Norristown bowls over Hatboro-Horsham

Bowling, Norristown head coach Candy Johnson will tell you, is more complicated than it looks.

"Any team is more comfortable playing at home," the ninth-grade math teacher by day, bowling instructor by afternoon, explained as she watched her blue-jerseyed gang sip Yoo-hoo and sling heavy polyurethane balls toward a bundle of pins Wednesday at .

The Norristown boys and girls varsity bowling teams defeated Hatboro-Horsham that afternoon 3017 to 2515 and 2344 to 1330, respectively.

"Some places put oil in the lanes, and some of those lanes have different oil patterns, which affects the path of the ball," Johnson said. "At [Facenda], the players know what oil is down, but sometimes leagues play during the day and break [the oil] down. That's why my kids all have a dry ball and an oil ball."

Wednesday, the course was medium-slick, and the bowlers used their "oil" balls.

It's an understanding of and accounting for these nuances — not to mention a popular area youth bowling program that consistently furnishes the squad with polished, experienced players — that has allowed Johnson to assemble a competitive team for most of her "13 or 14" years as head bowling coach at Norristown.

This year, the boys team is ranked first — "by a hair" — in the Suburban One division, and they've won the last two seasons. The girls are perched in second.

The boys are led by Matt Grayauskie and John Mill, who average 216 and 207 a round, respectively, while the girls are carried by Emily Kinsey and Catheryn O'Connor, who each score in the 170s.

"And none of them are seniors," said the coach.

One, though, is an amateur roboticist.

"We built an ejective robot for this competition," explained Grayauskie, the leading bowler in Suburban One. "We finished eighth, but we only had two weeks to build it."

"Now, they've seen the competition, though," added his mother.

As for his other interest, the junior has been bowling for six years, and in addition to competing for the Eagles, he rolls in a league every Saturday.

Grayauskie doesn't watch "The Big Lebowski" before matches. He did once bowl a 297.

"It was last year," he said.

He averaged a 206 on Wednesday.

Catheryn O'Connor has been bowling for seven years and bowled a 278 over the summer.

"I grew up doing it, so it's second nature to me," said the junior. "I like the teamwork and getting together with everybody. And the competition."

She didn't like what she read as a lack of competitive spirit in her opponent, though.

"You need five players for a whole team, and they only brought four girls," said O'Connor, before excusing herself. It was her turn to roll.

Holding the ball in her right hand, O'Connor reared back and released in one fluid, pendulum-like motion. It left her hand fast and hung along the right of the alley, teetering along the edge of the gutter, before hooking back into the center of the lane and striking down all but one pin.

Business-like, she picked up a fresh ball, repeated her delivery, and struck down the final pin.

"That was for 29 points," she said before sitting back with her friends.