Area schools may add bowling to their activities

HARTINGTON — The Nebraska School Activities Association is on a roll with state bowling fans and participants.

On Thursday, behind a 31-20 vote, the NSAA moved to make bowling an officially sanctioned winter sport.

Both Cedar Catholic and Hartington-Newcastle now have to determine how they will proceed in the coming months.

“It’s exciting for the kids that really enjoy bowling,” Cedar Catholic activities director Chad Cattau said. “This gives them an opportunity to participate in an NSAA sponsored activity during the winter months. Many of the students that have already participated in the past years were hoping this would happen. Bowling will give them opportunities to participate as a representative of our school.”

Cattau noted many potential bowlers are people who are already active in the sport.

The bigger issue for now is how the Trojans proceed.

“Many of our students already work hard on their skills and adding it as a sanctioned sport will really allow them the chance to get even better,” Cattau said. “Since it’s still in the early stages, we have a lot of questions on how scheduling will look and what the practice schedules will look like. We will have to work closely with our local bowling alley in terms of hosting practices and meets. As a school, we have a lot of details to figure out yet, but we will get those things taken care of soon.

With the NSAA decision so fresh, no decisions have been made yet on the local level.

“We haven’t hired anyone to coach it yet. I am not sure if we will end up running this as a co-op or do it on our own. At that point, we will look to hire a coach,” Cattau said.

Cattau and Hartington-Newcastle athletic director Blair Kalin both agree the real issue is if the schools will have their own programs or bowl together, which is what the local students currently do on the unsanctioned high school team.

“We will have to sit down and discuss how it impacts us,” Kalin said. “We knew bowling was a possibility so now that it has passed, discussion on the sport at our school will begin. It gives possible opportunities for students that are interested in that activity. We would have to see how it would affect our current activities that are offered.”