Change of Venue Works Out Well for JJ Bowling

John Jay moved from Cortlandt Lanes to White Plains Bowl this season because of Section 1's conference realignment, but the longer drive and the new home proved well worth it — the Indians won the league title for the first time since the program was restarted seven years ago.

John Jay finished 82-16 in the Southern Westchester Bowling League, besting runner-up Rye Neck by 10 points. The other teams in its league were Greeley, Briarcliff, Port Chester, Hamilton, Valhalla and Harrison.

"It was great," anchor Micah Nesson said. "I was happy, especially for coach (Paul) Plutzker because he's been waiting a long time for this."

The team is led by Nesson, a sophomore who averaged 192 pins a game. He felt right at home at White Plains, where he has bowled for five years in a Saturday morning junior league.

Behind Nesson was a group of juniors that provided consistency and depth — Alex Eichner (175 average), midseason call-up Dan Wekstein(173), Danny Katz (169), Zack Ziemba (165) and Zach Pozniak (155).

While the talent hasn't improved since last year, Nesson credited the team's mental make-up.

"It's not that we had better bowlers, I think we just stepped it up, we played when we needed to play," Nesson said. "Practice we bowled so-so, and matches were 10 times better."

Another key to the championship was that the school recently started a junior varsity team.

"One of the reasons we are where we are was some of the boys bowled on JV and got better, and when a couple of our biggest guys graduated last year a couple of guys on JV plugged the holes," Plutzker said.

Plutzker actually bowled against John Jay in the late 80's when he was a student at Horace Greeley, but the Indians dropped the program soon after because of budget cuts.

Plutzker wanted to be a bowling coach, so he restarted the program when he came to John Jay to teach earth science. After two years at the club level to gauge interest, the team was re-established at the varsity level five years ago.

"I knew there'd be some interest," Plutzker said. "It's a sport that doesn't follow the normal athletes — they're not the football players or basketball players.

There's some people who love to play in a sport that do not necessarily have to be completely athletically inclined, and it gives them the opportunity to interact with other kids their age. I've seen a lot of people come through the program and really enjoy it, and I've had a blast doing it."

John Jay now moves on to sectionals on Thursday at Fishkill Bowl, where the team hopes to improve on last year's seventh-place finish.