Walled Lake squads prepare for success, the unknown

By Jon Malavolti
C & G Sports Writer

The high school bowling postseason is around the corner, and local squads can expect the unexpected.

About half of the teams in the Walled Lake schools’ Division 1 regional are new to the group, leaving little familiarity with some of the competition come Feb. 26-27 at Drakeshire Lanes in Farmington.

But there is one thing Walled Lake Central’s, Northern’s and Western’s boys and girls bowling teams can be sure of, the competition is going to be tough.

“It’s never going to be easy; it’s always going to be very difficult,” Walled Lake Schools bowling team coach Ron Arnoldi said, describing the regional. Arnoldi is the head coach of all six teams.

“The region is pretty tough this year,” he continued. “The only thing we can do is keep preparing and preparing.”

Aside from each other, the Walled Lake teams will recognize a few of their regional opponents in Kensington Lakes Activities Association foes Waterford Kettering, Waterford Mott and White Lake Lakeland.

“We see them all year long,” Arnoldi said. “Any of those teams, any of our teams, can do well.”

 Kettering’s boys won the division title (KLAA North), while Waterford Mott’s girls came up just shy, losing a tiebreaker and conceding first place to Walled Lake Central.

“All six teams in our division are pretty strong,” Arnoldi said. “The competition was very close.”

The rest of the regional teams are Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice, Detroit Catholic Central, Farmington, Farmington Mercy, Novi High, North Farmington, Royal Oak High, Troy High and Troy Athens. Arnoldi highlighted Rice and Mercy from that group, noting the Catholic League squads are never easy outs.

The team competition is slated to take place at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 26. The individual tournament is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 27.

The top three teams and top 10 individuals on the boys and girls sides will advance to the state finals. The D-1 state finals will be held March 5-6 at M-66 Bowl in Battle Creek.

Postseason success is no stranger to the KLAA squads, especially the Walled Lake programs, most notably Central’s teams. Central’s girls squad finished as semifinalists last year and were runners-up in 2008. The Vikings’ boys team was the state champion in 2008.

Needless to say, there are always big expectations for the local squads when the postseason rolls around, regardless of how familiar or unknown their opponents may be.

Summarizing the programs’ postseason goals, Arnoldi simply said, “Obviously, winning.”

You can reach Sports Writer Jon Malavolti at jmalavolti@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1040.