March 4, 2019
By Carina Paserchia
Managing Editor
Ending the season as league champions with a 15-1 regular season record, the bowling team proved they are a force to be reckoned with. While the team triumphed in the league match, it fell short of making it to the state sectional competition after losing against multiple teams on Feb. 7.
Junior Tara Horniacek, who has been on the team since her freshman year, said this season was more challenging than the previous years because new Coach Offitto is relatively inexperienced, and the team suffered the loss of key players.
“Something I look forward to next season is seeing what we can do and get the wins we need to get to states and win,” Horniacek said.
She said her goal for next season is to get more strikes and spares as well as hone her technique so she can contribute more to the team next year.
“One of my biggest disappointments as an athlete is missing spares or not throwing the ball straight out of my hand,” Horniacek said. “My greatest accomplishment of being an athlete is being a good sport and picking up my teammates through any situations.”
Horniacek, who has been bowling for over a decade, began her bowling career around second grade when she joined a recreational team. She said through the years, her biggest fans have always been her family.
“They are always there cheering me on through it all,” Horniacek said. “Out of my whole family, my dad likes this sport the most. He’s been bowling for decades.”
Junior Troy Villani also said bowling is a family sport for him.
“It’s been around my family for years,” Villani said. “My sister Nikki bowled for LHS, and I just wanted to do it myself after going to all of her matches.”
Villani said the bowlers were disappointed when they incurred their only loss of the regular season against North Arlington High School on Dec. 13.
“When we lost against NA, I was upset like anyone else would be, but I knew we could get them next time,” Villani said. “Then, when we won the next [match against them on Jan. 17] we were hyped because we had worked so hard towards it.”
With his inaugural coaching season at a close, Coach Offitto described the team as resilient because they always believed in themselves.
“We focused on ourselves, controlled what we could control and overcame some adversity to win the league title,” Offitto said.
One moment in the season that stood out to Offitto was during the awards ceremony at the last match of the season when the team received its trophy.
“I thought we had a great season, so as far as improving next season, I think if I had to pick one it would be picking up spares,” Offitto said. “We sometimes left some frames open that could’ve helped us place better in certain tournaments that we were in.”
Offitto said one aspect of the bowling team that he especially enjoyed was the camaraderie among the athletes.
“There’s very few sports where you can talk to your team right in the middle of a game or match for an extended period of time,” Offitto said. “Sometimes it is trying to keep them positive by trying to clear their mind with a random topic and other times you have to talk strategy with them and the best way to approach the next shot.”
On top of a successful season, Offitto received a reward of his own. He was awarded with the NJIC Meadowlands Division Coach of the Year.
“I think I was selected for this award because of our team coming from behind to win the division so all the credit goes the team,” Offitto said. “It felt great to be nominated and selected by the other coaches in my first year coaching. I was thankful that our team worked hard all season and we were rewarded at the end of the year.”
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