Performance: Flint Kearsley's Imari Blond
January 24, 2019
Imari Blond
Flint Kearsley junior – Bowling
A two-time all-stater and last season’s MHSAA Finals singles runner-up in Division 2, Blond is well on her way to building one of the most impressive bowling careers in state high school history. Sunday saw her add to the pile of accomplishments – Blond rolled a tournament-best 749 series including a perfect 300 games at the Flint Metro Championships to earn the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
Blond is averaging 219 pins per game with a match play record of 20-1 for the Kearsley dynasty – the Hornets have won five straight MHSAA Division 2 championships and carry a 115-match winning streak as they seek their 10th straight undefeated conference finish in the Flint Metro League. Blond made the Division 2 singles quarterfinals as a freshman before last winter advancing to the championship match, where she was edged by Wayland senior Sydney Urben in two-game pin fall 409-356. Her 300 game Sunday was only the fourth in Kearsley’s storied girls bowling history, and she’s also won the two other tournaments she’s bowled in this winter, with a 653 series at the Bay City John Glenn Holiday Tournament and teamed with Lawson Boshaw at the Davison Holiday Mixed Doubles Tournament.
Blond started bowling early, learning from her mother Duwana Ragland and older brother Quinton and sister Quinisha Burnett. Blond still holds the Flint youth city record with an 810 series she rolled as a seventh grader in 2015. She’s anticipating following her siblings into college bowling – both competed at Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne – and is interested in studying elementary education.
Coach Robert Ploof said: “This girl gets it. She is so mature for her age, and she totally understands the team concept and she understands that she needs each and every one of her teammates for her to be successful. She has great sportsmanship as she is always rooting on the competition as well as her own teammates. She is a natural leader and was named a team captain as a freshman; this year she is a co-captain with our only senior on the team Alexis Roof. Imari and Alexis are most likely the best two girl bowlers in the state, and they work well together and both understand their roles. Imari has a very special talent, but if you spoke to her she will not tell you how good she is – she is very humble and in fact continues to work hard to be better. Imari is going places; the college coaches are calling and showing up to watch, she will be offered a big scholarship someplace, but none of that has changed her focus. She is just an incredible teammate and just a great kid, and we are very blessed to have her at Kearsley.”
Performance Point: “I got excited (about the perfect game) because I did joke around with my coach Rob before we even started the game,” Blond said. “I was like, "I'm about to shoot 300 this game" and I actually did, so I was pretty excited about that. I was just kidding around, so I was actually really surprised when I actually did it. … I'm actually very proud of how the year is going. I didn't expect it to be this good, but I started the season off with a pretty good average and I was hoping that I could keep it up there. … Right now, I just try to get better. I feel like I can be better than I am now. I always want to be better than somebody else. I look up to other bowlers like Jordan Richard (of Tecumseh High and now Professional Women’s Bowling Association fame), or other famous bowlers, and I just try my hardest to be like them or be more than them.”
Final step: “I made a really big goal for myself to try to win (the Division 2 Finals) this year. I was ready last year, I thought, but I guess my mindset just wasn't up to where it's supposed to be. I feel like I'm ready this year though. … Thinking too much is really the worst thing you can do, stressing about it. I have my sister as an assistant coach, so she helps out more with my attitude and stuff like that, and not to think too much on things and just do my game.”
Carrying on the dynasty: “I'm really happy to be welcomed into the (Kearsley) team and welcomed into the winning streak that we have. When we won the state title my freshman year, we were already planning to win the next one the year after. That's just a mindset thing. We already have it set in our minds that we're going to dominate. I honestly think it's the team themselves. If the team doesn't get along, then they won't work together. And I feel like our team gets along very well. Our spirits are always high. Usually when someone bowls badly, there's always someone else to pick you up. And we always compete with each other, so that really keeps us up.”
Following family: “My mom used to bowl in a couple leagues, and she put my brother into bowling and he was just naturally good. We didn't have a lot of coaching. He had to figure stuff out by himself. ... I was 4 when I started, and my mom usually just encouraged me to keep it on the lane and get pins. And then, more as I developed into getting into the technical things, my brother started coaching me a little more (and) my sister got into coaching a little bit.”
