12/12/09 - Don't shoot The Messenger (TM)

Greetings and good evening, I have been hired as the new alter ego for the reporter on this site. And, after much divine inspiration — no, seriously, there is no other possible way I could be this clever on my own — the New Jersey Bowling Blog is proud to present to you The Messenger (TM). My goal is to provide wall-to-wall coverage of the best stories I can find throughout the season; you know, because the messenger pin goes from one sidewall to the other when you're trying to make a spli... ah, forget it. I was hired to be LESS wordy.

On we go. The 8th annual FDU Holiday Team Challenge is in the books, and wouldn't you know it — the first tournament we cover after resolving to branch out and observe teams beyond "North Jersey" gives us the first opportunity to do just that. Congratulations to the Howell Rebels, both the boys and girls squads captured titles after going in as the No. 1 seed.

Howell was the only team outside of Bergen, Passaic, Hudson or Essex to enter, begging the infamous one-letter question (Y), which coach David Clampffer answered for the NJBB. HHS grad Lisa Friscioni is now the assistant women's bowling coach at FDU, and Rebels alum Meghan Kelly is currently a sophomore bowler for the Knights, so there's the connection. Hey, The Messenger travels 2 hours from Park to Park (Midland to Seaside) to see his family every other weekend, why can't Howell travel a slightly shorter distance to Elmwood Park once a year to see some old bowling pals? Also, it's pretty worth it when you consider the Rebel girls won for the 3rd straight year.

Anyway, before we post results and all-stars, some of the highlights from the best 2-of-3 Baker game tournament round:

• The second-seeded Bergen Tech boys followed a pattern in the quaterfinals and semifinals — win Game 1, lose Game 2, start off Game 3 with 7 consecutive strikes and leave no doubt. They Baked up a 268 in the quarters, then took their semifinal elimination game from Paramus Catholic, 257-215. As one observer pointed out, how often do you shoot a Baker 215 and lose by over 40? If it's any consolation, props to the Paladins, they threw some great balls. Game 2 of BT/PC was intense: tied at 186 after 9, both teams working off a spare; Paladin anchor gutters his 1st ball, Tech anchor rolls a 9, but then he gutters, and PC anchor finishes spare-strike to give his team a 2-point win. (P.S. The Messenger is obligated to withhold the name of gutter-ballers to protect the innocent - unless it's that WGHT fellow Gutterball Greg. Ahem.)
  
• Not to be outdone, the Howell boys held off Fair Lawn in the semifinals, 2-1, with a 278 in the clincher: two strikes, 9-spare, eight more strikes, and one pin left standing all game on the final roll. Lefty note: Rebels southpaws D.J. Jacob and Arianna Mattera each converted a 2-7 split in the tournament. Clearly, Howell had that team harmony thing going.
• Immaculate Heart graduated 4/5ths of its tournament lineup, but you wouldn't have been able to tell by watching the girls bowl. The Blue Eagles earned the No. 2 seed, reached the finals, fell behind 1-0 before trailing by almost 30 pins midway through Game 2, and still fought back to push Howell to the limit. IHA coach Lynn Gansley used the words "completely thrilled" and "delirious," and after an effort like that, why not? The turning point: In the 7th frame of Game 3, both Howell and IHA bowlers had a 1-2-8 spare (hm, lot of eerie symmetry with this Rebels bunch) — Howell converted, IHA didn't. And yet, in the 10th, Blue Eagles anchor Nicole Linder struck out to keep the pressure on, but Rebels anchor Jess Henri clinched the win with a 9-spare-8. Good stuff.
  

Overall, just what The Messenger needed to get him out of football mode and into bowling mode. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for the Heisman Trophy presentation! (Sorry, football never officially ends for me until the Jets are dead and buried. Blame Rex Ryan, I have no idea how that team is still in it.)

8TH ANNUAL FDU HOLIDAY CHALLENGE (Parkway Lanes, Elmwood Park)

BOYS DIVISION PLAYOFFS

Q'FINALS

1) Howell def. 8) Bergen Catholic, 2-1 (180-238, 198-179, 235-184)

5) Fair Lawn def. 4) North Bergen, 2-0 (194-157, 225-158)

2) Bergen Tech def. 7) Union City, 2-1 (209-190, 134-196, 268-187)

3) Paramus Catholic def. 6) Hackensack, 2-1 (193-170, 183-205, 205-194)

SEMIFINALS

1) Howell def. 5) Fair Lawn, 2-1 (212-183, 192-200, 278-193)

2) Bergen Tech def. 3) Paramus Catholic, 2-1 (198-191, 204-206, 257-215)

FINALS

1) Howell def. 2) Bergen Tech, 2-0 (203-189, 256-200)

GIRLS DIVISION PLAYOFFS

Q'FINALS

5) Clifton def. 4) Bergen Tech, 2-1 (107-127, 158-132, 171-121)

6) Fair Lawn def. 3) Hackensack, 2-1 (132-101, 127-134, 191-132)

SEMIFINALS

1) Howell def. 5) Clifton, 2-1 (167-187, 131-200, 181-112)

2) IHA def. 6) Fair Lawn, 2-0 (176-163, 153-126)

FINALS

1) Howell def. 2) IHA, 2-1 (202-136, 164-186, 177-170)

ALL-STAR TEAMS (Top series of qualifying round)

BOYS: 1. Alex Prell, Wood-Ridge, 707; 2. Eric Negron, North Bergen, 687; 3. Andrew Suscreba, Queen of Peace, 681; 4. Brian Galbraith, Pascack Hills, 675; 5. Chris Auld, Fair Lawn, 673.

GIRLS: 1. Crystal Keller, Lenape Valley, 593; 2. Nicole Linder, IHA, 592; 3. Jess Henri, Howell, 591; 4. Ariana Mattera, Howell, 564; 5. Sonja Shirak, Clifton, 556.

Changes coming soon...

The editors of the North Jersey Bowling Blog would like to apologize for giving the appearance that we forgot about the start of high school bowling season in these parts. We are, in fact, fully aware that the 2009-10 season already has gotten underway... we just haven't officially acknowledged it. Until today.

Moreover, we regret to inform you that there are no more editors of the North Jersey Bowling Blog. Well, maybe "regret" isn't the proper word. There are no more editors for that blog because it no longer exists — that's right, say hello to the NEW Jersey Bowling Blog, as it is now so labeled in the header of this page. (Those same editors have returned and did feel the phrase "New New Jersey Bowling Blog" was redundant. But I snuck it through in that last sentence anyway).

Starting this season, we shall attempt to expand our coverage beyond the ever fuzzily-defined "North Jersey" area and into other parts of the Garden State where bowling is equally - if not more - respected, detected and selected (apologies to Arlo Guthrie). Our home-base area will still be in the Bergen/Passaic region (first assignment: tomorrow's FDU Holiday Team Challenge!) but our founder has decided it's time to start living up to the nickname "Mr. New Jersey," so ideally, we'd like to post items on bowling counties from Sussex to Salem as the winter goes along.

Finally, it is with heavy hearts that we must retire the moniker North Jersey Bowling Reporter Guy, a.k.a. the NJBRG. Certainly, it was befitting of both our man's quirky personality and inclination toward wordiness (both written and spoken), but it was a heck of a mouthful to say and didn't fit well on business cards. Not sure yet what we're going to do about the e-mail address, but figuring that out is all part of the re-branding process.

Our new reporter/alter ego shall be deployed for the FDU tournament, and his [trademark-pending] identity shall be unveiled in his first post. We encourage you to greet him the same quizzical looks and eye rolls that you would give to all employees of the NJBB. Yes, we will still use acronyms to refer to the blog itself.

(3/27/09) All the Stars and Bowling Awards

At last! The final installment of the North Jersey Bowling blog for the 2008-09 season has arrived. Clearly, that "target date" of Friday, March 13 that the NJBRG mentioned a couple of blogs ago was a typo -- you see, he hit the 1 & the 3 keys backwards, and meant to write "the LAST Friday BEFORE March 31," and... ah, heck, I made an old-fashioned mistake by promising the moon and not delivering. Next time, I'm just going to promise what I *can* deliver. Hey, I'm only human (Editor's note: the NJBRG is an imaginary alter ego, and therefore technically not human. But you can get on his case anyway).

Thanks again to everyone that helped contribute to the site. Hopefully, I've listed just about everyone along the way, but if you look back and find you were not given due credit, please apply for a profuse apology & a spot on the top of next season's name-drop list at: NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com. Additional thanks to the band Augustana for inspiring the title of this post with their debut album, random though it may be.

