ROCKINGHAM – For not having many experienced bowlers on Richmond Senior High School’s Raiders and Lady Raiders bowling teams, head coach Jeff Ingram was “well pleased” with both teams’ progress throughout the programs’ first season in existence.
Last year, when RSHS announced it would be adding the sport to its winter schedule, Ingram, who has bowled in area leagues and calls himself an “above average bowler,” took the position not really knowing what to expect. But by season’s end, he feels confident that Richmond can establish a competitive program moving forward.
Using a combination of “athletes” from various fall and spring sports, Ingram, who also coaches Lady Raiders golf, complied a Raiders team that finished fifth in the Sandhills Athletic Conference, while the Lady Raiders team placed seventh out of eight teams.
“It was new this year, and we were fortunate enough to get as many athletes as we did to bowl for us,” Ingram said. “Our kids didn’t have a lot of (bowling) experience, but they had fun. I was well pleased with how we did this year.”
In an SAC dominated by 2017-18 state runner up Jack Britt and Lumberton high schools (due to long-standing programs and development leagues), the Raiders and Lady Raiders competed using the Baker format – which is when the best five bowlers for each team each bowl two frames per game, and the team’s No. 1 bowler bowls in the fifth spot with the possibility of earning the extra frame.
In boy’s competition, Ingram’s top five was comprised of baseball players: Tyler Bass, Zach Hinson, Evan Hudson, Justin Ingram and Garet Weigman. And Ingram believes that their fifth-place finish could have been as good as third place had the season lasted a couple of more matches.
“The boys bowled great this year,” Ingram said. “We had a couple of matches where we went slack, and like I said, a couple of more weeks and we would have easily been in third place. We came a long way, and did well.
“What changed was they started practicing on their own,” Ingram continued. “Before baseball started, they’d go out and practice a couple days a week. And I think it’s that sense of pride of playing other sports, being competitive and not wanting to lose. In the middle of the year until the end, I think we actually became pretty good.”
With the Lady Raiders, Ingram explained it was a developing and learning year through-and-through. Initially, many of the bowlers couldn’t consistently bowl the ball straight, but Ingram said that they never gave up and worked hard at getting better, but everything never came together like he had hoped.
“We worked at it all year, but we just ran out of time,” Ingram said. “We struggled with finishing one-pin spares. We had good games, but we couldn’t string together three of four really good games.
“And in their defense, they came in and worked at it,” Ingram said of his Lady Raiders. “But we were only two or three games out of finishing fifth. Our top five girls practiced hard and were out there with the boys. We just couldn’t get it all together.”
No Lady Raiders made All-SAC, but Ingram believes that junior Savannah Lampley was a “top-five bowler” during the regular season, and called her the team’s “most consistent” bowler. Lampley, according to her coach, just couldn’t quite put enough strikes together to make states, missing the cut by roughly 30 pins, but Ingram believes she could have finished in the top 10 the way she was bowling at the end of the year.
Perhaps the brightest spot during Richmond’s inaugural season was senior Justin Ingram being the only Raiders bowler, boys or girls, to be named to the All-SAC team and make it to the state playoffs in singles competition.
“Justin finished sixth in the conference in the regular season, which was good enough to qualify for states,” Ingram said of his son. “At states, he finished 12th out of 43 bowlers. He had a great year, and posted some good scores.”
In the SAC championship, Ingram posted scores of 168, 198 and 214 to qualify for the state playoffs. During his 12th-place performance, he had scores of 217, 196 and 188.
Looking ahead to next season, Ingram is optimistic. He’ll be losing his No. 1 boys bowler in Ingram, as well as No. 5 Hinson to graduation, but expects a good nucleus to return. The same expectations are there with the Lady Raiders, especially if Ingram can add a few more stronger bowlers as the programs develop.
“The future is bright for both teams,” Ingram said. “It will still be a big task to compete with schools that have bowlers, and not just athletes. But I’m looking forward to it. It’s just a matter of trying to get our bowlers to bowl a little more out of season – continue to get better.
“Both teams bettered themselves each week, with our pin counts going up,” Ingram added. “And looking back, I couldn’t really ask for more than that. But next year, we should continue to get better.”
Returning for the Raiders will be Bass, Hudson and Weigman, all of whom Ingram believes he can build a strong team around. For the Lady Raiders, Lampley will be back as a senior, and she’ll be accompanied by Payton Chappell, Jessilyn Hubbard, Madison Jordan and Azpen Murray.
