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Pennfield Aims to Build on Historic Run
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
December 19, 2017
BATTLE CREEK — The Battle Creek Pennfield bowling teams are building impressive resumes again this winter after finishing the 2016-17 season on a historical note.
The Panthers capped last season by claiming both the Division 3 girls and boys singles championships – becoming the first program in MHSAA history to sweep the Singles Finals – and a day after Pennfield’s boys won the Division 3 team title.
The success has continued into a new campaign. Last weekend, the girls and boys teams won the Battle Creek All-City tournament, the girls’ ninth consecutive title and the boys’ seventh. Both teams are 2-0 in dual matches with Interstate 8 Athletic Conference play beginning in January. And the boys earned the 100th win in school history two weeks ago against Sturgis – joining the girls, who reached the century mark last season.
Both James Ruoff and Haley Hooper are back this season after claiming those individual Finals championships in March. Both teams also are building for title attempts, although admittedly that path should be more treacherous this winter – Pennfield moved into Division 2, where it is one of the smallest schools.
Boys ready to climb again
The Panthers’ boys slowly worked their way up to last season’s team title, finishing third at the Finals in 2015 and second in 2016.
Program director Mike Roach, who works with both teams, credits fourth-year coach Rickie Hinds with the boys’ success.
“The first year I coached we were 0-11 and the boys never jelled,” Hinds said. “They never came together as a team, so I started preaching team unity and relying on each other. It’s not an individual sport.
“They came together at the end (of the 2016 season) and we ended up in third place. The second year after that, they jelled and we were .500. We ran into some stiff competition – let me tell you. They made a run to second.
“Last year, we won it all. It was a great feeling to win it all.”
Ruoff, a junior who has been bowling since he was 2 years old, threw a 300 last year and amassed an 800 series this year, both in youth leagues.
“Lindy Burton, owner of M-66, got me started,” he said. “My entire family bowled out here.
“Once I turned 4 she got me my first ball, and that’s when I really got into the youth leagues.”
Hinds said bowling is Ruoff’s passion.
“He was the young one, just a sophomore (last year), but he does a lot of extracurricular bowling,” the coach said. “He’s the one who has it in his heart; the burning, the yearning.
“The other guys bowl and like it but have other sports or interests. But when they came together as a team, they won it all.”
Ruoff said high school bowling intrigued him.
“I went to a few matches and Coach Roach talked to me when I was younger,” he said. “We’d been to some matches with my parents, and we saw how everything went,
“I like to bowl, a lot. As soon as I saw the competition, I was excited.”
Last season’s Division 3 Finals were rolled at M-66 Bowl, Pennfield’s home lanes, which was good and bad, Ruoff said.
“Not (good) so much for the bowling because this house plays really tough, but having all my bowling family behind me made a big difference,” said Ruoff, who was the 15th seed and upset second seed Adrian Hall of Corunna, 416-313, in the first round.
That was a reverse deja vu.
“The year before, I was the third seed bowling against the 14th seed, and I got knocked out first round so I had the confidence that I could do it,” Ruoff added.
In the championship match, Ruoff defeated Shepherd’s Jonah Montney, 395-349.
Ruoff, who lugs six 15-pound balls “with different cores, different drillings, different layouts” to each competition, also sparked the Panthers’ 1312-1129 win over Corunna for the team title the day before.
In his fourth season of varsity bowling, senior Sean Young also has been with Pennfield’s program since the rise began.
“That was all the tension buildup for us,” he said of the title run. “We were tired of losing.
“Our coach helped us with that. He’s a big mentor for us. When we’re down, he tells us how to get back up.”
Seeded 16th individually, Young lost to top seed Gage Nickelson from Wyoming Kelloggsville, 452-410, in the first round of singles but, “I ended up ninth in state because my series were so high first round.”
A key to a repeat team title is spares, he said.
“That was our biggest thing last year. We really, really improved on our spares,” he added. “If we repeat, we’ll be first team in the state to move up a division and repeat, so that’s our goal.”
Hooper leads focused girls team
Hooper’s road to the title was similar to Ruoff’s path.
As the 16th seed, she upset top seed Kendra Grandy of Birch Run, 371-301, in the first round.
In the championship match she defeated Hannah Bergsma of Grand Rapids South Christian, 399-325.
Hooper is not one to bask in her success.
“I never felt like I had it won until the end of my final match,” she said. “It was mixed feelings. I was on cloud nine, but the other girl was really upset and I know she could have beat me on any given day.
“Winning state was definitely a great experience, but I also know that a lot of those girls could beat me on any day. I had a good day.”
Hooper’s success is fueled by her ability to pick up spares, Roach said.
“She hits her target every time and if she doesn’t get a strike, she picks up her spares,” the coach said.
“She’s an outstanding spare shooter. She’s the most consistent.”