Now, for our final major pop-culture reference of the season, we turn to Prof. Hubert Farnsworth's What-If Machine. Since not all of the media outlets for which I work compile All-Star bowling teams, I'm taking the liberty of creating: What the [publication All-Star] bowling team *would* look like (assuming they had one).

And, now that I think about it, this isn't terribly that late since the Star-Ledger and The Record just finished running their postseason stuff this week. Along those same lines, away we go...

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What the WGHT All-Area bowling team *would* look like (if they had one):

Today is actually a very convenient day for this, since it caps off All-Area week -- Jon & Marco did wrestling on Monday, hockey on Tuesday, girls basketball on Wednesday and boys basketball yesterday. I may even get this posted before they go on the air with today's look-ahead to spring sports.
(That's Sports Overtime, the Friday one-hour edition, today at 2 p.m. on 1500 AM and ghtradio.com. It is with my best Nixon impersonation that I state: "I am not a shill.")

Unlike most All-Star teams, GHT does it a bit differently, in that they pick an actual team of starters and reserves -- who they would pick if they fielded a real team (hey, we're fitting right in) -- plus year-end awards. P.S. that "Area" in All-Area is Passaic, western Bergen (Mahwah, Indian Hills, Ramapo, Northern Highlands, Midland Park, Ridgewood, Glen Rock, Fair Lawn and Saddle Brook) and northeast Morris (Kinnelon, Butler, Pequannock, Montville) counties.

2008-09 WGHT All-Area Boys Bowling Team

STARTERS (in alphabetical order)
Rob Andresen, Ramapo (Jr.) - 212 average; tied for high average in NBIL, led league with 32 games of 200+. High game of 279 and high [3-game] series of 699, both at the North Jersey Singles Classic.
Vincent Buono, Passaic (Sr.) - 221 average, tops in GHT listening area; finished 2nd NNJIL in average by mere decimal points, and had high game of 289 and high series of 799. Finished 7th in Passaic County and led Indians to 2nd-place finish in North 1B, Group 4 tournament. Not bad for a travel-league bowler who joined his H.S. team last November.
Andrew Davidowicz, Lakeland (Sr.) - 219 average, up 18 points from 2007-08; His 692 series at Sectionals was tied for 2nd individually and helped the Lancers claim the first North 1B, Group 3 title in just the program's 3rd year of existence.
Rich Gutches, Passaic Tech (So.) - 218 average; one of the few All-Area bowlers that I unfortunately did not get to see in person -- a shame, because he rolled a 299 high game and tied with Davidowicz for 2nd at sectionals with a 692. On the other hand, I may get to see more of the Bulldogs in the Tri-County Conference next winter, so that's at least one realignment plus.
Tim Scott, West Milford (So.) - 216 average; why, oh why, did I leave the Suburban Trends? The NJBRG used to cover the Highlanders every year, but was unable to deploy a clone to watch Scott clean up at Counties, where he fired a 290—767 to claim the individual title.

SUBS
Jaylin Floyd, Manchester (Jr.) - 211 average; led the Falcons to the B-PSL King Division title on the last day of the regular season, bowling a 223-233—456 to break a tie with Garfield - clutch indeed. Finished 2nd at Counties with a 279—716 and 7th at Sectionals with a 667 series.
Matt Guarino, Passaic Valley (Jr.) - 211 average; a big reason the Hornets won both the Northern Hills-Skyline title and the Passaic County championships. He was 5th individually at Counties with a 236—646.
Greg Kratky, Wayne Hills (Sr.) - 196 average; high game of 299 in NBIL play brought Holiday Bowl to a standstill, and he finished with 20 games of 200+. Despite an uncharacteristic outing at Counties, he finished with a 578 to anchor Hills to a third-place finish, just 3 pins behind Pompton Lakes.
Tom Maggio, DePaul (Sr.) - 195 average; his 662 series at Sectionals put him into a three-way tie for eighth place, giving him a spot in the State singles finals, where he rolled a 610 to place 25th. Anchored the Spartans to their 4th straight trip to the State team finals, shooting an even 600 to wrap up his career at Carolier.
Jake Morin, Indian Hills (Sr.) - 199 average; his six-game series of 1,245 at the Bergen County tournament was good for 11th individually and helped the Braves to their first-ever Groups 1-2 title. Had a high game of 278 and threw 23 games of 200+.
Jon Rizzi, Pompton Lakes (Sr.) - 202 average; had the highest average of the five -- yes, five -- Cardinals to make the All-BPSL Carpenter first team. Anchored Pompton to a 65-5 points record and the Carpenter title, as well as a second-place finish at Counties and the school's first North 1B, Section 2 title. His 672 series at Sectionals was 5th highest overall.
Kevin Seavers, Ridgewood (Sr.) - 205 average; finished 13th at the Bergen tournament with a 1,237. Four-year starter whose high game this season was a 279 and high series was 748. He also led the Maroons to a second-place finish in the NNJIL Division B, a heady enough accomplishment considering the division title went to Nutley, which may or may not be a PBA team masquerading as amateurs (I'm kidding, of course).

BOWLER OF THE YEAR: Vincent Buono, Passaic - the glass bowling shoes fit.

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Pompton Lakes - Did we mention the 5 first-team All-Leaguers?

COACH OF THE YEAR: Frank Ariola, Passaic Valley - guided the Hornet boys to County and League titles and, incidentally, coached a PV girls squad that came within 11 pins of ending the Clifton girls' stranglehold on the County championship.

2008-09 WGHT All-Area Girls Bowling Team

STARTERS (in alphabetical order)
Kim Burdi, Ridgewood (Sr.) - 181 average; The lefty finished 4th at the North Jersey Singles Classic, and that was just the beginning. She anchored the Maroons to their 2nd straight NNJIL-B title and first-ever trip to the State team finals. High game was 242 and high series 647, but she was at her best in the Baker tournament at Counties, twice striking out in the 10th to give Ridgewood a win.
Danielle Gelok, Pompton Lakes (Sr.) - 179 average; if the Cardinals fielded a separate girls team, she would be the anchor. Instead, she led off and set the tone for the Pompton boys' B-PSL Carpenter and North 1B, Group 2 championship squad. Finishes her career as a three-time selection to the All-County first team.
Jen Houseward, Manchester (Sr.) - 184 average; another key to the Falcons' B-PSL King Division title run, she recorded the highest 2-game series in the league all season (473) -- boys and girls included. She finished runner-up at the Passaic County tournament with a 245—570, receiving the medal for girls high game.
Colette Malyack, DePaul (Fr.) - 204 average; freshman boys don't often average over 200, so the Spartans may want to clear out a page for her in the school record book right now. Had the 2nd-high girls game (216) at Counties, then showed remarkable poise for a freshman in the State team finals, shooting DePaul's high game (224) and 2nd-high series (547) at Carolier.
Sonja Shirak, Clifton (So.) - 208 average; the Passaic County individual champ (209—609) anchored the young Mustangs to their 11th straight county team title. She had high series of 735 and 726 (both within a week of each other) and was runner-up at the North Jersey Sectional tournament with a 235—658 before turning in the best finish by an area bowler (14th) at the State singles finals.

SUBS
Damaris Duarte, PCT (Sr.) - 168 average (at Counties, anyway); again, I don't think I missed seeing a whole lot of area bowlers this year, but Damaris unfortunately fell into that category. How fired am I? I saw her older brother (and Bulldogs alum) Carlos Duarte at least three or four times this season, and he wasn't even on the lanes. If I get an e-mail from the Duartes, they get first dibs on the profuse apologies.
Amber Kay, Passaic Valley (Sr.) - 170 average, up from 161 last year; talk about multi-talented -- she helped the Hornet boys to the Northern Hills-Skyline title, and also led the Hornet girls to a runner-up finish to Clifton in the Passaic County tournament, where her 550 series was tied for 4th individually.
Jackie Kurtz, Wayne Valley (Sr.) - 173 average; the Indians have built a legacy of having at least 1 or 2 standout girls on a co-ed team each year, and Kurtz kept that tradition going this season by leading them to a 3rd-place showing in a competitive Northern Hills conference.
Bridget Pyryt, Indian Hills (Fr.) - 165 average; forget averages, how often do you see a freshman anchor? She led the Braves to a second-place finish in the North Group 2 tournament, but was unable to compete at State finals due to illness. Somehow, I get the feeling she'll have another crack at Carolier down the road.
Amelia Silvestro, Lakeland (So.) - 174 average; a varsity newcomer to a relative young program, she placed 3rd individually at Counties with a 205—566 and helped the Lancers shoot a team series of 3,012 to capture the North 1B, Group 3 title.
Courtney Visco, Ridgewood (Sr.) - 163 average; the righty leadoff bowler bookended the Maroons lineup with classmate Kim Burdi, and capped the team's first-ever trip to the State finals with her highest game of the season (218) in the finale. She also played a big part in getting them to Carolier, notching a team-high 559 series at Sectionals.
Debbie Vogel, Eastern Christian (Sr.) - 171 average; along with Pompton's Danielle Gelok, she was one of two girls named to the All-BPSL Carpenter first team. And yes, she added another feather to the girls' cap in the age-old "battle of the sexes," leading the co-ed Eagles in average and throwing their high league series (401) of the season.

