What would you do if your school didn’t have the sport that you loved playing? When faced with that question, freshman Leila Barta found a solution: she started bowling for the Yankton High School Bowling Team.
Barta’s grandpa always took her bowling when she was in preschool and she has loved it since. She started bowling competitively at the age of ten. “My favorite part of bowling is being with my friends and bowling my best,” Barta stated. “I love learning and competing with my family too.” Everyone in her family also enjoys the sport and fully supports her bowling with Yankton.
Since Crofton is a smaller school, bowling isn’t a school-sanctioned sport, so Barta found a solution. “We talked to Yankton’s head coach Pat King and he loved the idea of me bowling with the team.” Barta is currently in the heart of her season. “Normally the season starts out during the fall, we practice twice a week and our meets are either on Thursdays or Fridays.”
In bowling the best score that you can receive is a 300, but even the best of the best rarely achieve a perfect score. “I would say that my average score would be about 150 points, but it’s usually higher than that now,” Barta declared.
The Crofton Bowling Alley in Wiebelhaus Recreation closed recently at the end of November and Barta is heartbroken. She said, “I think it’s really sad because now people can’t get the experience and joy of bowling as easily. I spent a lot of time bowling at Waltz and seeing it being closed is just really heartbreaking.”
Our school didn’t offer everything that Leila wanted, so she sought out the thing that made her happy. She has made a lot of new friends and great memories along the way.