Freshman helps start team, then qualifies for district

Berkshire’s Jackson earned individual spot with 540 series and he will be representing his school this weekend at Wedgewood Lanes in Austintown, with hopes of qualifying for next weekend’s state tournament.

“It feels great,” the softspoken ninth-grader said after grabbing the fourth and final individual qualifying spot last weekend. “I’m just thrilled to be here and go farther.”

Jackson and the rest of the Division II field, both boys and girls, will bowl on Feb. 24 starting at noon. The Division I district tournament is slated for Feb. 25, with the same noon start.

“I think I can go pretty far,” said Jackson confidently. “I’m going to push myself to be the best that I can be.”

It was that confidence that helped bring bowling to Berkshire this season. After putting bowling aside for a handful of years, Jackson said he missed the sport — so he went to work with the help of athletic director Brian Hiscox to get bowling introduced to Berkshire’s lineup of winter sports.

Jackson and his brother, Clark, for years had bowled in youth leagues in Garretsville. But “when life got busy,” as Jackson put it, the boys got away from the sport for a few years.

As Jackson’s freshman year approached, he yearned to pick up a ball again.

“I put in a petition to the school a year ago,” he said. “We hadn’t had a bowling team prior to this year.”

Hiscox said the entire Jackson family — the two boys and their parents — were passionate about getting bowling as a schoolsanctioned sport.

“The got a petition started and got the motor rolling,” Hiscox said. “This is something we had talked about a few years ago, since bowling was one of the faster-growing sports. It was basically a grass-roots movement.”

Early meetings saw 25 prospects show interest.

Ten Badgers represented the school at the sectional tournament. Led by their district-qualifier, Berkshire finished sixth out of 11 schools. Others bowling were junior Clark Jackson, senior Jared Hinkle, senior Hunter Geber, junior Michael Miller, junior Dean Peters and senior Trevor Stotlar.

Representing the upstart girls team were senior Natalie Girolamo and junior Emily Dingman.

Jackson, while excited, took his district-qualifying performance in stride.

“It just all came together,” he said. “The lanes seemed pretty much the same to me. I rolled the same ball over and over, and it seemed to work out well.”

The next step for Jackson is a rugged district field at Wedgewood Lanes. The top four boys teams and the top four individuals from nonqualifying teams will advance to the state tournament in Columbus.

Hiscox, who is the team’s coach along with the help of assistant Carrie Maske, said it’s apropos that Jackson is the school’s first district qualifier.

After all, it was with the help of Jackson’s efforts that Berkshire has a bowling team in the first place.

“It’s great to see Wilson get out (to the district tournament),” Hiscox said. “He’s a freshman, and a guy we can continue to build the program around and help it grow into something we can sustain.”

JOHN KAMPF — THE NEWS-HERALD Wilson Jackson, a freshman at Berkshire, is his school’s first district qualifier in the sport of bowling. Jackson was instrumental in getting the Badgers’ first bowling team organized this season.