Fair Lawn's Girls Bowling Squad Is Rolling For Respect

High school jocks are sometimes revered and sometimes reviled, but their athletic prowess tends to at least earn them a modicum of respect with fellow classmates.

That is, of course, unless they’re a bowler.

“All my friends just make fun of me, like, 'Hah, you’re bowling? Wow. Varsity Bowling,'” said Ellie Schuckman, co-captain of Fair Lawn’s Girls Bowling squad.

Last season, the team won its third league title in four years, but even that sustained success hasn’t been enough to persuade outsiders that the girls are legitimate athletes.

“[People] are like, ‘Oh, you bowl? That’s not a sport,” senior co-captain Chelsea Lawlor said. “I’m like, ‘You try it.’”

“It’s not easy,” Schuckman added.

Both team captains picked up the sport from older brothers who bowled in high school, but each took a different path to the varsity squad.

Schuckman, 15, who was a first team all-league bowler last year as a freshman, said even in middle school she knew she wanted to bowl at the high school level.

“My dad has always bowled and then my brother picked up on it, so then I just kind of naturally picked up on it when I was really little,” said Schuckman, who wants to continue bowling competitively in college.

Lawlor, on the other hand, only began bowling seriously last year after an injury forced her to give up volleyball.

A first team all-league honoree as a junior, Lawlor said she improved steadily throughout her inaugural bowling season, especially after making the switch from a 12-pound plastic ball to a 15-pounder.

She said she expects to see an additional boost in her play this year after making a change in her in-game mindset.

“Last year if I did bad my score would go down because I would dwell on it,” she said. “Now this year, the other day, I bowled bad and was able to get right back on routine. You just have to have a good attitude.”

With four of the team’s five bowlers returning, coach Matthew Markman expects big things from a squad that finished undefeated in division play last season.

Joining Schuckman and Lawlor on the varsity are junior Jessicka Oviedo, freshman Rachel Kohler and senior Denise Marain.

The girls know another championship-caliber season likely won't earn them the kind of notoriety bestowed upon other athletes, but said they'd like others to acknowledge that it takes skill to excel as a bowler.

"It's a lot harder than it looks," Lawlor said of competitive bowling.

“Everyone thinks, oh, you guys just stand up there and throw the ball and you get pins down,” added Schuckman, whose high game is 235.

“It’s not like that at all. You have to worry about lane conditions. Is your arm swing right? Are you bending your knee? Are you hitting the right spot on the lane? As the game goes on, it doesn’t stay the same. The lanes break down, the oil differs, so you really have to continuously adjust to everything you’re doing.”

The squad gets their season rolling Thursday, Dec. 8 at 4 p.m. against Ramapo High School.