Highland Cougar Bowling Team
PRESS RELEASE
September 30, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“Highland Cougar Men’s Bowling Teams Ready to Hit Lanes against Top Schools in Nation”
Young, Talented HCC Team Sets Sights High For Upcoming Bowling Season
FREEPORT: One Team… One Goal. That’s the motto that the Highland Bowlers live by while on the lanes.
With a team dominated by incoming freshman, and a few veteran Sophomores, the Highland Bowling teams do
not seem intimidated by their youth. And following in the footsteps of a highly successful 2015-2016 season
which brought two bowlers NJCAA All-American status, this Cougar team has set goals higher than ever.
“They know that they have the ability and the opportunity to win a National Championship for Highland,” says
Director of Bowling Jeff Johnson. “And even though many of these bowlers have never been in this
environment, they definitely have shown the discipline during practice sessions to achieve their goal… but its
gonna take a lot of work.”
The Highland Cougar Men’s Varsity team heads to the Milwaukee area this weekend for the 46th Annual
Midwest Collegiate Bowling Championships. The field will include most of the Top 50 bowling teams in the
nation and as usual, Highland will be the smallest (enrollment-wise) by far. Bowling powerhouse universities like
2016 National Champions, McKendree University, will shoe them up next to Highland. Wichita State, Webber
University, Lindenwood University, Midland, Purdue, Ohio State, UW-Whitewater, San Jose State, and others are
expected to be in attendance this weekend. And Highland plans to compete with them side-by-side.
The new additions are the wild card for this season says Johnson.
“We have some young talent that definitely have bought into the concept that spare shooting is what wins
championships,” analyzes Johnson. “At a time where everyone thinks strikes are the key in this game, spare
shooting on these tough collegiate conditions is essential to beat the competition. They are young and focused
on finishing as high as possible with the vision of a National Championship for HCC on their radar.”
The Highland Cougars added Freeport Pretzel standout bowler Jared Johnson, as well as local bowlers Bryce
Lawson (Dakota) and AJ Nordman (Oregon) to the lineup. In addition, Kody Bachar (Minooka High School), and
Larry Tripamer III (Belvidere High) are freshman additions to the Varsity squad of the Cougar team.
The Men also return three sophomores – NJCAA All-American Kaine McNett of Freeport and Iowa State High
School Champion, Ethan Hull, from Camanche, Iowa, and Freeport’s Brayden Dyson. Their goals are equally as
high and there is a lot of motivation to return to that stage.
“Ethan hates to lose and the intensity on the lanes with him and Kaine is something that you just don’t teach,”
says returning Men’s Head Coach Gail Myers, Jr. who enters his second season. “We have spent a lot of time
this off-season working to surround them with talent that will be able to step up and help put this team in better
positions to succeed. And that starts with team-building”.
Myers, Jr. says that he is very proud of how well the team communicates on the lanes even with the freshman
additions.
“They really get along as a team,” states Myers Jr. “We are not eight individuals we are a true team. They
understand their roles and they work to help each other out while on the lanes. That is an asset that will help us
when we get on the lanes in these large Tier 1 tourneys against the big schools. They are focused on the right
things while on the lanes, and prepared to execute when we step up on the approach… from top to bottom. I
am confident that the sophomores will give the younger athletes the incentive to take the next steps and
succeed.”
“This will be a true test of where we stand at this point,” finalizes Myers Jr. “We don’t expect to come in and get
a Top 20 right off the bat, but you never know in this environment. If we stick with the game plan, play the lanes
the way we are supposed to and pick up our spares, we should fare pretty well against these schools even
though they are much larger than HCC. I like our chances as we get through the jitters of the first few
tournaments.”
For additional information regarding the Highland Men Bowling Team, feel free to contact:
Jeff Johnson, Director of Bowling – 815.238.8707
Gail Myers, Jr., HCC Men’s Head Bowling Coach – 608.558.1206
Pete Norman, Highland Athletic Director – 815.599.3465
Thomas Endress, HCC Assistant Bowling Coach – 815.238.8094