Photo courtesy of Lance Walker.
Drew Shaw bowls against Shades Valley earlier thisseason. Hewitt-Trussville High School’s bowling teams made it to the state tournament for the second straight year.
For the second straight year, the Hewitt-Trussville High School boys and girls bowling teams concluded the season at the last possible destination: the state tournament.
After watching his teams compete throughout the year, that accomplishment didn’t necessarily surprise coach Tommy Abney, who recently completed his third year leading the program.
“I had confidence in both teams that we would make it to the state tournament,” Abney said. “I didn’t know exactly where we’d seed, but I had confidence that both teams would make it.”
The high school state tournament, held Jan. 23-24 at Oak Mountain Lanes, features the top 16 teams on the boys and girls side, with teams qualifying by finishing in the top eight of the regional tournament the week prior. At the North Regional Tournament, the Hewitt-Trussville boys finished second, and the girls finished fifth to qualify.
At the state tournament, the first day of play is used to determine seeding for a single-elimination bracket format. Freshman Cole McCarty led the way on the first day for the Hewitt boys, posting a three-game total of 660, good for fifth overall. Kyle Wright was 28th with a 568. David Davis, Drew Shaw and Joseph Taylor also posted scores for the Huskies. Davis bowled a 286 earlier in the season for the Huskies.
Taniya Horton and Jordan Kyle were the top two bowlers at state for the girls, putting up 460 and 456 to place 23rd and 24th overall, respectively. Allison Kerins, Madeline Newman and Payton Berry also contributed to the team’s score.
The boys’ day one performance earned them the No. 5 seed in the bracket. But in the first round of bracket play, the Huskies were upset by a No. 12 Hoover team that bowled one of the top games of the day. Hoover defeated Hewitt-Trussville 1,579- 1,485. The girls were the No. 9 seed and narrowly fell to No. 8 Hazel Green 1,073- 1,055 in the first round.
“I don’t want that first-round loss to take away from anything,” Abney said. “We had a great group and a great season.”
Abney said many of the boys on the team are in youth leagues in the area, so they bowl year-round. McCarty’s fifthplace finish at state was a strong one, but he has experience being near the top of the charts. He finished third at state as an eighth-grader last year.
The boys team had two seniors, in Shaw and Taylor. Abney said Shaw began bowling less than a year ago, but determination helped him become one of the team’s key contributors.
“He came to me last year and said he wants to bowl, and he went to the bowling alley with the other guys, and they bowled all summer. Drew became a very good bowler for us,” Abney said.
Hunter Kyle also contributed to the boys team this season.
The girls will need to replace a handful of slots next season, as their team boasted five seniors. Kyle, Newman, Berry, Kerins and Grace Bork will all graduate from the program, leaving Horton and Anna Abney as the two remaining players.
“The coolest thing about bowling is I get to work with some amazing kids,” Tommy Abney said. “It’s pretty awesome.”
