Members of the Panther boys bowling team are from left, front row, Chris Weese, Grant Hamm and Jacob Nichols; second row, Anders Rege and Anthony Nichols; back row, John Carter, JD Welch, Peter LaPointe, Trevin Rausch, Michael Kutz and coach Jeff Ungerer. Not pictured, Travis Dellinger.
(Photo submitted)
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The Fairbanks High School bowling teams have been split with two separate head coaches this year.
Jeff Ungerer, who guided both the boys and girls squads a year ago, will remain as the boys coach.
Stephanie Fairchild has taken over the duties as the girls coach.
The boys will be led by returning lettermen Trevin Rausch, Anthony Nichols, Peter LaPointe and Jacob Nichols.
“I am able to field a varsity team that has experience,” said Ungerer. “Peter and Trevin have greatly improved and will be strong players.
“J.D. Welch has moved up from the JV team and is really bowling well.”
Additional newcomers to the varsity squad are Michael Kutz, Anders Rege, Travis Dellinger and John Carter.
“I would, however, like to see more underclassmen on the team to fuel the pipeline for future years,” said Ungerer.
The second-year head coach said he would like the Panthers to win an Ohio Heritage Conference championship this winter.
The Lady Panthers have two returning lettermen in seniors Mackenzie Nichols and Claire Ruff.
“Mackenzie is probably our most consistent bowler, while Claire has been making great strides in the short time we’ve been practicing,” said Fairchild. “I have been very impressed so far. Mackenzie has a couple of years of experience both on the Fairbanks team and in non-interscholastic league play.
“I am excited to see how far she will go this season,” said the coach. “She had kind of a letdown last year after an illness kept her from going to districts.”
The Lady Panthers lost five seniors, or nearly half of the team, to graduation after last season.
“We were able to fill those spots, but four are newcomers to the sport,” said Fairchild. “That’s where I am most comfortable. With 25 years of teaching physical education, it is very natural to break the sport down to the basics and start from scratch.”
Newcomer Lily Dellinger, a sophomore, has been bowling for a number of years.
At the age of 12, she participated in the Pepsi Youth Bowling Tournament and earned 24th place out of 225 participants.
Dellinger suffered an injury earlier this year and had surgery to repair her ACL and meniscus. It was an injury that kept her out of soccer this past fall.
“Being young, Lily just needs to learn to slow down a little to help with her consistency and she will go far this season,” said Fairchild.
Senior Sophia Lytle could also have a strong season.
“I don’t know Sophia like I do most of the other girls (from teaching) because she didn’t go to Fairbanks in elementary school,” said Fairchild. “She has been invaluable to the program. While I work with one of the girls, she will jump right in and help out with another. She is very confident in the mechanics of bowling and the underclassmen look up to her.”
There are a number of younger girls in the program and Fairchild would like to schedule more junior varsity matches for them.
“Finding JV matches for the girls could be an issue,” she said. “I am contacting schools to verify their status. With our numbers up this year, we do not want to disappoint the kids.”
Fairchild said she wants to see constant improvement from her team.
“We want to improve the technical aspects of everyone’s game and then become more consistent from match-to-match,” she said.