The Stark County High School Bowling Conference will be entering a new era during the 2021-22 season, including the addition of two new members in bringing the conference total to 26 schools.
For the first time, the conference will be entering the season with three people sharing the role of commissioner in succeeding Walsh University head bowling coach J.C. Heighway in the role.
This marks the conference’s 20th season, with three veteran coaches — Lake’s Pat King, Hoover’s Jeff Sabella and McKinley’s Kim Heaton — agreeing to share duties in taking the conference forward. They will join the conference’s past three commissioners: Marie Schwab, Bob Kolarik and Heighway.
Snier on Bowling sat down with the trio to discuss the transition, obstacles and what they are looking forward to both this season and into the future.
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SOB: How difficult has the transition (from former commissioner) been:
PK: It’s the growing pains of knowing what you need to know. Finding out something every time you turn around that you didn’t know had to be done.
JS: Very difficult. But the conference was started in a certain way, you get busy, the conference starts growing and it’s hard to change things. You’re growing it as you can grow it, and now it’s going to enter another phase. The conference has been run very well and it’s grown impressively, but now we have to switch some focus. Documenting things and allowing other people to fill these roles and that’s our goal.
KH: Documentation would have made it an easier transition. But we’re making it the best that we can do it at this point and I think we will be OK. All in all we have worked together pretty well.
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SOB: We have 26 teams coming into this season. Are we growing too much to continue at this pace or is it time to make changes?
KH: I don’t think we can take any more at this point funding wise. We don’t know what it takes to run this until we see the whole picture and see documentation. We are at that point where we may have to go to two divisions.
JS: How many kids will we have to cut out of the banquet by growing by so many teams? We’re getting into things that have to be considered. If we split the conference, now you have two banquets and everyone can come to the banquet and get the recognition they deserve.
PK: The big challenge is availability of the houses. They seem to be dwindling. If the conference were to continue to grow it would mean more schools from a greater distance which gives us a challenge with match times. Continuing to grow is great, but you’ve got that challenge of bowling alley availability. … You could put any number in it, but my school may not bowl a Garaway or a Tusky Central Catholic in a rotation for five years.
JS: Maybe split the conference into divisions and allow teams to bowl inter-division or cross divisions when they want to. Logistics are going to be tough. … We would have to sit down, see who the schools were and what their home house is and make sure everyone has enough resources to bowl each other. I think we are at that ceiling right now where we have to be real careful.
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SOB: COVID issues still are part of discussion. The conference is staying with the 2020-21 rules at this point, even though it’s not what everyone would want. How do you feel about maintaining protocols at this point?
KH: We always want the interaction, but you want the safety for the kids. I think its really smart to follow last year’s protocols at this point.
PK: I don’t like them. I agree with them because it’s the way the season progresses. We will have a season if we take the precautions.
JS: I’m that guy that wants competition on the lane next to me so I can look him in the eye or see his expression. I think it’s the same for my kids. But this is not a normal year and we have abnormal challenges. But I think this mitigates the risk and puts us in the best position to have a season.
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SOB: Fans will be permitted in matches again this season. Do you see potential problems?
KH: I don’t think so. We’re running it the same as we did last year and everyone was OK with it.
JS: I see fewer potential problems with this than I do opening it up and going with pre-COVID rules.
PK: There will be a few challenges, but I think that school districts will back us on what they put in place. It’s our job to comply with our district’s policies and not make anything up.
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SOB: We have four divisions this season. Scheduling this season, how difficult has it been for the first time?
PK: It’s not difficult, but a lot of work. I get an email a day with someone adding two or three matches while trying to provide a weekly update as to what is going on. I’m adding it to the calendar plus a separate sheet to make sure coaches double check. … They have the potential to schedule six or seven additional matches/tournaments. A couple of schools are also in other conferences in addition to Stark.
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SOB: How have website updates been going?
JS: I finally have it under my control. … The website is nice and coded well, but it takes a professional coder to maintain. It wasn’t done with an easy website tool so anyone can do it. I’m figuring out how it is put together. I’m figuring out what needs to be done to flip the switch for this season. I’m about there … in about a week or two we should be ready to go.
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SOB: Any noticeable changes in site?
JS: I’m going to do some website cleanup in the menus. I’m going to get it up to date. Maybe we will develop something next year … maybe a new site than anyone can maintain. … Normally a nonprofit carries a .org address. I grabbed the starkcountyhighbowlingconference.org domain and the schsb.org domain and they are tied to the website. We also will be transferring the starkcountyhighschoolbowlingconference.com to me and put under the conference direction.
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SOB: As for the administrative duties …
KH: It’s been a little challenging because I didn’t know a lot of the information. But with the three of us, we are sorting things out. It’s been a little frustrating, but we all know the game and we know how to do it. Honestly, I don’t know how one person was able to do this.
JS: That’s part of organizing the conference. We need a secretary to be responsible for documentation and we need a treasurer to be responsible for that stuff. Because the stuff we are doing right now as commissioners is enough to fill a schedule and anything more you are asking someone to do more than their share. We need to build the conference out to make others responsible for those jobs.
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SOB: The conference’s lone tourney, the Kickoff Classic, is Nov. 20 at Park Centre. How is that progressing?
KH: We are looking for volunteers to help with this. COVID protocols will be in place for the bowlers and we will have no spectators. The format we believe will be the same.
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SOB: Changes you would like to see for the future?
PK: Hire a secretary-treasurer.
JS: I would like to see a conference manual. I’d like to see one put together on how to run the conference. It’s about the kids, the sport and the future, and you can’t go into the future if no one knows how to run it. I think it’s important that something exists so anyone could step into our places and do the job.
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SOB: You are all veteran coaches. Did you ever envision the conference getting this big when you started?
PK: No. I’m a transplant to the area, and there have been times when schools have applied to join and I have to go to Google maps to find out where they are located. It’s good for the sport. Bowling is a little unique. Most of the kids on my team, bowling is their only link to being a student-athlete which I think is amazing that they have this opportunity. They learn to be a teammate, learn to win, learn to lose and learn to put forth the effort. Sometimes, it takes some explaining that this is not your Saturday morning league, that there are no guarantees and you must earn your spot. It’s fun to take that team you put together and bowl some of these outlying communities.
JS: I agree with Pat, bowling the other teams and other coaches … it’s a great sport and that’s why I do it.
KH: It’s been very successful. I love the program and what it has become. But I never saw it becoming this big.
JS: What we need is a bunch of people with money to get together and open another bowling/entertainment center.
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SOB: Any final thoughts on entering your first season as commissioners?
PK: Looking forward to the opportunity for the kids to bowl.
JS: I want the kids to have a full season and I want no problems. I want the focus to be on the kids.
KH: I want the kids to be safe, and as long as we can keep bowling and doing our thing, that’s all that matters.