Four-time state champs, and last week’s Kickoff Classic champs…Coldwater’s youthful 2024’25 boys team seeks its fifth title, while the five-time champion girls seeks their sixth. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Saturday’s opening of the MAC bowling season was packed, and highly anticipated as Minster, Versailles, New Bremen. St. Henry, Parkway, Fort Recovery, and Marion Local set sail to compete for league and post-season honors…and Coldwater set its sights on another OHSAA title.
Fort Recovery, OH – Saturday marked the opening of the MAC bowling schedule in Fort Recovery’s tiny Miracle Lanes, and by 8:30 the parking lot was full, the street was full, and cars were parked as far as two blocks away.
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Approximately 200 people squeezed into the 8-lane facility to get a glimpse of the most under-profiled, and highly-contested of all the sports on the Ohio High School Athletic Association calendar.
St. Henry, Marion Local, Parkway, New Bremen, Minster, Versailles, Fort Recovery and Coldwater were all there, and several bowlers gave the spectators an eyeful with soaring scores on the generous Miracle Lanes surface.
200 games were plentiful, topped by the day’s top individual scores of 267 by Rylan Edwards (Minster), 255 by Frank Schmiesing (Minster), 254 by Caleb Wendel (Coldwater), 242 by Coldwater’s Andrew Myers, a 238 by St. Henry’s Nick Lefeld, and a back-to-back 225 and 244 by Coldwater’s Austin Burden. Numerous others eclipsed 200, causing optimism for another highly competitive season and the annual fight to survive the district rounds of the OHSAA tournament and advance to the Columbus Finals in mid-February.
And as usual, Coldwater was on the tips of tongues for their past legacy of nine state titles (4 by boys and 5 by girls), and the annual pursuit for a tenth in 2025.
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“We lost a lot of talent off of last year’s team,” said veteran coach Rick Hartings, Saturday. Hartings, who operates Pla-Mor Lanes in Coldwater, is greatly responsible for the legacy, having served as coach for both the boys and girls teams.
“But, we have four freshman on this year’s team that have all shown ability to compete in non-league bowling.
“What remains to be seen is how they bowl against the league, against MAC competition,” added Hartings. “Because Versailles, New Bremen, and Minster will all be tough.”
Since its inception as a varsity OHSAA sport in 2007, no other Ohio school can boast the success of Coldwater’s combined nine state titles in bowling. The girls won their five in 2012, ’13, ’15, ’17, and 2021…while the boys won in 2007, ’12, ’15, and 2020.
“There are some other schools with traditions in bowling,” says Hartings. ‘But no one comes close to the kind of consistency we’ve had with both boys and girls bowling. So it’s a pretty big deal at Coldwater.”
And those nine trophies are proudly presented alongside the 8 for football and 7 for baseball…24 in total for the three sports…and they’ve played football and baseball for decades before bowling came around in 2007.
So again, in 2024-’25, Hartings looks to his young freshman talent, headed by Andrew Myers (200, 242 on Saturday); and anchored with seniors Austin Burden and Caleb Wendel, looking to take up the slack left by names from the past…Caleb Sutherin, Carter Bertke, and Keaton Bruns. They got a big boost last weekend by taking the Division II Kick-Off Classic Tourney, in Columbus, with 47 of the top bowling schools in Ohio represented.
“We saw a lot of teams that we’ll see in this year’s tournament,” said Hartings. “But we bowled well and now we know more about what to expect form some of those teams come tournament time.”
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His excitement is no less than that for the annual PBA tournament that the Hartings family hosts at Pla-Mor in August – the best bowlers in the world!
But for now, another season and another reason to believe that this year’s Coldwater team – or another MAC school – could end up as the best in Ohio. And by the number of cars outside, and people inside on Saturday, you can make the argument…..
High school bowling has come a long way since 2007.
Is it popular? Miracle Lanes’ parking lot was overflow full, leaving patrons to park on the streets to see Saturday’s opening day for MAC bowling.
Community Lanes is so much more than a bowling center. Visit us soon!