An Ocean County kegler's delight

 

One of the best gigs I ever had covering high school sports was bowling.

Yes, I did not stutter with my written words there. For the most part, the best part for the 15 years I did it was getting the results from the two bowling houses I used to deal with every week during the winter -- Ocean Lanes in Lakewood and Thunderbowl in Berkeley Township in a strip mall that no longer exists. Steve Vandegrift was wonderful to talk to in getting results every Wednesday.

That, honestly, was about 90% of the work. The rest of it really was postseason stuff. There was the Shore Conference Tournament for the top teams in each division from Ocean and Monmouth counties. There was the NJSIAA sectional tournaments for which if you finished Top 3 as a team, you qualified for the biggie every year -- the NJSIAA championships.

Over the years, the site for the championships moved around quite a bit. My first experience of covering the state final was in 1988 at the old Showboat in Atlantic City. On the surface, the idea to hold the state final in New Jersey's playground was intriguing and enticing, but when kids were sneaking out of the bowling house in between games to go next door to play slot machines, the NJSIAA had to reconsider this idea.

So in 1989, they moved the event to Carolier Lanes in North Brunswick alongside Route 1. The house got a big reputation, so much so that it was hosting the Johnny Petraglia Open there -- and where ABC would bring their cameras and crew and shoot the event live every year. I know -- in 1991, I had to step over some the thickest cables I ever laid eyes on to get through the front door to cover the NJSIAA championship, which started at 9 a.m. and needed EVERYONE out of the building by noon for the 1 p.m. telecast on ABC because BOTH events were being held that day.

Interestingly, that was the one year between 1987-92 that Ocean County did not walk away with a state title of some kind. In 1992 at Carolier Lanes, it was Lacey High newcomer Danielle Davis winning the girls overall state title. In 1987, Southern Regional's Debbie Freeman won the overall girls state championship and the Toms River High School North boys won the state team title. In 1988, North's Jay Stanton, who had a gaudy 220 average at Ocean Lanes that year, won the boys individual state title. And in 1989, a Lakewood High sophomore named Addie Dix won the girls state individual title.

And there were other things I witnessed after I started covering the state championship -- in 1988, highly touted Toms River North's boys team, coached by beloved band leader Frank Hughes, came up short in repeating as a state champion, taking second place, though Stanton won individually. The following year, Brick High's boys team coached by the wonderful Al Grove came up second, even with a star-studded pair of seniors Gabe Kamphausen and Kevin Musiakiewicz. 

But 1990 had the makings of one of the best bowling seasons Ocean County ever saw. Though Kamphausen and Musiakiewicz were gone and in college, Grove's team was not depleted by any means. He had two senior mainstays back in Mike DeTata and the young man who I called the "bowler's bowler" in Anthony Bilello, a longtime kegler who would go on to coach college bowling one day. DeTata and Bilello were the Mutt and Jeff of the team, DeTata being shorter and stalky and Bilello taller and lanky.

Still, you need a supporting cast to take you places and Grove's Green Dragons had that in Mike Ulrich, Tom Lucas and Tony DiGironimo, It was as if this team did not miss a beat week after week.

The Green Dragons had been the county's best bowling team in the six years I had covered the sport on the boys side. The best team on the girls' side? That was Brick Memorial, who was coached by Marie Kobilnyk. She took the program over the year I started covering the sport in 1984. And her teams were always consistent and had reached the state finals a few times. But something would always happen and the hopes of a state title died on those oiled-up alleys.

Except for one girl who graduated the year before, Dawn Hess, Kobilnyk had her whole team returning. This group of Mustang girls was led by Tracy Whitman and Eileen Ruddy, the team's lone seniors. They, like the Brick boys, had a strong supporting cast in Paula Yancis, Stephanie Sabatino and Gina Gioia, a freshman, putting them in the conversation to compete for a state championship.

Both the Brick boys and Brick Memorial girls were coming off stellar performances at the South Jersey championships in Cherry Hill and Pennsauken. Now could they finally duplicate that into state championships?

Saturday, March 3, 1990 was going to be the telling tale. I woke up very early -- like 7:30 a.m. early -- and was on the road by 8:15 for the 10 a.m. start to the NJSIAA finals at Carolier. Thankfully, I had been there the year before, so I knew once I got to the ridiculously cluttered intersection of Route 18 and Route (OK, US-) 1 in Middlesex County, I had to be in the right lane to make the jughandle to head south on 1 until I saw the house on the opposite side of the highway. Then I'd have to find the first jughandle and make a U-turn to head in the other direction to pull into the parking lot, which was barely sufficient for parking, but it worked on this day.

This is why you show up early for these big events!

I found out on this particular day from Grove, one of the most recognizable people you will ever meet with the Jerry Garcia-like glasses and long beard, that his team shared a yellow bus with the Brick Memorial girls to get to Carolier Lanes. On the other side of the house where the girls competed, I saw Kobilnyk, asked her how she was doing. After answering me, she nudged her head slightly to the crowd behind her team. Let's say Brick Memorial brought a large representation of fans to this event.

"We're going to be fine," she said.

The third person I needed to find was Dix, who was back to defend her championship. She was bowling with her Piner teammates and her coach, Madli Monesson, was watching intently behind her. You could sense some nerves there, but coach told me she had seen her star pupil, now a junior, do this plenty of times.