BOWLER OF THE YEAR: Sonja Shirak, Clifton - get used to hearing the name.

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Ridgewood - League champs, second to IHA at both Counties and Sectionals. Point of order: IHA was undefeated, and is also not in the GHT listening area. Maroons also get the nod over Clifton for beating them head-to-head in NNJIL play and at sectionals.

COACH OF THE YEAR: Brian Small, Clifton - the thing is, the NJBRG is equal-opportunity. Ridgewood and Clifton were both good all year, so the T.O.Y. debate was between them and the C.O.Y. debate was between Small and the Maroons' Dick Bennett. So, one school gets Team of the Year, the other gets Coach of the Year. Plus, Coach Small had to keep the Mustangs' minds on the County tournament itself and not on the fact that they were 10-time defending champs going in -- no small task, and he did it quite well.

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For our second spin with the "What-If Machine," the NJBRG directs your attention to The Ridgewood News All-Suburban area. For the winter, the paper does All-Suburban hockey, wrestling, boys basketball and girls basketball, as does WGHT. The coverage area, though, is slightly different: Ridgewood, Midland Park, Hawthorne, Hawthorne Christian, Northern Highlands, Indian Hills, Ramapo, Ramsey, Mahwah, Pascack Valley, Pascack Hills, Paramus, River Dell, Westwood, Dumont, Bergenfield, New Milford, Park Ridge, Emerson, Fair Lawn, Paramus Catholic, Bergen Catholic, Don Bosco, St. Joseph and Immaculate Heart Academy. For our purposes, two area schools (Glen Rock, Waldwick) are being discounted, but only because they have no bowling teams.

In addition, the All-Suburban teams have a special category, either for Freshman or Sophomore of the Year, in order to salute an underclassman that might not get the recognition amid the number of junior and senior standouts. (Bear in mind, this tradition dates back to when freshman weren't allowed on varsity, and sophomore varsity players were much rarer). These days, they essentially keep it around to honor an underclassman that did not make the first team, but ought to be a candidate to do so next season.

Anyway, if there was room in a late-March Friday edition of the RN to publish it, we'd have this...

What The Ridgewood News All-Suburban bowling teams *would* look like (if they had them):
*Averages in parentheses, lists in alphabetical order; info added for those not mentioned above.

BOYS TEAM
Rob Andresen, Ramapo, Junior (212) - see above.
Chris Auld, Fair Lawn, Junior (202) - had 3rd-highest game in NBIL (289) and 20 of 200+
Freddy Carlo, River Dell, Junior (187) - to heck with league average. Dude won a Sectional title with a 706 and placed higher than any Bergen bowler (18th) at State finals, that's good enough for me
Nick Corvelli, Bergen Catholic, Senior (219) - one of two Crusaders to roll a 300...
Robert Grippo, Bergen Catholic, Junior (210) - ...and he was the other. Also took 2nd-place medal at Counties with a 1,315. Corvelli and Grippo had the two highest series as BC destroyified the County record en route to winning the Bergen title with a 6,211. And yes, I'm inventing a word, they were that convincing.
Anthony Karalian, New Milford, Junior (199) - All you need to know is that he bowled with a broken finger on his throwing hand at Sectionals, and still shot a 664 to lead the Knights to their 4th straight Sectional title.
Kyle Landau, Ramsey, Soph. (212) - one half of a brother tandem that boosted the Rams to a share of the NBIL-2 title, Kyle had the highest 2-game league series (523) and finished 10th at Counties (1,249). Also took a perfect frame into the 10th frame at Sectionals, settling for a 266—661 that led Ramsey back to Carolier.
Jake Morin, Indian Hills, Senior (199) - see above.
Kevin Seavers, Ridgewood, Senior (205) - see above.
Mike Wuhrman, Park Ridge, Soph. (200) - see previous post (BCSL final).
SOPHOMORE OF THE YEAR: Ryan Landau, Ramsey (197) - How do you tell twins apart? By their bowling average, naturally. All kidding aside, Ryan was equally as valuable as Kyle in the Rams' run to a share of the NBIL-2 title.

GIRLS TEAM
Kim Burdi, Ridgewood, Senior (181) - see above.
Grace Capone, IHA, Senior (183) - headed to Sacred Heart University next season, she had the Blue Eagles' high game (212) at the State team finals.
Brianna Carlo, Dumont, Senior (198) - see previous post (BCSL final).
Victoria Grimshaw, IHA, Senior (191) - the lefty took 5th at the North Jersey Singles Classic, 3rd at Counties, 9th at Sectionals and shot a team-high 548 series at the State finals.
Brittany Kneisler, Bergenfield, Senior (176) - see previous post (NBIL final).
Nicole Linder, IHA, Soph. (188) - won the Singles Classic and earned the high-game medal at Counties with a 256. She also had IHA's top series at Sectionals (642), helping the team to its eighth straight tournament title.
Nicolette Maggiolo, Ridgewood, Soph. (157) - one of three talented Maroon sophomores that started the year as a question mark but finished as an exclamation point. Had the team's second-best series (540) in her first visit to Carolier Lanes.
Lauren Rhein, IHA, Senior (206) - well, she was The Record's North Jersey Bowler of the Year, what more can we add? Numbers-wise, not much. But there's a reason she's ticketed for Vanderbilt, the 2007 NCAA Division I women's bowling champ -- simply put, she's a leader. And she rarely stops smiling, no matter the situation. Okay, that's two reasons.
Amanda Stacey, Midland Park, Senior (160) - as did fellow BPSL bowler Debbie Vogel, Stacey carried the girl-power banner by leading the co-ed Panthers in average. In case you missed her final announcement, the last ball she threw in her H.S. career was a strike.
Courtney Visco, Ridgewood, Senior (163) - see above.
FRESHMEN OF THE YEAR: Cassidy Fiore, Bergenfield (171); Bridget Pyryt, Indian Hills (165) - Fiore's team came out on top in the NBIL-2 title chase, but Pyryt's squad flipped the script at Sectionals, beating the Bears by one pin. If you want a burgeoning rivalry, here it is.

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So that brings us to our final accolades of the season... I wanted to do something original, something with a little NJBRG flair -- something like ESPN.com's Bill Simmons does with his "All-Star" teams, except, you know, not infused with his pro-Boston claptrap. (There's a reason I'm not linking him. Excellent writer, poor choice of fanhood).

At any rate, I've decided that since the NJBRG's top 3 defining characteristics are A) left-handedness, B) a love for his home state of New Jersey and C) a passion for bowling, the icing on this season's cake will be a salute to the southpaw sensations in our area that I had the privilege to see in action. Behold:

*The First Annual Parker Bohn III All-Stars, presented by the North Jersey Bowling Reporter Guy*
(Again, alphabetical order)

BOYS TEAM: Mike Burns (No. Highlands), Mike Carr (Ramapo), Ryan Cooper (Science Park), Jonathan Eckstein (Indian Hills), Jon Frantin (Pascack Valley), Mike Georgetti (Nutley), Patrick Henry (Bergen Catholic), Doug Nemeth (Ramsey), Scott O'Donnell (No. Highlands), Alex Prell (Wood-Ridge), Steve Puzio (Garfield), Brian Vanderheide (Eastern Christian).

GIRLS TEAM: Jolisa Aquino (High Tech), Kim Burdi (Ridgewood), Samantha Callahan (No. Highlands), Victoria Grimshaw (IHA), Shelby Taylor (Ridgewood).

My sincerest apologies if I have forgotten anyone -- but if I did, and you didn't e-mail the NJBRG to correct it, no complaints allowed.

