High School Bowling Kicks Off 2004 Season

It is finally here!! The inaugural season of the Michigan High School Athletic Association bowling program will begin January 5, 2004. This year the MHSAA has officially recognized bowling as a varsity sport and is offering a post season tournament to declare a state champion in three divisions.

The Southeast Division will begin its match play this coming Wednesday at Universal Lanes in Warren. Many of the teams from last year's division have returned for this inaugural year and we have a new face added as well. Teams from Warren-Mott, Warren Cousino, Sterling Heights, Chippewa Valley and Warren Woods Tower will renew rivalries and add Center Line St. Clement to the mix of competition. This year's division will be broken into three separate divisions, a boy's varsity, girl's varsity and a junior varsity. The schools will compete within each group to determine divisional team and singles champions and bragging rights for the season.

Due to the new guidelines set forth by the MHSAA, a number of teams have taken on a new look for this season. With last years graduating class and a number of bowlers choosing not to return this season, the teams bowling this year could look very different from last year. Warren-Mott, last years division leader, returns only two of the six members off of its Boys Varsity team from last year while other teams are in the same restructuring and rebuilding modes.

New this year will be the team from Center Line St. Clement. They come out of the Catholic League Division to bowl and are stepping way up in class. St. Clement, because of its enrollment, is classified as a C-D school while the rest of the division is all class A schools. Coach Maruziak is looking forward to the challenge and I am sure he will have his bowlers ready for the start of the season. Also new this season will be the addition of a girl's junior varsity team at Sterling Heights High School. Coach Dick Krupa has assembled a team to compete with last year's lone girl's junior varsity team form Warren-Mott. These two teams will compete in a combined boys-girls junior varsity division over the meet season. They will compete separately in the post season tournaments to determine state champions.

We all look forward to the thrill of competition this season and the chance to be declared the best in the state for 2004. If history repeats itself, the Southeast Division should be very well represented at the regional and state level. Teams from Warren-Mott, Sterling Heights, Chippewa Valley and Warren Cousino have represented the division very well over the past two seasons at the regional and state level. Warren-Mott is looking for its third straight trip to the boy's varsity finals and also looking to defend its boy's junior varsity state title from last season.

Good luck to one and all and let the games begin!!