Versailles sophomore Brooke Keiser flashed with the girls high individual game Saturday in Celina…a 206. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Area high school bowlers are again competing in anonymity for state honors and what little individual recognition comes from those early Saturday mornings. And it’s a better story than you’d imagine.
On a cold January Saturday this weekend area bowlers from the Western Ohio High School Bowlers Conference were up early on for the trip to Celina, and Plaza Lanes.
It was their turn to compete, the girls first at 9 am, followed by the boys at 1 in the afternoon. And the only ones who knew were the players and coaches themselves – families, of course. There are no public schedules (except on the www.wohsbc.com website), no media hype, and even little or no information, post-competition…except on that website. 300 games linger only in the minds of those who witnessed, if and when they happen.
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“They really enjoy this,” Versailles coach Tyler Phlipot shared a couple of weeks ago, at the date of our first Press Pros post for the 2025-’26 bowling season.
A few of the participants from Versailles, Fort Recovery, Marion Local, St. Henry, New Bremen, Minster, Parkway and Coldwater (St. Henry presently does not have a girls team) do play other sports, but there aren’t many.
“It’s their time to compete,” adds Phlipot, a long-time coach at Versailles and member of the Bowlerstore.com retail professional staff in Versailles.
For a fifth consecutive year…Bowlerstore.com, of Versailles, is the presenting sponsor of high school bowling on Press Pros Magazine.com.
To the informed, the similarities with athletes in other, better-profiled sports are hard to miss – a Gavin Dicke (New Bremen), Brayden Mescher (Marion Local), and Charlie Werling (St. Henry).
“They really work hard in the off-season at their game,” says Phlipot. “They don’t lift weights, they bowl. Bowling is a precision, feel game. They work on the fine points of making the proper adjustments. That’s how you score. That’s how you win.”
Coldwater sophomore Carter Miller is currently leading the WOHSBC in average with a 217.0.
That’s how promising sophomore Carter Miller presently owns the WOHSBC conference lead in average with 217 – how four Coldwater bowlers are in the top five of league averages (Miller, Andrew Myers, Alex Borger, and Isaac Delzeith…St. Henry’s Jack Siefring is the fifth).
In girls competition Coldwater’s Brittany Burden, profiled on Press Pros two weeks ago, currently leads in average with a 190. Deanna Brown (Fort Recovery , 189.9), Madelyn Farver (Versailles, 178.4), Lilah Thien (Fort Recovery, 175.3), and Rachel Moeller (Coldwater, 169.3) currently own the top five averages as of January 3.
And now’s the time when the season really gets interesting – competitive – as football is over, basketball is complementary on weekend nights, and recognition within the conference becomes more acute.
“The competition really is pretty intense,” adds Phlipot. “They want to win that MAC title, get the trophy, and qualify for the post-season tournaments.
Coldwater has won a total of nine OHSAA tournament titles – 5 by the girls and 4 by the boys – the only MAC school with an OHSAA title. The Versailles boys have qualified for the state tournament eight times, and the Tiger girls have been there six times, but have yet to bring home a title.
“Like I say, the competition and the motivation is there,” says Phlipot.
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Will this be the year?
“You never know,” said Coldwater’s Jasmine Schulze as a member of the 2021 Cavalier girls state champions, four years ago, and presently a bowler at Wright State University.
“There’s always girls coming up who were better than me at the same age,” she said during her senior year at Coldwater. “They push the girls in front of them them, always making everyone better.”
Upcoming New Bremen freshman Ellie Meiring braved the tough Plaza Lanes Saturday to post a 181.
No better than some of the young ones doing the pushing right now. Among them, New Bremen’s Ellie Meiring, who rolled a 181 Saturday morning on Celina’s cantankerous Plaza Lanes.
Coldwater senior Brittany Burden continued her string of consistency Saturday with a 181 and a 186.
On those same lanes, Versailles sophomore Madelyn Farber lit things up with a 191…while sophomore teammate Brooke Keiser had the individual high for girls with a 206.
And on the boy’s flight later in the day…Coldwater’s Carter Miller, who’s as hot as anyone, especially for his age, was good, but on this day teammate Andrew Myers had the hotter hand.
“He’s young, but he’s very talented,” said long-time Coldwater coach Rick Hartings, says of Miller. “And he’s been very consistent. You have to do the work, and he does.”
Miller was just slightly under his average with a 195 and a 223…but teammate Myers blasted out with a 257 and a 225 to push the Cavaliers to a 600-pin win over Parkway.
Other top games included Fort Recovery’s AJ Siefring (205), New Bremen’s Xavier Kitzmiller (203), and Versailles’ Gavin Hecht (210,235).
As we say, it’s their time to compete – the reason for the season – and nearly impossible to find a place to park or a seat to watch Saturday in Celina.
MAC bowling continues next Saturday at McBo’s Lanes, in Versailles.
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