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NJBRG season sign-off:

As I've mentioned before, the one site in the blogosphere that serves as an inspiration to the North Jersey Bowling Reporter Guy above all others is ESPN.com's Tuesday Morning Quarterback by the almost-aptly named Gregg Easterbrook. I've been an avid reader for years, and with apologies to TMQ, I must pay tribute with this winter's sign-off, as no one does it quite like him.

The North Jersey Bowling Blog folds its tent and steals off into the Swamps of Jersey until next December, though may update occasionally if one of our area bowlers is making headlines on the baseball or softball diamond. Until then, take the offseason not just to work on your spares, but to get the most out of life beyond the alley... go for a walk, read a book, move more and eat less. Finish one assignment or task that you just don't want to do and see how it feels. Go for a drive, head down the shore, stop and smell whatever flowers DON'T have bees at work on them. Spend one day with your family or loved ones, even if you don't want to, and see how they feel. Whatever your faith -- follow it.

And hey, try rolling at a new house. I recommend Ocean Lanes for the North Jerseyans who have never been south, and [EDITOR'S NOTE (3/15/10): we retroactively regret suggesting Wallington Lanes for actual bowling, rather than just its ambiance and shiny lights. Check it out if you wish, but revisionist history leads this blog to recommend the new-and-improved Parkway Lanes in Elmwood Park] for the South Jerseyans who have never been north. TMQ is more of a bookworm than I am, but of my own recommendations: "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge for the boys, "Captivating" by Stasi Eldredge for the girls. To parents, I recommend both. And, at Mr. Easterbrook's suggestion, "'Positive Sports Parenting' by Jim Thompson, a book every youth-league and high-school coach and parent should read." (TMQ, 2/10/09)

Live, love, laugh, cry and serve others: Do these things, and you will feel justified in racing back to the rosin bags, the rivalries and the Bowler City chicken fingers when the varsity bowling universe resumes anew next winter.

Cheers,
-NJBRG

(3/27/09) Unfinished business - NBIL/BCSL

Remember how several decades ago -- fine, weeks -- I said that I was going to try and gather together all the final league standings from the NJBRG coverage area and post them on the site? Well, after finally sorting through all of my piles (and enduring a frustrating but much-needed computer hardware/software update at work), here is the last of the info I have -- Northern Hills was the only league I was unable to come up with. For the HCIAA North Division, please refer to the comment left at the end of the NNJIL entry, courtesy of realkid919 (who did not leave his realname).
Special thanks also to Indian Hills coach Mike Michels (NBIL), the Sports Reporter's Vince Albrect (BCSL Nat./Oly.) and... this website (BCSL American) for their contributions.

Stay tuned, the North Jersey Bowling blog All-Star sections will be posted by the end of the day.

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2008-09 NBIL FINAL STANDINGS - BOYS
Division 1
1. OLD TAPPAN: 99-11
2. Wayne Hills: 77-33
3. Fair Lawn: 74-36
4. Ramapo: 65-45
5. Northern Highlands: 41-69
6. Demarest: 2-108
Division 2
1. (tie) Ramsey: 70-40 (900 avg.)
1. (tie) Indian Hills: 70-40 (895 avg.)
3. Pascack Valley: 65-45
4. (tie) Pascack Hills: 39-71 (857 avg.)
4. (tie) Bergenfield: 39-71 (823 avg.)
6. Mahwah: 19-91

High game: Greg Kratky (Wayne Hills), 299
High series: Kyle Landau (Ramsey), 523*
High average: (tie) Kyle Landau and Rob Andresen (Ramapo), 212
*Remember, the NBIL bowls 2-game series. Landau threw a 661 at sectionals for cryin' out loud, so don't let the league stats mislead you.

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2008-09 NBIL FINAL STANDINGS - GIRLS
Division 1
1. Fair Lawn: 88-22
2. Northern Highlands: 75-35
3. Ramapo: 64-46
4. Wayne Hills: 29-81
5. Demarest: 23-87
6. Old Tappan: 2-108
Division 2
1. Bergenfield: 99-11
2. Indian Hills: 93-17
3. Pascack Hills: 75-35
4. Pascack Valley: 47-63
5. Ramsey: 43-67
6. Mahwah: 22-88

High game, series & average: Brittany Kniesler (Bergenfield), 245 / 448 / 176.0
To paraphrase Larry the Cable Guy - "I don't care who ya are, that's impressive right thurr."

*************************************
2008-09 BCSL NATIONAL FINAL STANDINGS
1. North Arlington: 98-17
2. Secaucus: 97-18
3. St. Mary (Ruth.): 68-47
4. Lyndhurst: 61-54
5. Becton: 60-55
6. Wallington: 60-55
7. Harrison: 17-98
8. Weehawken: 10-105

High game: Dante Iyer (Secaucus), 265
High series: Ashley Johnson (N.Arlington), 471*
High average: Matt Priore (N.Arlington), 223.5
Sportsmanship Award: Gary Job (Lyndhurst)
*Yeah, all the BCSL division bowl 2-game series as well. Extra props to Ms. Johnson for beating the boys in that category. Also, I must say I'm a fan of the Sportsmanship Award idea - lest we forget, opponents are our friends... the enemy is those little wooden suckers at the end of the lanes.

*************************************
2008-09 BCSL OLYMPIC FINAL STANDINGS
1. (tie) Leonia: 96-24
1. (tie) New Milford: 96-24
3. Wood-Ridge: 92-28
4. Bogota: 77-43
5. Park Ridge: 75-45
6. Hasbrouck Heights: 36-84
7. Ridgefield: 33-87
8. Palisades Park: 14-106
9. Hawthorne Christian: 9-111

High game: William Moore (Wood-Ridge), 279
High series: Mike Wuhrman (Park Ridge), 506
High average: Alex Prell (Wood-Ridge), 212.3
It's a shame I didn't get to see any league action down at Wallington lanes this year, but several things struck me while watching these teams at tournaments: The Record was right, and the NJBRG fully supports their gag order on using the H-word around Alex Prell. He's a great all-around bowler *and* a lefty - double prizes!... Mike Wuhrman blasted 10 strikes in a row at sectionals, and all he wound up with was a lousy 286. Then I found out he's a sophomore, i.e. he's got 2 more years to shoot for the elusive 12-bagger in H.S. competition. Yikes... Finally, being on the Midland Park beat occassionally, I've seen plenty of MP/Bogota volleyball battles, and the Bucs' Janet Snell always throws down pretty hard in those matches. So, naturally, I spot her on the lanes at counties and yup, you guessed it, she's a finesse bowler. Go figure.

*************************************
2008-09 BCSL AMERICAN FINAL STANDINGS - BOYS
1. Queen of Peace
2. Westwood
3. Tenafly
4. Rutherford
5. River Dell
6. Ridgefield Park
7. Fort Lee
8. Dumont
9. Englewood
10. Cliffside Park

High average: Chris Hopkins (Tenafly), 208
Umm... yeah, sorry, but the page on the BCSL webpage didn't show the final record for the American Division boys. D'oh.

*************************************
2008-09 BCSL AMERICAN FINAL STANDINGS - GIRLS
1. Dumont: 207-63
2. Westwood: 205-65
3. Cliffside Park: 156.5-113.5
4. Tenafly: 147.5-122.5
5. Ridgefield Park: 135-135
6. Englewood: 101-169
7. Fort Lee: 53.5-216.5

High average: Brianna Carlo (Dumont), 198
Coach of the Year: Dan Rattacasa (Westwood)
Fortunately, the girls standings were there. Again, wasn't able to see any BCSL action live, but if the standings tell the story, the girls ostensibly had a close title chase, which is pretty good for a brand-new league... tournament-wise, the American Division story of the year had to be Brianna (Dumont) *and* Freddy (River Dell) Carlo both qualifying for the State finals at Carolier. As the eldest of four siblings, I've learned that you have to cherish those special shared moments -- mostly so your parents forget about all the squabbling and stuff that normally goes on.

***
Again, spring season is right around the corner, so my apologies for taking our postseason features down to the wire. Just in case, if anyone has any last-minute additions or corrections, e-mail them along to NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com.

Moving a couple of boards to the North

The NJBRG has needed a couple of weeks since the state finals to recover. And by "recover," I mean "move." Although still a source of North Jersey bowling info, I've temporarily had to relocate from Bergen County to Rockland County, and will have to commute across state lines for the time being. This has taken a bit of blogging time away, but I'd still very much like to put together some postseason All-Star teams, and for that I still need a bit more info.