Student, also teacher: “I work well with kids. I work at the Richfield Bowling Alley, and I work with kids, teaching them how to bowl. Most of them are just there to be there, but some of them really care about bowling and I like that. So I try to encourage them to do better, to go and practice more and try to get more serious about it. I tell them all the time – you can get scholarship money, you can do big things with bowling.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2018-19 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard recognizes a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Past 2018-19 honorees
January 17: William Dunn, Quincy basketball - Read
November 29: Dequan Finn, Detroit Martin Luther King football - Read
November 22: Paige Briggs, Lake Orion volleyball - Read
November 15: Hunter Nowak, Morrice football - Read
November 8: Jon Dougherty, Detroit Country Day soccer - Read
November 1: Jordan Stump, Camden-Frontier volleyball - Read
October 25: Danielle Staskowski, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep golf - Read
October 18: Adam Bruce, Gladstone cross country - Read
October 11: Ericka VanderLende, Rockford cross country - Read
October 4: Kobe Clark, Schoolcraft football - Read
September 27: Jonathan Kliewer, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern soccer - Read
September 20: Kiera Lasky, Bronson volleyball - Read
September 13: Judy Rector, Hanover-Horton cross country - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Flint Kearsley's Imari Blond competes earlier this month. (Middle) Blond and her teammates hoist the Division 2 championship trophy to conclude last winter. (Photos courtesy of the Kearlsley girls bowling program.)
Team, League Mates Face Off in D1
March 1, 2014
By Jon Malavolti
Special to Second Half
STERLING HEIGHTS – Familiarity reigned supreme at the MHSAA Division 1 Bowling Singles Finals on Saturday at Sunnybrook Lanes.
In the girls competition, teammates and classmates Emily Dietz and Julia Huren, sophomores at Westland John Glenn, faced off in the championship match. And in the boys final, it was a “west side” affair between O-K Red Conference rivals junior Josh Kukla of Grandville and senior Alex Stillwell of Hudsonville.
Dietz edged Huren 396-366 in the showdown between Rockets teammates who also are close friends.
“It’s amazing, it was so exciting,” Dietz said. “I never thought I would be here, then I got to bowl with my teammate at the end. It was just fun at that point.”
“We’re both great bowlers,” Huren added. “Whoever won it, it didn’t bug me at all. I just went up and I bowled, and whoever bowled better won.”
John Glenn coach Ralph Cabildo said Dietz simply “caught fire” during Finals weekend. She nearly bowled a perfect game just 24 hours earlier as the Rockets fell in the Team Final to Davison. John Glenn juniors Olivia Cabildo and Jessica Pate also reached the knockout round Saturday, falling in the Quarterfinals.
“What else could I ask for, as a coach? It was just a fantastic weekend,” Ralph Cabildo said. “Yesterday we shot fantastic; Davison just beat us. Then today, we had four girls that made the tournament, then four qualified in the top eight. At that point … we’re having a great time. Then all of a sudden two of them end up going against each other in the finals. And at that point, I knew that Westland John Glenn was going to have a state champ … and a runner-up. So it was better than I could ever think of.”
As soon as the final match between Dietz and Huren ended, the finalists hugged each other, and were then quickly swarmed by their remaining teammates for another round of hugs.
“They’ve all been like a family, and you saw that when they all ran down,” the coach said. “So it was great, great weekend.”
Huren said the whole weekend was a “really good experience.”
“It just shows you what you can do if you just work hard, practice hard; you’re always getting better,” she said. “Last year I didn’t even make it (to the Finals), and to come in second both days is just a real accomplishment and I can’t wait until next year.”
In the boys competition, Kukla needed perfection and a little luck before finally claiming the title. In the Quarterfinal against Clarkston sophomore Jacob Kersten, Kukla bowled a 300 for the second time of his life. But Kersten nearly matched it with a 290, and the duo eventually faced off in a roll off to decide who would go on to the Semifinals.
“That was exciting – we were just going back and forth, back and forth,” Kukla said. “The second game, I thought I was out of it. Once I realized that I was back in this, I just thought there was no way I was going to lose that roll off.”
Kukla emerged, and then escaped Macomb Dakota junior Justin Taylor in the Semifinal by two pins, 411-409. The momentum carried over into the Final, where he defeated Stillwell 470-384.
“It feels amazing, after all the hard work and bowling all year,” Kukla said. “The level of talent was really good. It’s really nice to go out and bowl like this against this type of competition.”
Kukla said it was “pretty cool” to see some familiar faces in the final four. In the other Semifinal, Stillwell defeated Grand Haven freshman Jimmy Mitchell 434-384.
“It was kind of a west side representation,” Kukla said.
Stillwell was proud of his final effort bowling for Hudsonville.
“Honestly, today I was just looking to go out with a bang,” he said. “I’m a senior. It was the first time I qualified for states. This is all so exciting, and then to make it this far, it just makes the day even better.
“Realistically I was just kind of hoping to make the cut. That was my first goal. Once I made the cut, all after that was just gravy. All extra bowling. I couldn’t carry out the corner pins, there was just tons of pressure. I was anchor for our school, but this, the pressure level is just completely different. And Josh just pulled away with it.”
Click for full girls results and full boys results.
PHOTOS: Westland John Glenn's Emily Dietz and Grandville's Josh Kukla.