Fields and teammates bowl each week for the love of the sport
Photo Credit: Lindsay Jackson
Sophomore Diante Fields, Jr. and his Titan teammates compete against each other every Tuesday at the Bowlerama in New Castle.
February 25, 2010 • By Marshilla Brahma, Staff Reporter
Filed under Sports, Top Stories
One by one, the students took their turns, rolling the bowling balls down the lane. The boys and girls were warming up before they started their practice, when the scores really counted.
Everyone was practicing except for one student. Sophomore Diante Fields, Jr. stood to the side, sipping on a drink. When asked if he was going to warm up, Fields replied that he didn’t need to.
When the practice officially started, Fields’ actions spoke as loudly as his words: He did not need to warm up. On his first roll, his ball came smoothly off of his right hand, went toward the right gutter and then hooked back toward the center of the lane, and crashed down all 10 pins.
Fields bowled several more strikes soon after. But this comes as no surprise when you learn that Fields has been bowling since the age of four and has already bowled a dozen 300 games in his short lifetime. To bowl a 300 game, one must throw nothing but strikes, 12 times.
With a bowler like Fields leading the way, the Pencader Charter High School bowling team could strike fear into other teams. Unfortunately, not many high schools in Delaware field a bowling team and scheduling opponents is a difficult task.
For now, members of the Pencader team must play amongst themselves. They continue to work on improving their overall performance, and they must follow all etiquette rules for bowling at all times.
Coaching the team is Terry Swartz. His aim is to give his team the opportunity to play against other high school teams, and he continues to seek out other teams to compete against.
In the meantime, Pencader bowlers meet each Tuesday after school at the Bowlerama on Route 9 in New Castle, where they compete against each other, work on their games, and simply enjoy each other’s company.
Unlike most sports teams, this is a co-ed team, with boys and girls playing alongside each other. Like other sports played at Pencader, students must pay the standard sports fee of $85. This covers the costs for transportation to Bowlerama, lane fees, and shoe rentals.
When asked why she joined the bowling team, senior Cherise Poole said, “Because I love to bowl. Bowling is a passion.”
Poole’s passion and dedication showed when, in the first three frames that she bowled, she scored a strike and a spare.
Fellow bowler Robert Bovell, a junior, said, “I joined because it’s a different experience, something new to try.”
Other members of the Pencader bowling team are: seniors Julie Wanja and Lindsay Jackson; juniors Reese Eskridge and Steve Barton; sophomore Pavithra Kavitha; and freshmen Alex Barry, Billy Kleinhomer, Demetrius Taylor, Marcellus Wright, and Sade Young.
Swartz not only coaches the team but started it up as well. His main reason for starting a bowling team at Pencader was to give the students a chance to win scholarship money.
With few other high schools participating in the sport, Pencader students have a better chance of winning. Scholarships awarded from the United States Bowling Congress average about $1,000 per person. Many colleges and universities offer scholarships as well, including Delaware State University.
“It’s a great opportunity for scholarship money,” said Swartz.
So for now, the Pencader bowling team will continue to meet every Tuesday at the local bowling alley, with its members competing against each other and pushing each other to get better.
And if the team is fortunate enough to schedule some opponents, it’s obvious who will lead the way: The sophomore Fields and his 12 perfect games, along with his confidence.
“If you don’t have confidence,” says Fields, “you will always find a way not to win.”
Practicing since the age of four does not hurt either.
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