If you heard Part 2 of the WGHT North Jersey bowling wrap-up a couple weeks ago, then you heard our pals Marco & John mention a GHT All-Area team for bowling. Since they're experts on the "big four" in the winter -- boys basketball, girls basketball, hockey and wrestling -- and admittedly aren't as up-to-speed on bowling (hence their reliance on Gutterball Greg), they don't do an All-Area bowling team. I've offered before, but air time restrictions kind of make it tough. So, because they were nice enough to name-drop the North Jersey Bowling Blog on Sports Overtime, I will put together: What the GHT All-Area bowling team would look like (assuming they had one). I'm also kicking around some other fun ideas for postseason honors.

That said, I'm still a bit short on some of the necessary info. I'm still in search of averages and final standings from 2 leagues -- NBIL and Northern Hills -- for All-Area. In order to do a full assortment of All-Stars, I'd also like to get a hold of averages and standings from the BCSL American and National/Olympic, as well as the HCIAA. Please notify any coaches/directors in these leagues that they can e-mail the aforementioned info to NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com.

Our target date to get all of our All-Star teams published is this Friday, March 13 (the NJBRG is reverse-superstitious, and that is his lucky number).

(2/21/09) NJSIAA Team Finals - Boys

It's the most bittersweet moment of the bowling season: the last day of the State finals. Normally, for North Jersey teams, it's more bitter than sweet, and various local bowlers told me as much after Saturday's tournament. The boys teams from up here, though, usually have a better go of it at Carolier Lanes than the girls teams do, and with that I must issue yet another apology for a mis-stated fact (sort of).

A couple of entries ago, I had said that the last Northern team to really do well at Carolier was Clifton in 2002, when it won the State boys championship. While not entirely untrue – the Mustangs remain the last North Jersey squad to win the whole thing – Becton captured the first-ever State Group 1 title when the format was introduced in 2007. So there you go.

This year, the best finish by a North section boys team in the State finals was third – in fact, a team from some portion of this portion of the state finished third in every single bracket: Old Tappan (Group 4, 2,920), Nutley (Group 3, 2,913), Jefferson (Group 2, 2,908) and Queen of Peace (Group 1, 2,794). I use the "portion" qualifier because even though all those teams are technically in this part of the state, they don't necessarily fall under every media outlet's definition of "North Jersey." The definition, for this site's purposes, was explained a few entries ago, but now that I think of it, I'm going to include Nutley, which doesn't meet any of the existing conditions, but I see them all the time as an [ex] NNJIL team. So there, again.

However, I got a very nice e-mail from one of the parents of the bowlers in the North 1B section – a tournament that I didn't recap because I was at the North 1A finals, which took place at the same time – prompting the following decision: A number of local qualifiers from North 1B earned a trip to North Brunswick, and since I haven't gotten a chance to talk much about some of them, they get top billing this time. Well... close to the top. Had to mention the high finishers first.

Straight outta Pompton: (Sorry, couldn't resist. Please don't tell Dr. Dre.) The State qualifier with the highest pinfall (3,050) at the North 1B tournament was Pompton Lakes, which won Group 2 to bring home the first sectional bowling title in school history. I have mentioned the Cardinals before, given their dominance in the B-PSL this season – unfortunately, that success didn't seem to translate at Carolier, at least early on. But after an 858 in the opener, Pompton got better as the day went on, finishing with a 948 in Game 3. Seniors Billy Jack (200) and Jon Eis-Figueroa (214) had the two highest games, and the latter may have the best bowling nickname ever: Eis (pronounced "ice"). Seriously, when I need a strike in the 10th, and I've got two guys on my team that are otherwise equal except for their nicknames – even if the other guy is "Lefty" – I'm still sending in "Eis" every time. I seriously think Jon's got a case to sue Robert Van Winkle for the rights to the name, plus "Ice, Ice Baby" residuals, and rights in perpetuity, and all that legal mumbo-jumbo.
(Okay, I'm quitting with the rap references while I'm ahead.)

Three cheers for Lakeland: In just their third full season of varsity competition, the Lancers won the Group 3 title at the North 1B tournament, shooting a 3,012 to rally past Northern Hills Skyline rival DePaul (more on them in a bit). In the State Group 3 finals, they wound up with a 10th-place 2,415 against some daunting competition. Case in point: Lakeland shared lanes with Group 3 runner-up Woodbridge (3,160), which amassed the highest game in the house in Game 2 – a 1,162 that included a 298 from junior Matt Sabin. Lancers anchor Andrew Davidowicz, the team's lone senior, paused before even starting his 10th frame to let Sabin try and finish off the perfect game... classy move. However, after Sabin threw his last ball, he started walking away as if he had Strike #12 in the bag; the bowling gods, angered, sent the front pins wrapping around the 4-7, and the only way the young Barron could tell he missed was from the crowd reaction (dude walked about 4 lanes away to the left). Of course, that didn't help out the Lancers any, but regardless of the outcome, bowling has seemed to gain a strong foothold up in Wanaque – Lakeland probably brought the largest fan contingent of any Bergen/Passaic/Hudson team, plus they've got good bloodlines running through the program already. (Davidowicz and Zach Zuravner are both the second members of their families to bowl for the Lancers).

DePaul has DeLast laugh: At least among Northern Hills teams, it does. The Spartans finished second to Passaic Valley in the league and second to Lakeland at sectionals, but wound up carrying the conference banner at Carolier, finishing seventh in Group 3 (2,637). Senior anchor Tom Maggio had about as consistent a day as you could have: 202-204-194 for an even 600 series. Nice move by coach Jerry Fazzio letting his other senior, Calvin Yoon, step in to finish out Game 3 for Greg Corradi. All in all, DePaul has plenty going for it, with four consecutive trips to the State finals under its belt (not two, as previously stated) and quite a bit of talent returning next year, including freshman Colette Malyack, who had Saturday's high game (224), part of a 547 series. And, point of order, she averaged over 200 this year. And, yes indeed, she is a freshman (she also finished 28th at the individual finals). Also, I finally learned how to pronounce her name – MAL-yak, the most obvious way, but you never can tell with some names – it just would have been nice to see the NJSIAA print the DePaul girls' names on the roster in the program, you know, considering it's a co-ed team and all (Colette and Breanne McEldowney were both omitted. Clearly, the NJBRG will not stand for that on this site).

Passaic Power not quite enough: Unfortunately, last Saturday was the equivalent of midnight in the Cinderella story of senior Vinny Buono (detailed futher in this article) and his Indians teammates, who finished second at sectionals but ended up 10th in Group 4 (2,452) at the State finals. By my count, Buono bowled at least seven 700 series in NNJIL play this winter, topping out at 799 and finishing with a 222 average; not too shabby for a varsity rookie. Consider, however, that he wasn't the only newcomer to put Passaic back on the radar this winter – I had seen Raymond Villanueva's impressive scores all season long, but didn't find out until seeing the roster on Saturday that he's a freshman. A freshman who averaged 204 in the league. Good thing he's coming back, because the Indians are going to miss a bunch of seniors next year, including Juan Rosas (194 average), Robinson Rodriguez (173) and Pedro Rodriguez (167). Although Pedro leaves with the feather-in-his-cap of having edged out Buono for bragging honors at Carolier, 532 to 520. Check that, Rosas was 24th at the State singles finals with a 617 last Wednesday... you know what, I couldn't beat any of these guys in a single-frame roll off where they were blindfolded and I wasn't, so I'm going to let them sort out the bragging rights amongst themselves.

As for the other North 1B qualifiers to reach the boys State finals, I'm once again out of the loop, aside from what I read in the Star Ledger. But I know that Vernon won Group 4 and Vikings senior David Kinney was the sectional champ with a 720 – Kudos to them, as well as Lenape Valley, Hudson County Prep and High Tech for earning a spot among the 40 team finalists in North Brunswick.

