By Cal State Long Beach’s bowling team kicked off its season Saturday with hopes of being the first 49er team to make it to the National Championship in Arlington, Texas come March.
CSULB hosted the first two tournaments of its season over the weekend, with the Long Beach Open on Saturday and the 49er Invitational on Sunday. Seven other teams, including Arizona State University and San Jose State University, participated in the tournaments.
CSULB placed fourth in the tournament with a score of 6356. San Jose State came in first with a grand total of 7341 points.
The 49er bowling team will compete in 10 tournaments through February, traveling as far north as San Jose, Calif. and as far east as Phoenix to accumulate enough points to qualify for nationals.
New head coach Tony Regazzi, who was a member of the Professional Bowlers Association, said that CSULB’s bowling team has what it takes to earn a spot in nationals.
“I’m impressed with [the team],” he said. “Our reserves are looking sharper by the day.”
Regazzi said that competitive bowlers have to take into account factors that casual fans wouldn’t consider, such as lane’s oil pattern, which changes how a bowling ball travels, and being sure they have the right equipment to adapt to different bowling surfaces and situations.
“A lead bowler may have one, maybe two balls,” he said. “These guys carry five to eight balls, because each one is designed to do something different.”
But getting out to competitions to use that equipment requires a lot of work in itself, according to Assistant Coach Rick Van Der Haar, who also joined the team this year. Between tournament fees and travel, he said each bowler costs almost $3,000 to keep on the team.
Van Der Haar said that while the school helps financially, there isn’t enough money to offset all of the bowling team’s costs.
“The schools are very limited in funds,” he said. “Bowlers take a lot of money out of their own pockets to be a part of this club.”
President of the Bowling Club Justin Garza said that both casual and competitive bowlers are welcome to the club, and that a casual bowler can decide to join the competitive team. He said joining the team, though, requires a change in how the game is viewed.
“It’s all about the team; it’s not about the individual,” he said. “You have your divas out there, ‘I’m better than everyone else. I should be playing every game.’ It’s about team support, and it’s about being together.”
He also said that the team suffers from a lack of publicity.
“I think for any other club sports activities, you really don’t get praise unless you win nationals,” he said. “And even if you get nationals, you still don’t get a good amount [of publicity]. It’s like yesterday’s news.”
The bowling club currently fields one competitive team, something that Van Der Haar said they would like to change.
“We have eight members in our bowling team,” he said. “We’re still recruiting. We want more bowlers.”
Van Der Haar said that ideally, the club would field two more teams, a junior varsity team and a women’s team.
Spencer Van Rijsbergen, a freshman electrical engineering major and first-year bowling team member, said this year’s team shows promise.
“I think our team’s going to be really good this year,” he said. “We have some good bowlers. We need a little work, but we’re good.”
The bowling team practices at the bowling alley in the University Student Union on Wednesdays, and at Cal Bowl in Lakewood on Thursdays.
