Xavier girls’ bowling seniors building for the future

CEDAR RAPIDS - Leadership is needed for most things to run smoothly.

There are five seniors leading the Cedar Rapids Xavier girls' bowling team this year - Katelyn Jakel, Ellie Marovets, Olivia Nolte, Katherine Skoumal and Morgan Simoneau.

With the team heavy in upperclassmen, the seniors are focusing on a smooth season.

'We are going to lead the team by example and all of us are practicing really hard so that the underclassmen have a strong team to lead next year,” Marovets said.

In order for there to be a varsity girls' bowling team, there must be six girls. Losing five seniors after this season, the girls are making sure to support their younger teammates and pursue future bowlers to join the squad.

'I'm going to try to be uplifting and encouraging this year and help out the new bowlers,” Nolte said.

The Saints have started this season with a roster of seven. They are 0-4 heading into Thursday's match against Linn-Mar at the Cedar Rapids Bowling Center.

'Our practices consist of Coach (Russ) Camacho starting us off with a pep talk and how the week will look,” Marovets said. 'Then we warm up for about five minutes, and after that, we bowl three games total.”

In order to make sure the girls are comfortable around each other, they participate in multiple team bonding activities throughout the year to welcome new bowlers and spend time together outside of the practices and meets. The Saints like to eat together and hang out at someone's house after their meals.

They have big aspirations.

'Our biggest goal is to not only make it to state, but to win it as well,” Nolte said.