BOWERSTON — When Conotton Valley High School head bowling coach Brian Baxter entered the new 107,000 square foot Rocket Center for the first time, his reaction was understandable.
“It was just an awesome sight … it just gave you butterflies,” said Baxter, who is in his fourth year as the Rockets coach and 13th year overall coaching after stops at Massillon and Claymont.
What has Baxter and his Rockets excited is the inclusion of a 10-lane bowling center inside the two-story building, which is located on the Connoton Valley campus.
“Just the fact that this is here at the high school, and we don’t have to deal with leagues and other stuff like that,” Baxter said. “We have an open bowling center to practice, and you can’t ask for any more than that. It’s just beautiful.”
The Rockets hosted Lake on Thursday in a Stark County High School Bowling Conference match. It was the first official event held in the new bowling center.
For match details, go here: https://snieronbowling.com/2022/12/02/h-s-bowling-conotton-valley-opens-new-rocket-center-with-wins-over-lake/
“I knew about the project from the beginning and saw all the drawings,” Rockets girls coach Robyn King said. “But it’s hard to get a feel for what it’s really going to be like and what the atmosphere can be. Walking in here for the first time was really momentous.
“To have something like this on a high school campus, especially for our kids and in a small, rural area, is just incredible.”
Included in the structure along with the bowling center are a gymnasium; exercise equipment and a weight room; walking and jogging track surrounding the gymnasium; cafe and cafetorium; a medical center, operated by Cleveland Clinic; senior citizen center; day care services; library branch, meeting rooms; preschool and new career classrooms; coaches’ offices; and administrative offices.
The bowling center, which features all new state-of-the-art Brunswick equipment, including a Brunswick MAX lane machines and Sync scoring system, was estimated at $800,000.
Baxter said coaches had about “40-to-50 percent” input on the bowling center construction.
“It was just general things, like what company to use, the different options that were out there, the oiling machine. Our administration really didn’t know a lot about bowling,” said Baxter, who also operated a pro shop for six years.
“Originally, it was only supposed to be eight lanes, But the original talk also was there was going to be a swimming pool. When they did away with that idea, we convinced them to add two more lanes so we can do tournaments and some other things down the line.”
The Rockets had some availability in the summer and then kicked into seven-day use in November.
“We have the young kids from fifth through seventh grade some in on Sunday afternoon to get them started. We have about 13 that come in right now,” Baxter said. “With the high school, we have them in here five days a week or whenever we don’t have matches.”
The new oil machine and scoring system are keys to building the program.
“The machine has the technology to put out any oil pattern we want to have. With the scoring system, we can program it to put out the same spares time after time without going in the back and it keeps stats also,” Baxter said. “There are also different games we can program in for the younger kids to keep them interested.”
“We can put out lighter or heavier oil patterns with this machine. We can also practice certain things more,” King said. “It’s going to help us grow.”
For the opening match against Lake, Baxter said a 39-foot house shot pattern was used. But that could be tweaked in the future.
“We’re thinking about tightening it up,” Baxter said. “When we get to district play, bowling on this doesn’t do you much good. That’s the nice thing with this lane machines; we have an infinite number of patterns available.”
OTHER CENTER ASPECTS
Currently, Conotton Valley/Union Local Schools is using district maintenance personnel at the center. All have been trained by Brunswick on the equipment, as have Baxter, King and boys coach Dennis Gordon.
“We started back in January with Brunswick and worked during the summer while things were still happening,” King said. “We had temporary occupancy in September for coaches and students only.”
“There has been talk about hiring someone part-time when we open to the public and the center is open every day,” Baxter said. “We’ve had some minor glitches that have come up … there is a lot more electrical work and microswitches with these new machines, but we have ironed most of that out.”
(During Thursday’s matches, there were only two stoppages, one due to a missing thumb slug. But no major mechanical issues.)
Baxter said that although the center doesn’t have a pro shop, by next week he will have a drill press available to help with his team’s equipment. But it will not be available to the public at this time.
In the future, the Rocket Center will have its own management staff, and Conotton Valley students will provide staffing assistance as part of their vocational education experience.
ABOUT THE FUTURE
King already has seen what the new Rocket Center is doing for the school district. She also serves as its band director.
“Four years ago, the high school enrollment was in the 160s and now we’re in the 220s with open enrollment,” King said. “The past couple of years, people are starting to see the opportunities that we have in the entire project, not just with bowling.”
Baxter has plans to start junior high and youth programs in the fall, possibly holding a Junior Gold qualifier.
“We have the same problems as other programs, not getting the kids until they get to high school,” Baxter said. “This way, we can watch their growth from a young age. There’s also a rumor out there that we may get the (Eastern District) Division II district here in two years.
“Our district only has six teams in both divisions, and we can handle that over two days.”
What about adult play? That remains in the talking stages.
“We’re not sure how that is going to work out. The administration wants to open it only to school district residents, but we’re having talks on that,” Baxter said. “We’d like to open it to the public because there are a lot of people who want to come down and see what we’ve done here.”
League play also is in the talking stages.
“We’ve talked about starting an adult league that can serve as a fund-raiser for the program to buy equipment for the kids,” Baxter said. “That way, we don’t have to go to the district for it.”
But much of this remains to be determined, and would not occur until fall 2023. For now, it’s time for the Rockets to make the Rocket Center their home base.
Thursday, they kicked it off with two wins over Lake, with Robyn King again getting the best of her father, Lake head coach Pat King.
“It was just fantastic that my dad got to bring his team down here to experience this,” King said. “We just knew Lake had to be that first match.”
Baxter admits season anticipation always has been there, back to when the SCHSBC began during the 2001-02 season with him leading Massillon. But this was something different.
“Absolutely this is the most excited I’ve been,” Baxter said. “Every season brings its own level of excitement, and it was there at Massillon and Claymont.
“But this … bringing this program to where it is now … I can’t be more excited.”