This season’s Division 2 tournament is at Super Bowl in Canton (M-66 also will again host Finals, but in Division 4.). And the Pennfield girls are of course motivated to make it a two-day event.
Bowling in the team competition the day before singles is a big help, Hooper said.
“It helped warm me up and get used to the lanes, but (it was tough) because it was so disappointing from losing the day before and then coming back the next day,” she said.
After the girls team won Regionals last year, it narrowly fell to Caro 1122-1120 at the Finals in the first round of match play.
Hooper said last year the team did not really bond, but this year the girls know what is important to advance.
“Staying focused in practice and really being a team,” she said. “It’s more team bonding and coming together as a family.”
Seniors dominate the boys team, which has just two underclassemen – Ruoff and freshman Carson Dyer.
Seniors besides Young are Trace Davis, Joe Larsen and Nick Hohnberger.
Just four girls join Hooper are their team: senior Megan Elwell, juniors Makayla Skidmore and Kelsey Kipp and sophomore Stephanie Woodman.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Haley Hooper, left, and James Ruoff practice recently; they were the Division 3 singles champs last season. (Middle) Senior Sean Young gets in some practice work. (Below) Clockwise from top left: Pennfield coaches Mike Roach and Rickie Hinds, Hooper and Ruoff. (Photos by Pam Shebest.)
![Carlson/Whitehall bowling](/sites/default/files/2022-03/220305_D2b_2H.jpg)
Sisk Prevails in Dramatic Finish, VanDuinen Ends On Championship Note
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 5, 2022
CANTON – All Zack Sisk needed was a chance, even as slim as it appeared at the time.
Facing 2021 Division 2 singles champion Kyle Pranger of Grand Rapids Northview in the championship match Saturday at Super Bowl, Sisk – a junior at Gibraltar Carlson – saw Pranger leave a split of five pins in his second-to-last ball of the 10th frame.
Pranger knocked down one more. And that left Sisk an opportunity – if he could throw three strikes in his 10th frame to force a roll-off.
“I was ready to pass out,” Sisk said. “I’m not going to lie.”
You wouldn’t have known Sisk was facing such enormous pressure, because he rolled three strikes in a row to tie Pranger at 409 and force a roll-off where each bowler essentially redid the ninth and 10th frames.
After each bowled a strike in the new ninth frame, Sisk stayed hot and bowled three straight again in the 10th frame of the roll-off to make it seven in a row.
Pranger answered by bowling two strikes, but left one pin on his third ball of the frame, and Sisk began celebrating the first singles title in the six-year history of Carlson’s program.
“When he got the one, I was just like ‘All right, I’ve got to go up there and throw as many good shots as possible,’” Sisk said. “Obviously I did.”
Tom Sisk, Zack’s Dad and the program’s co-coach along with his wife and Zack’s mother, Kim, said he felt bad that Pranger couldn’t get the tying strike because he threw a great ball.
But Tom Sisk obviously was overjoyed with pride over what his son achieved.
“(Pranger) is such a good bowler,” Tom Sisk said. “When he got that one, we went ‘Oh my gosh, (Zack) has got a chance.’ He had to throw three. Fantastic, and you couldn’t have asked for anything better. He handled the pressure very well.”
In the girls event, Whitehall senior Karli VanDuinen finished off a fine career by claiming the singles title, defeating Wayland senior Bella Harnish in the final 460-381.
VanDuinen advanced to the quarterfinal round last year, used that experience to her benefit in her last MHSAA Tournament.
“It feels good,” said VanDuinen, who will continue bowling at Arkansas State. “I’ve been wanting it since my freshman year. But I’ve been working hard in general for college. To finally be able to win it was a nice send-off.”
Seeded No. 3 after the qualifying block, VanDuinen defeated Chloe Fish of Cedar Springs in the round of 16, 409-310, before squeaking out a one-pin win (357-356) over Livonia Clarenceville freshman Caitlyn Johnson in a quarterfinal.
VanDuinen then downed another Wayland bowler, junior Kadence Bottrall, in a semifinal by a score of 441-385.
“During the qualifying, we thought her throws were looking pretty good,” Whitehall coach Tyson Jasperse said. “She looked comfortable out here. She was reading the lanes really well, and she seemed pretty confident.”
Pranger, who helped lead Northview to the team title Friday, was seeded No. 1 out of the qualifying block Saturday.
Sisk was seeded sixth, starting his journey to the title by defeating Brad Spalsbury of Eastpointe 447-436 in the round of 16.
Sisk then got past Jackson Northwest freshman Logan Jahr in a quarterfinal, 473-423, before edging Owen Williams of Tecumseh in a semifinal by just two pins, 463-461.
PHOTOS (Top) Gibraltar Carlson’s Zack Sisk and Whitehall’s Karli VanDuinen earned Division 2 singles championships Saturday at Canton’s Super Bowl. (Middle) Sisk celebrates his roll-off victory. (Click for more from Champions Photography.)