old alternate really fast and with quick turnover so the young players quickly become the veterens and the new breed is right behind them to learn from those that preceded them. Before you blink, Kane and Peloquin will be gone and Garcia and Halter take over the roles.

A"dore" the present because the the future comes to pass awfully quickly...this is the season of redemption and transferrence in Nashville for the Lady Dores.

About the Editor: Tommy Scherrer (that's me) is one of the night managers-a far more fancier term for 'Shift Leader'-at AMF Syosset Lanes. A former student at William Paterson in Wayne, NJ as well as a member of the Pioneer bowling team for 4 years, he is a regular contributor to the pockets of many great players and on occasion, will actually make his money back generally in marathon tournaments.