Of course, I can't forget our pals from North 1A, either. Outside of OT and QP, the results were fairly mixed, but here are some of the highlights:
Bergen Catholic (4th in Group 4, 2,785): The Crusaders were one of those start-slow, finish-strong teams for which I will not reference any '90s female pop artist's hits. Their 887 first game was offset by a 974 in Game 3 that vaulted them over Cherokee and South Brunswick. Junior Rob Grippo had a nice bounce-back from a disappointing 571 at the individual finals, capping a 631 series with games of 211 and 233. Props to junior Peter Afarian for jumping into the lineup and bowling a 215 in Game 2.
Nutley (3rd in Group 3, 2,913): I just realized that Saturday may be the last time I see the Maroon Raiders for a while, given the dissolution of the NNJIL. Whoever ends up as their chief competition next year, good luck: the 5 graduating seniors hand things off to 5 returning sophs – who, if they weren't bowling for the varsity, were leading the JV to an undefeated season. Seniors Ben Sowizral and Daniel Penett both posted 564 series on Saturday. Keep an eye on sophomore Angelo Lambroschino, who rolled a monster 247-669 and could be a dead ringer for Pedro from "Napoleon Dynamite", sans mustache. Added props to the Nutley faithful, who brought some creative signs and T-shirts, but more impressively managed to make themselves heard among the hoards of Woodbridge and Sayreville fans.
Pascack Valley (5th in Group 3, 2,689): The so-called "power of the socks" – Tim Leonard's phrase, not mine – ostensibly wore off. However, I remain very much a fan of the Boy Scout neckerchiefs, especially since A) the Indians shared lanes with DePaul, and I otherwise would not have been able to tell the green shirts apart; and B) I actually made Scout First-Class way back when. (Got a public speaking merit badge and everything). PV sort of did the reverse of other North Jersey teams, starting off with a 947 before fading, but senior captain Kyle Orr (203) and classmate Steve Kilduff (168) both finished strong in Game 3 (nice job by coach Judy Lucia of letting Kilduff step in for the finale). And the Indians should be boosted by the return of freshman Joey Farinelli (high game: 229) and sophomore anchor Brian O'Flaherty (213) next season.
Ramsey (8th in Group 3, 2,580): Interesting point I discussed with coach Bill Chesney – since they closed Interstate Lanes on Route 17 a couple of years ago, the talent pipeline in Ramsey has dried up a bit. The Rams made it down to Carolier with their 2004 Bergen County-championship squad, then hit a bit of a lull. However, they've been back in the State finals each of the last two years, and might start making it a tradition again with sophomores Jarrett Floyd (493 series) and twins Ryan (565) and Kyle (612) Landau returning. (FYI, the Landaus do their off-season bowling at Holiday Bowl in Oakland). Seniors Craig Wolfe and Doug Nemeth (lefty) finished their careers with matching 153s, but how about Nemeth taking his bowling career down to the last day of the season? You may remember him as the linebacker on the Rams' football team that confronted a burglar in his home in the fall of 2007, escaping with a stab wound but returning to football practice the same week. On behalf of good citizens everywhere, giving him a mention on our blog is the least we can do.

I didn't get much of a chance to observe all the BCSL locals – Leonia (5th, 2,720) and New Milford (10th, 2,588) in Group 2 and Queen of Peace and Park Ridge (8th, 2,595) in Group 1 – since most of the radio stations/newspapers I have to submit things to don't cover those teams. But I do know that Park Ridge has a nice freshman-sophomore brother combo (Dan and Mike Wuhrman) to build around, and that New Milford is excited about the return of junior anchor Anthony Karalian (although, for the record, I'm pretty sure Coach Millian has been a fan all along)... Old Tappan is also on the outskirts of my area, but I did get a look at their final scores, and they were all solid: Justin Siegel 225-623, Alex Ludewig 227-594, Justin Hussong 213-591 and Kyle Folkers 192-551, plus a 226-561 and a pretty sweet-looking neckerchief from Pat Kiernan... Finally, Science Park (5th in Group 1, 2,731), the '09 Newark City Tournament champ, is really on the outskirts of my area – but sophomore Najee Mayers had a nice run in the State individual finals last Wednesday (1,420 series for the top seed in the stepladder finals), and Chargers anchor Ryan Cooper, a senior lefty, had a 227 game on Saturday that I managed to catch a bit of.

As for the champs – Brick Memorial (Group 4), Sayreville (repeat Group 3 winner), Wall (Group 2) and Roselle Catholic (repeat Group 1 winner) – I'm not sure I can add a whole lot on top of what's been written in the other papers around the state. Sayreville rolled through the Baker game Tournament of Champions to repeat as the overall titleist, and in case you're wondering, it was the NJBRG his ownself that tipped off the Ledger's Mike Moretti about the Bombers' run of 16 consecutive strikes in their second-game 1,139. Thank you, I'll be here all week. (I should mention that I only saw 15 straight X's on the scoreboard in the 3rd, 4th and 5th frames, and I can't remember the name of the fan that tipped me off that it was actually 16 in a row – guess he'll have to settle with the fact that his team destroyed the tournament record with a 3,306 series as "consolation").

The only other random notes left on the pad... I was amazed that Elizabeth (2,621), a Group 4 school, has a co-ed team. Really? You can't manage to scrape together separate boys and girls teams at a school of over 3,000 kids? I can only assume the Watchung Conference has a bunch of smaller schools that have to field co-ed teams so the Minutemen must comply, otherwise I can't see the logic... Sadly, there are no photos, but the "Best Mohawk in Show" Award was shared by Elizabeth's Matt Milanes and Warren Hills' Mike Handley, both of whom went the extra mile by using hair gel for spiking purposes.

*Whew*... time for some sunlight. This won't be the final NJBRG entry of the winter, since we still have all sorts of All-Star stuff planned, plus there's the final edition of the WGHT North Jersey bowling recap coming up at 2:30 PM tomorrow (2/24). As the Strawberry Alarm Clock once sang, "turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around." Okay, maybe not that last part.

(2/18/09) NJSIAA Individual Finals

One of my all-time pet peeves is having to report on an event that I didn't actually see live. Unfortunately, it is a necessary evil in journalism -- especially working with weekly papers -- since even the best reporter can't be all places at all times.

That said, I was unable to make it down to Carolier Lanes for the State individual tournament yesterday, so I'm not going to pretend to know what went on outside of what I've read from various other media. However, this brings us to a convenient end: although The Record's Varsity Aces bowling blog is, technically speaking, a rival to the North Jersey Bowling Blog, author Tim Leonard does a solid job... and (sneaking suspicion) may or may not be taking a peek at this site every once in a while. All I'm saying is, in our recap of the girls State team finals, the NJBRG wrote about putting a positive spin on things -- and in the Aces' latest entry, the phrases "glass half-full" and "starting with the good news first" crop up. Hmmmmmmmm...

At any rate, to serve the dual purpose of informing you about the North Jersey entrants into Wednesday's State individual finals -- as well as to see if any Aces are paying attention -- here now is a link to their recap:
http://njmg.typepad.com/varsityaces/2009/02/crank-and-crush-nj-state-bowling-singles-tournament.html

In addition, I myself must follow up with an apology. This blog's "North Jersey" coverage area is fairly similar to that of The Record, and of course includes all of the WGHT listening area as well. I decided to go the extra step and include Hudson County, since I've gotten some feedback from the folks in that region and will, on occasion, check out the Jersey Journal online. (One edition of the paper earlier in the winter had Union City's Omar Espinal featured on the back page after he had that 854 series -- you give bowling that kind of pub, and you are clearly a friend of the NJBRG).

Well, in my listing of all the "North Jersey" individual State qualifiers last entry, I specified Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties... forgetting that the 'GHT listening area also covers several towns in Morris County. Oops. Never mind the fact that I've covered bowling for the local Butler paper before (and have stated as much on this very blog), then forgot to mention their only individual qualifier. As such, congrats to Butler's Brian Ball for earning a spot in yesterday's tournament -- he shot a first-round 600 to end up 28th.

All that said, there's one last tournament left to cap off bowling's "February Fever" -- I tried coining that term in an article once as the answer to college basketball's "March Madness," and not surprisingly, it didn't really take -- and the NJBRG will be back at Carolier, live and In Living Color, for the boys State team finals on Saturday.

(2/16/09) NJSIAA Team Finals - Girls

Today's episode: "Bummer"... not only that I've been running around working on a zillion different things and needed two days to get an entry done, but also that the North just can't seem to put it all together down at Carolier Lanes. Don't get me wrong, the trip is fun, and worth it every year (for me, anyway), but I haven't seen a bowling team from up here have a real knock-out day in North Brunswick since the Clifton boys won a State title in 2002. I recall the Butler boys finishing fourth in Group 1 once, but on the girls' side, North Jersey teams don't fare well at the finals.

Anyhow, congrats to Immaculate Heart and Ridgewood (5th and 6th, respectively, in Group 4), Warren Hills and Hackensack (5-6 in Group 3), Holy Angels and Indian Hills (5-6 in Group 2) and High Tech and Hudson County Prep (4-6 in Group 1) for earning the right to represent the North section at Carolier. That may seem like a small consolation now -- particularly for IHA, which had some pretty high hopes going in -- but in retrospect, I dare any die-hard bowler to come up with a better way to spend President's Day. Also, I've been working on a Ph.D in spin-doctoring, and my goal is to unearth the most positive news, notes and nuggets from the girls team finals in the next 9,000 words. (I'm kidding. I don't even have a word counter, and I guarantee it won't be that long.)

