by Jennifer Pappas
Garden City, N.Y. - Everyone is taught the familiar lesson that when life gets you down, you have to get up and do something about it. The Adelphi University bowling team certainly takes this lesson to heart, especially sophomores Erica Schneider and Holly Zink. Zink is a transfer student from Monmouth University. She is a marketing major and has been visually impaired since birth. Schneider, also a transfer student, attended Fairleigh Dickinson University and is a nursing major. Schneider has experienced difficulties both in life and bowling since she was diagnosed with lupus.
On Saturday, February 23, the bowling team raised over $500 for the Long Island/Queens affiliate of Lupus Alliance of America. The team hosted a singles bowling tournament that attracted 99 participants and raised money through entry fees and raffles. It was Schneider's idea to set up the fundraiser.
According to the website for the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA), “Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs.”
Schneider was diagnosed in January 2012 after hurting her knee. When she found out her condition, she had to drop out of the tournament she was competing in and take a month off from bowling. She describes learning to bowl with lupus as an adjustment.
“You have to do what you have to do,” Schneider says. “[You] can't fight it.”
On Sunday, the team hosted the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship tournament at Garden City Bowl and finished in fourth place. Schneider made the All-Tournament Team with a 20.00 filled frame average.She says one of her favorite memories with the team was their trip to Florida last semester, where they had the opportunity to explore Downtown Disney and visit the beach.
“You could win or lose a game and still have a good game, but you can't always have team bonding like that,” she says.Zink is also no stranger to overcoming trials in life and as an athlete. Zink has been visually impaired since birth due to amblyopia, which is the result of a condition called strabismus and causes misalignment of her eyes. Her left eye has trouble with shapes, reading and depth perception. She has had multiple eye surgeries and even had to wear an eye patch when she was in the third grade to protect her eye from the light and help it readjust. This has all helped Zink, but there's no way to ever completely fix her eye.
When asked how it affects her bowling she said, “When looking at the lane, what your eyes see is not what is being sent to the brain.”
For Zink, images get misplaced and the messages sent to her brain are then disrupted. To make up for it, she hits to the right of where she's aiming. Just like Schneider, Zink has learned how to better cope over time. When she gets tired or when she's staring at a computer for too long her eye starts to move, but now she knows to rest her eyes by closing them or going to sleep.
“It's second nature really,” she says. “I've learned to adjust to it.”
Notwithstanding her battle with amblyopia, Zink has excelled in a sport highly dependent on hand-eye coordination. She has helped the Panthers to the best single-season winning percentage in program history and was named to the Delaware State University Capital Classic All-Tournament Team on February 10.
Both Schneider and Zink continue to enjoy bowling despite these conditions that many would expect to hold them back. Their team's next meet is on March 2 and 3 for the Northeast Conference Event #3 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
For more information about Schneider's condition, log on to the Lupus Foundation of America website. To learn more about Zink's condition, visit the amblyopia page on the America Optometric Association website.
Jennifer Pappas is a junior at Adelphi University and a student feature writer for the Sports Information office.
