The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Skippers roll through district
Fairport outdistances Woodridge, rest of field
Jerry Rich couldn’t help but to smile on Feb. 18 at Buckeye Lanes in North Olmsted.
As his Fairport boys bowling team buried strike after strike in the fifth and sixth Baker games at the Division II district bowling tournament, the soft-spoken and emotionally in-check head coach of the Skippers let a slight grin appear on his face, resisting the temptation to do backflips of jubilation down the neighboring empty ally.
But the reaction would have been justified judging from the woodshed treatment his Skippers were putting on the rest of the 14-team field.
Fairport occupied four of the top six spots on the alltournament team — paced by freshman Ryan Chipps’ 672 series — and the Skippers ran away with the district championship with a 256-pin advantage over second-place Peninsula Woodridge.
The district title — the boys team’s first since 2013 — sends the Skippers to the Division II state tournament March 1-2 at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl in Columbus.
“If we do this again in two weeks, yeah, I’ll take that,” Rich said, nodding his head in affirmation. “Will it be enough (for the state championship)? I don’t know. Anything can happen. You never know. But I’d take this (performance) right away.”
Fairport dominated from the moment the Skippers walked into Buckeye Lanes. Their 2,968 score through the individual games bested second-place Woodridge by 126 pins, giving the Skippers a comfortable cushion heading into the all-important Baker games.
The Skippers didn’t let up in the six Baker games, which calls for teams to bowl in sequential order. Fairport had Baker games
of 221, 190, 207 and 174 — extending its lead along the way — before laying the hammer down with scores of 246 and 238 in their final to Bakers.
Fairport had eight strikes and no open frames in each of the final two Bakers — the ultimate exclamation point.
“We’ve practice a long time. We’ve been preparing for this,” Ryan Chipps said. “We expected to bowl this well. We know we’re this good.”
Chipps, a freshman, took home medalist honors with his 672 series, stringing together
games of 224, 213 and 235. Also earning spots on the all-tournament team with Top-6 finishes were fellow ninth-grader Joe Justinger (617), junior Mike Rentz (615) and junior Michael Chipps (614).
As individual awards were handed out, Girard junior Jonathan Moore leaned over to Rentz and said, “Man, you guys were amazing today.”
“It was a fun day,” Justinger said. “We bowled well. That’s all that mattered. Forget (regular-season) opens. Just move on.”
As impressive as the individual
games were, the Baker games were equally impressive. That portion shows the true strength of a team because each bowler bowls two frames in each game.
High scores in Baker games are a good indicator of a strong team on a whole.
“Just pick up your teammate after an open frame,” Justinger said of the mindset. “The strikes will come. If you make your spares, you’ll be just fine.”
Rich said his team benefited – by blind draw — of being placed next to Woodridge and Girard during the Baker games. Woodridge (3,988) and Girard (3,904) played second and third in the team standings, followed by fourth-place Padua (3,830). So three of the top four in the district were bowling next to each other.
“I was very happy with that. We were able to see where we stood just by looking next to us,” Rich said. “That pushes you.”
As the Skippers departed Buckeye Lanes with medals around their necks and district championship trophy in hand, the only question dealt with whether the Skippers can do it again in two weeks when it matters most at the state tournament.
Rich said in 2013 when the Skipper boys last won a district title, he thought he had the best team in the state until Fairport lost to Canfield in five Bakers in the state semifinals.
Is this the year to hang a championship banner in Fairport?
“If we bowl like this in two weeks, I won’t be surprised,” Rentz said. “Will it be enough? I don’t know. We might have to do even better. But I think we can do it again.”