Good news for IHA (2,571): senior Lauren Rhein put it best -- regardless of how it ended, "This season in general was awesome. I couldn't have asked for better," she said. And Rhein should know, being not only the Blue Eagles' anchor but also their only four-year varsity starter. She and classmate Grace Capone had high games of 212 and 211, respectively -- about what you'd expect from a pair of college-bound bowlers, headed for Vanderbilt and Sacred Heart, respectively. (Have I used that word enough already?) Also consider that three Eagles still have the State individual finals to compete in, and that they didn't lose to a single team from North Jersey. Not even a game. I thought they might have gone 119-0 in the NNJIL before, but Rhein reminded me that Paramus Catholic managed to steal one game from them every year. And again... she should know.

Good news for Ridgewood (2,510): One word, courtesy of senior anchor Kim Burdi: closure. The Maroons went from starting with a 768 in Game 1 to finishing with a 922 in Game 3 -- if my records are correct, that's their highest 5-person series of the season. Senior Courtney Visco threw a 218 in her final game, while Burdi not only finished her career with a 224, she also knocked down a 7-pin to pick up the spare on her final roll -- the one single-pin spare that makes lefties wince (And in this case, I should know). Granted, Ridgewood won a Bergen County title in 2004, but according to coach Dick Bennett, this '08-09 squad was the best OVERALL team in program history. Plus, the Maroons made it onto the annual WGHT North Jersey bowling recap (more on that shortly) for the first time... not too shabby.

Good news for Hackensack (2,380): I bumped into head coach Bob Lotz before practice started up, and he reminded me that the Comet boys made it down to North Brunswick last season, and some of his girls had come down to cheer them on. Other than the synthetic lanes (which are everywhere in the Central and South and very few places up here), one of the biggest X-factors at Carolier is the crowd -- if you get a chance to observe that atmosphere in person, it gives you a better grasp of what awaits. Perhaps that's why the Hackensack girls had the best Game 1 of all the locals, an 859. Of course, that was where they topped out, but again, we're keeping it postive. To that end, some of the Comets' boys bowlers showed up to join the fan section, thusly keeping karma in Hackensack's corner.

Good news for Holy Angels (2,247): The seniors close out their careers with back-to-back sectional titles, one in Group 3 (2008) and one in Group 2 (this year). Not many teams can claim they've made it to the State finals in two different Group brackets -- maybe Mother Seton, I know they've been back and forth between 1 & 2 -- and in the interest of spin, we will ignore the fact that the state only divided up into groups three years ago. Details, details. Speaking of spin, I've determined that Angels anchor Apollonia Colacicco is the Jamie Moyer of North Jersey bowling, i.e. a master of the off-speed breaking-ball; it ain't fast, but it gets the job done... actually, let me qualify that comparison. Colacicco is like a much younger version of Moyer -- much, much, much, MUCH younger. And righty instead of lefty.

Good news for Indian Hills (2,217): The Braves will return five bowlers with varsity experience next year, and their best two are freshmen -- Emily Ostapczuk and Bridget Pyryt. Remember the names. In fact, Indian Hills might have done even better at Carolier but for the fact that Pyryt, their anchor, was out sick. (Yup. A freshman anchor. Coach Michels may still be pinching himself). However, along with Ridgewood's Visco/Burdi duo, Braves senior Katie Lach made herself into a top candidate for our Vanessa Williams Award (Saving the best for last), capping her career with a 538 series that featured a 202 game -- and that was after she had been out sick for the sectional tournament on Feb. 7. In the 10th frame, she finished up strike-9-spare, and in the 11th, she was kind enough to give an interview for the 'GHT recap. Speaking of which...

Programming reminder: With the Passaic County basketball tournaments getting down to the semifinals, WGHT 1500AM will have coverage and reaction from those on the Monday, Feb. 23 edition of Sports Overtime. The following day, Tuesday, Feb. 24, is when Part 2 of the year-end North Jersey bowling recap (including individual and boys team finals) will air at 2:30 pm. If you missed the girls team finals recap on Feb. 16, just follow the link to ghtradio.com on the blogroll, and you can e-mail a CD request to Jon & Marco. P.S. If you make a reference to "Gutterball Greg," I might weep a little on the inside, but they'll get a kick out of it.

AND FINALLY... this may be a North Jersey-centric blog, but we like bowling in general, so I stayed around for Monday's Baker-game Tournament of Champions, and would be remiss not to congratulate all the Group champs. Toms River East (2,829) won Group 4 going away... Brick Township (2,817) beat out rival Brick Memorial to take the Group 3 title... Manchester Township (2,767) won Group 2... and in Group 1, Keyport (2,509) rallied from six pins down after the second game to overtake Bordentown by... six pins. Ah, symmetry.

Naturally (sarcasm), both lower seeds advanced out of the the ToC semis. No. 4 Keyport took the first two games from No. 1 Toms River East, 161-147 and 170-139, then lost the next two games, 173-170 and 200-197, then won the clincher, 172-157. Point of order: East staved off elimination when anchor Emily Fiore struck out in the 10th frame of Game 3, then did it again when Fiore struck and got a 7-1 in the 10th of Game 4... big props to the senior, she bowled her heart out.

The day, however, belonged to the 2nd-seeded Hawks of Manchester Township... first, they toppled No. 3 Brick in the semifinals, 3-1 -- chin up, Green Dragons, yours is still a Top-10 nickname in the state -- ensuring that for the first time in 2002, a girls team other than Brick Twp. or Woodbridge would win the whole thing... then, with both finalists having the chance to become the first small-school champion since Bishop Eustace in 1985, Manchester put away Keyport, 3-1.
In the clincher, senior Kathryne Clark picked up a 3-10 split in the 5th frame, and that must have delighted the bowling gods, because the Hawks struck out the rest of the way for a 234. In a Baker game. Amanda DeMauro, Rebecca Harvey, Taylor Olsen, Chloe Krumeich and a 1-2-3 by Clark in the 10th -- all together, an eight-bagger, leaving no doubt and nary a dry eye clad in blue and gold. (Did I mention they also Bakered a 256 in the semis? Yeah... I'm pretty sure they're good).

Keyport had nothing to hang its head about. In fact, the Red Raiders will graduate just one senior, Catherine Wegman, and their anchor is a sophomore, Alexa Guirk. BUT, for Manchester, this was the best part... they had lost the Group 2 title in 2007 by one pin (to Mother Seton) and last year by two pins (to Carteret, and I do remember the Hawks leading after Game 2). Now, plenty of athletes have told me they think of their team like a family over the years -- but when Clark told me the same thing, it was anything but cliche. I could just sense heart-felt, deep-down emotion behind those words, because you don't get much closer as a bowling team than you do after picking each other up from heartbreaks like that. Gold nugget: DeMauro said it all -- "That's what made it all worthwhile."

Hopefully, I was able to do enough justice to this entry to make up for its lateness...

***************

As a footnote, I should mention that there is more hope for the North on Wednesday (er, today. Ahem.) at the State individual championships, since that tournament doesn't seem to cast quite as much of a hex on bowlers from our area. Unfortunately, deadline duty calls, and I won't be able to make it down to Carolier today, but I'll be back for the boys team finals on Saturday. I'm guessing The Record ran short on space because I'm not sure all the local individual qualifiers got mentioned -- but as a refresher, your Bergen-Passaic-Hudson county entrants are:
GIRLS: Sonja Shirak (Clifton); Victoria Grimshaw, Nicole Linder and Lauren Rhein (IHA); Brianna Carlo (Dumont); Colette Malyack (DePaul); and Lorisa Jones (Marist).
BOYS: Freddy Carlo (River Dell); Alex Prell (Wood-Ridge); Matt Priore (North Arlington); Sean Carmody (Ridgefield Park); Mike Wuhrman (Park Ridge); Rob Grippo (Bergen Catholic); Perrin DeFreitas (Hackensack); Gary Job (Lyndhurst); Steve Fernandez (Queen of Peace); Andrew Davidowicz (Lakeland); Rich Gutches (Passaic Tech); Jon Rizzi (Pompton Lakes); Matt Gilcher (North Bergen); Jaylin Floyd (Manchester Regional); Tom Maggio (DePaul); Juan Rosas (Passaic); and Omar Espinal (Union City).