There was plenty of representation from the county at this large house on this cool March morning. Even among the talented North Jersey bowlers there, I was comfortable among the people I was there to cover that day.

Somehow, I had a feeling we were going to win a state title. What happened next, I didn't expect.

I positioned myself behind Brick's bowlers, who were rolling against a North Jersey team, though the school name escapes me. Brick High's boys did not bring a large contingent compared to their sister school's girls team, but they were loud. And the Green Dragons were on a roll. DeTata, DiGeronimo and Bilello were unstoppable. They rolled a 210, 208 and 202, respectively, in that first game. It was one strike after another.

When the game was done, I looked up at their screens above the ball returner.

Brick -- 1,001.

Sadly, I had been here before with North in 1988 and with Brick in 1989. My attitude was "Show me more." So I told Grove I'd return to him for Game 3 when I got the chance and that I was going to be over watching the Brick Memorial girls bowl.

Turns out, I didn't have to relocate them -- I just followed the noise their fans brought. They had to be loud for a reason and they did have a reason. In their first game, the Mustang ladies had bowled an 856 first game. They were well ahead at this point, so I wanted to hang around to see what the second game would bring.

By the middle of the second game, I was in need of earplugs ... desperately. EVERY strike the Mustangs girls nailed or even a simple spare was met by loud cheers. They followed the 856 first game with an impressive 890 second game. That put them up at 1,746 and over 170 pins ahead of JFK-Iselin. Unless they forgot how to bowl or JFK-Iselin put on a show that left jaws dropped in the third game, Brick Memorial was winning their first state title in the sport.

I took a quick walk down to where the Brick boys were. they followed 1,001 up with a 995 and at 1,996, it was still hit or miss, even if the Green Dragons had a 200-pin lead. Remember as I said -- I'd been here before.

I said I'd return again, but this time I wanted to watch Dix bowl with her Piner teammates. They were in the hunt for a top three placement because they weren't winning as a team. As mentioned, unless Brick Memorial went sleep-walking, the Mustangs were on their way to a championship. But after two games, Dix was leading the girls' individual competition. She had been consistent in rolling a 425 through two games, compared to Pascack Valley's Janine Cauwels, who had a 397.

Was I really dreaming this day? In one day, I would have been covering THREE state champions out of four opportunities at this event.

However, things changed for Dix. Suddenly she wasn't figuring out the alleys like she had in the first two games. She left frames open and had finished with a 172 final game to roll a 597. Cauwels, meanwhile, got going and nothing could stop her at her end of the alleys She bowled a 236 and ended up taking the state title away from Dix with a 633.

The calm, cool and laid-back Dix liked how she did on the day, but you can tell the disappointment on her face. It didn't end the way she was hoping it would end,

Meanwhile, the Brick Memorial fans didn't stop screaming every time one of the Mustangs did something. The third game ended with them rolling an 863. They put JFK-Iselin away by nearly 300 pins in the end with a final pinfall of 2,609. The numbers they put up on this day were insane, and here's the tragedy -- none of the Mustangs' quintet had qualified individually from the previous week's South Jersey championship. Yancis would have finished third with a 594 total.

Gioia, the freshman, rolled a 529. Sabatino finished at 511, Whitman at 503 and Ruddy had the low total of 472. I surely would have loved to average 157 per game each time I bowled.

"I had a lot of confidence in this team," Kobilnyk said afterward. "This was a team effort."

And over on the boys' side, Brick was finishing off its day to remember with its best game of the day -- a 1,021 to finish at 2,977, well ahead of second-place Linden. And two other county teams I was there to cover on this day -- Lakewood and Toms River East -- finished third and fourth, respectively.

Bilello finished third overall with a 635 pinfall, while DeTata was sixth individually at 626.

"Last year's team had mega-talent and we should've won the title," Bilello said. "This year's team is full of spirit. Everyone's bowling for the team, not for themselves."

Grove was playing the championship moment cool for he had one more surprise for his team -- and I knew what it was going to be. He had always told me over the years that the day his bowling team would win a state title, he'd shave his trademark beard off. It may have taken him 11 years as coach, but he kept a kit in a bag he brought with him to matches. There was the razor and there was the shaving cream.

And with his bowlers watching -- they may have been accurate on bowling lanes, but he wasn't trusting him with his whiskers -- Grove shaved off the beard as promised.

"I'll feel it when I go outside and the cold breeze hits me," said Grove. "I've wanted to shave it for years, but I needed a reason to do it. My wife likes the beard."

It was a different look I had to get used to at that point, especially covering softball that spring where Grove was head coach. He would coach both the boys bowling and softball teams until retiring in 1994. Sadly, we lost this wonderful man to cancer in 2011. He will always be one of my favorite coaches.

Oh, and that bus ride home -- I am sure that had to be the loudest-sounding bus in central New Jersey with two state champions aboard. 

I left after getting all the information I needed from that day and headed back the other way, though for some silly reason, I wanted to have lunch at the Big Boy's restaurant at the rest stop just over the Garden State Parkway. I did and headed back down the Parkway south to Toms River to get back to the Observer building to write about this amazing day.

Amazingly, a front-page story of not one, but TWO state championship teams ended up on the THIRD page of the sports section. I know .. WTF?! Don't ask me why ... I can't answer for my sports editor's decision then.

That

day at Carolier Lanes is still one of the most amazing ones I've ever witnessed. It was an Ocean County kegler's delighr.

If all days were quite like that one.