Another strike
Cabot wins 7th straight bowling title
By the time Ashley Imhoff became a freshman at Cabot High School, she had already seen all the great things the Cabot bowling team had to offer, so the decision to join the program was an easy one.
Ashley’s brother, Josh Imhoff, graduated from Cabot High School in 2018, having won two state championships in bowling. He now bowls for Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City, and their dad, Corey Imhoff, is an assistant coach for the Cabot program.
“It is incredible [to be able to continue that tradition],” Ashley Imhoff said. “Now I have one [championship] under my belt, and I really hope to keep adding to that.”
She said there is absolutely a competition between her and her brother.
“I am striving to get that third championship, just to say I have one more than him,” Imhoff said.
Imhoff and the rest of the Cabot girls bowling team won their seventh straight state championship on Feb. 24 at Fast Lanes Entertainment in Lowell. It is the program’s 10th title.
“Winning the state championship was huge for our kids,” head coach Nathan Brown said. “They practice and compete all year to have this opportunity, but I think at this point, it’s more than winning — no one wants to be the team that breaks the streak. “Seven in a row is an amazing run.” The state bowling tournament consists of the top five finishers from the 6A Central Conference and the top five from the 6A West Conference. The top six bowlers from each school bowl three games each; then each team bowls four Baker matches for a total of 22 games. The team with the most pins wins.
For Cabot, the top contributors were sophomore Graci Hock with 610 pins, finishing all-state and silver medalist; Imhoff with 568 pins and all-state; and sophomore Alisha Thomson with 542 pins and allstate honors.
“Just being a part of this program as a freshman and continuing that legacy that we have with Cabot has been amazing,” Imhoff said. “I love getting to compete and test my skill and my mind and see everything I can do.”
Hock said winning a state title shows how much work and effort the team has put in this year — “how good of a team we are and how well we work together,” she said. “There is a lot of pressure, but we deal with it all, and we know how to play.”
Brown said Thomson has been the biggest surprise this year. He said she progressed from being a sub as a ninth-grader to completely reworking her game into becoming a two-handed bowler and being a regular starter as a sophomore who peaked in the state tournament.
“All six of our starters this year have made huge contributions throughout the year,” Brown said. “Of the six that we start, five have been all-state either this year or last year, and all five of those will be coming back next year, so we will be looking forward to having another good year.”
Brown took over the program from coach Clark Bing two years ago. The program was started by Mike Nash and the late Ralph Pridemore. Brown said that in that time, every coach has stressed the same three things.
“The first is proper fundamentals, including technique. Second, you may get outbowled, but you will not be outworked or outclassed, and third, only worry about yourself and your team,” Brown said. “I think our kids bought into these, and it helped create a culture of not only focus and hard work, but an expectation to not let their teammates down.”
Brown said having a bowling alley in town is a huge advantage for the team, as many of the bowlers take part in leagues and tournament play offered at the center.
“When you take genuinely good kids and put them in the atmosphere, they thrive,” Brown said. “Some came to us knowing how to bowl, but we had to manufacture several over the years.
“Also, I’m sure the kids take pride in the streak, and once in the program, they want to work to ensure it is increased, choosing not to let our reputation bowl for us.”
Brown said the program is very fortunate to have Corey Imhoff as a volunteer assistant coach. Brown said Corey is a great teacher and really cares about the kids.
“We want them to be able to look back and see how effective being part of this program was in their life,” Brown said. “Though we do our fair share of winning, we believe that winning takes care of itself if you take care of your business.
“We like to think of it as taking care of business and being the best that we can be.”
Brown said the biggest adversity the team faced this year was losing bowlers to close-contact rules concerning COVID-19 throughout the season. He said that thankfully, the team’s next-man-up mentality paid off, and “we were able to sub someone in without much drop-off.”
“We missed one match due to the other team having COVID-19 issues this year, but we were able to stay healthy and avoided canceling matches on our end,” he said.
Cabot held tryouts for the team around September of last year, and Ashley Imhoff said bowling while wearing a mask is not her favorite thing, but it is something she got used to.
“We didn’t know if our season would even happen, so to be able to go to state this year and compete was amazing,” Imhoff said. “We were blessed to have a full team to compete at state, where some schools didn’t have some of their players.”
The Lady Panthers won the Central Conference Championship on Feb. 3 in Cabot.
“We were away ahead of everybody at conference and at state. We all practiced well the day before,” Hock said. “We knew after individuals [at state] that we had won.”
“We felt like, coming into the season, we would have a really good chance to repeat [the championship], but due to the variables introduced by COVID-19, we never felt totally secure,” Brown said.