And, as always, if you read something you like/don't like/whatever, drop me a line at NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com.

(2/14/09) North Jersey 1A Sectional Finals - Boys

So, which movie title to parody for this one? You've got "A Knight's Tale," with New Milford winning its fourth straight sectional championship... how about "Meet the Folkers"? Yeah, it's not spelled the same, but cousins Rob (Pascack Valley) and Kyle (Old Tappan) helped their respective teams to Group titles... maybe "Peace Rules" to salute the monster effort by Group 1 champ Queen of Peace-- oh wait, that was a race horse, not a movie. Moving on.

Now, New Milford didn't end up with the high score -- their 2,799 was 8th-best overall -- but consider that the '07 and '08 Group 1 winner bumped up to Group 2 this year... AND, that the Knights' streak began in 2006, the year before each section was divided into groups and they beat big guns Bergen Catholic and Fair Lawn. Leonia maintained a streak of its own, earning a trip to Carolier Lanes for the third straight year in Group 2 -- the Lions have two runner-up finishes since winning the '07 title. Gold nugget: New Milford anchor Anthony Karalian rolled a 664 series (235-225-204) with a broken middle finger on his throwing hand. He missed the individual cut by 6 pins, but who cares? A) It gives him more time to rest up for the team finals, and B) I couldn't bowl a 6-anything with a good hand, so he's got that going for him.

Group 3 champ Pascack Valley (2,972) has already had its sartorial tendencies well-documented by the local media this season, but we would be remiss to mention the Indians' two other match-day superstitions: they always bring a small Buddha-esque statue and some sort of wooden Tiki doll. Neither really conjures up images of Pedro Cerrano's pal Jobu from Major League (although I am a tad leery since that Dennis Haysbert Allstate commercial is playing on the TV as I type this paragraph), and in fact I was told the Tiki was just found in Rob Folkers' father's car and immediately added to the team roster. Hey, whatever works -- Rob had a team-high 630, including a first-game 247 that started with 7 strikes, and PV had a fairly-impressive 1,097 team series in Game 3. (Why "fairly"? You'll see shortly.) And we gave props to New Milford for bumping up a Group and still going to the state finals -- how about Ramsey, which won Group 2 last year but emerged from a very tough Group 3 bracket to earn its second straight berth in the State finals.

In Group 4, Kyle Folkers and the Golden Knights of Old Tappan (3,000) didn't bring quite as many esoteric rituals into play, they simply got hot at the end (993 in Game 3) and overtook a Bergen Catholic team that stumbled (861) after posting back-to-back 1,000s but still managed to hang on to second place. Ridgewood actually led this group after shooting 1,031 in the opener, but the Maroons couldn't quite maintain the pace. And so, OT becomes the third different Group champ in 3 years, reaches the distinction of averaging 200 per bowler per game... but even that wasn't the most impressive outing of the day.

There was only one thing that could make us qualify Pascack Valley's 1,097 as "fairly" impressive, and that was Queen of Peace firing a second-game 1,197. Would love to find out where that stacks up in terms on 1A Section records, but for the record right here, the Golden Griffins produced the score in the following manner: Nick Gavron 254 + Rebecca Van Dyk 223 + Greg Purvis 201 + Steve Fernandez 265 + Andrew Suscreba 237. Wow. I really don't have anything to say, although here's a theory to consider: perhaps Ridgewood's first-game mojo somehow got transferred to QP, since the two teams were sharing lanes? Possible, but it's getting too late to think that one out, and I'm even too tired to make a coherent Austin Powers "stolen mojo" joke. PS, Becton's two-year stranglehold on second place in Group 1 has ended, with Park Ridge (2,838) shooting three games over 900 to earn a trip to North Brunswick next Saturday.

Individually, congrats to River Dell's Freddy Carlo (yes, he is related to Brianna Carlo of Dumont, it's her brother) for winning the sectional title with a 706, although Alex Prell of Wood-Ridge (703) and Matt Priore of North Arlington (700) were close behind. The cutoff was about 30 points higher than it had been the last two years, leaving some pretty good bowlers on the outside looking in.

Mike Wuhrman of Park Ridge got high game honors -- he threw a 286 in the second game, starting off with 10 strikes before finishing 7-2. Ramsey sophomore Kyle Landau was nearly as impressive in Game 1, carrying a perfecto through 9 before leaving a 7-10 split on his first ball of the 10th -- a bummer, but I do have to offer props for getting the wood on his second ball since the Rams ended up beating River Dell by just 20 pins for 2nd in Group 3.

AND NOW, FOR THE BIG FINISH: As many possible notes & nuggets as I can fit in before hitting the hay because I have to leave for the girls State finals at Carolier at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow... Perrin DeFreitas of Hackensack heads back to the individual finals for the 2nd straight year; his second-game 262 featured all strikes except for a pesky 6-2 in the 5th... I did catch up with Indian Hills coach Mike Michels, he said his girls team knew that they beat Bergenfield by 1 pin last week, they just skedaddled since there was no second-place hardware to be handed out (to make the story sound better, I will assume they wanted to beat the line at White Manna)... PV coach Judy Lucia told me her team dedicated their 3rd game to former Mahwah coach Marlene Kowal, who recently passed away from breast cancer. The two NBIL coaches were fairly close, and Judy had some very nice things to say -- going to see if maybe the Mahwah Suburban News might have interest in a feature story... Fort Lee had only four bowlers, but managed to outscore a couple of 5-bowler teams, and one 1-bowler team... For some reason, North Arlington was listed on the team scoreboard even though Priore was its only entrant... Speaking of outscoring, QP's magical Game 2 gave it a subtotal of 2,195 -- more than the three-game totals of four other teams... Also, the Golden Griffins' Rebecca Van Dyk (584 series) may have had the best day of any girl at the boys tournament, but Midland Park senior Amanda Stacey "made the most noise," announcing the final ball of her career, as has become her right and custom. And I, for one, have not the slightest wry remark to make about that, since Stacey threw a last ball strike to finish off a 201, tying teammate Shaun Cairns for the Panthers' high game.

And, that's all I've got. Can't wait for the finals...

North 1A Sectional Tournament scores

Group 4	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Old Tappan	959	1048	993	3000
2nd	Bergen Catholic	1007	1022	861	2890
3rd	Paramus Catholic	961	1013	863	2837
4th	Bergen Tech	965	869	998	2832
5th	Ridgewood	1031	867	830	2728
6th	Ramapo	915	981	814	2710
7th	Fair Lawn	934	912	863	2709
8th	Hackensack	894	991	797	2682
9th	Bergenfield	927	820	796	2543
10th	Northern Highlands	861	817	826	2504
Group 3	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Pascack Valley	1006	869	1097	2972
2nd	Ramsey	992	878	891	2761
3rd	River Dell	997	877	867	2741
4th	Indian Hills	876	803	884	2563
5th	Tenafly	868	862	833	2563
6th	Garfield	811	789	867	2467
7th	St. Joseph	812	774	795	2381
8th	Mahwah	728	738	652	2118
9th	Fort Lee	683	676	735	2094
Group 2	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	New Milford	983	895	921	2799
2nd	Leonia	828	915	1000	2743
3rd	Lyndhurst	873	893	889	2655
4th	Pascack Hills	819	891	935	2645
5th	Ridgefield Park	808	954	878	2640
6th	Westwood	827	913	878	2618
7th	Rutherford	860	871	703	2434
8th	Dumont	869	818	727	2414
9th	Elmwood Park	656	745	663	2064
Group 1	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Queen of Peace	998	1197	961	3156
2nd	Park Ridge	945	993	900	2838
3rd	Bogota	861	959	919	2739
4th	Wood-Ridge	878	906	914	2698
5th	Becton	836	802	805	2443
6th	Wallington	789	844	807	2440
7th	Midland Park	716	743	820	2279
8th	Ridgefield	690	603	653	1946
9th	North Arlington	223	257	220	700

INDIVIDUALS

PLACE	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Freddy Carlo, River D.	245	236	225	706
2nd	Alex Prell, Wood-Ridge	223	266	214	703
3rd	Matt Priore, NA	223	257	220	700
4th	Sean Carmody, RP	233	246	217	696
5th	Mike Wuhrman, PR	184	286	223	693
6th	Rob Grippo, Bergen C.	198	244	242	684
7th	Gary Job, Lyndhurst	223	245	214	682
8th	Perrin DeFreitas, H'sack	215	262	205	682
9th	Steve Fernandez, QP	213	265	192	670