As of Saturday, January 13, senior Cole McCool was 1 of 59 bowlers left in the Indiana High School State series.
“When it was announced that I moved on to Semi-State I was very surprised,” said McCool. “Going into the last game, I was outside of the cut by 10 pins, but the oil pattern they set out was very tough so to be in only 10 pins out from the cut was very surprising to me.”
When the Indiana High School State series started, around 300 bowlers were competing in boys singles. Now, only 59 remain. “As they were listing off names, I started to doubt if I made it,” said McCool. “Then, they said that in 6th place was Cole McCool. It took a while for me to realize what that meant on a bigger scale. I realized that I just moved on to Semi-State, and that I am now one of a few bowlers left in the entire state still bowling in the Indiana High School State series.”
Despite all of his accomplishments, McCool finds that there is always room for improvement. “Unfortunately, we weren't able to move on to Regionals as a team. I also wished that more of the team advanced on the individual side as well,” said McCool. “ If I could go back and give myself advice, I would tell myself to focus on my spares because if I had been able to pick up most of my spares, I could have been around 3rd or 4th place instead of 6th. If I got a higher place, then I would have been able to bowl for the Regional title, but because I was 6th, I wasn't able to.”
Besides this fact, McCool enjoyed the experience. “I think Sectionals went well – at least for me. As a team, we improved points-wise and placement-wise,” said McCool. “I would say Regionals also went well. It was definitely more challenging than Sectionals were, but I am glad that I was able to move on.”
Story by Seyla Ray