Here’s a lesson for every young athlete who sometimes wishes the coach would stop repeating the same thing over and over again: Listen to them because they’re right.
Take Lake Central girls bowling coach Stephanie Cooley, for example.
“Over the years we’ve missed cuts or lost matches by a handful of pins, so I always stress to the girls that every pin counts,” she said. “It’s so important to get every pin you can when you leave splits and washouts.”
That simple, yet important, lesson had meaning for LC this season in the biggest way possible. The Indians did knock down every possible pin in the state championship match against Chesterton. And when anchor Megan Heflin picked up a two-pin spare on the final shot of the girls bowling season, it led to the Indians edging the Trojans by just one pin.
“Megan really wanted to get a strike on that second ball in the 10th when she left the 1-3 spare,” Cooley said. “I told her to take a couple of deep breaths and that she didn’t need a strike, she needed a spare. I thought she handled the pressure pretty well. I know that’s not easy.”
It’s Lake Central’s state-record fifth state title — and second in last three years — leading to Cooley’s second Post-Tribune Coach of the Year honor in the last three years. But this one wasn’t easy. Just ask her daughter and assistant coach.
“This year with only having six girls, we really needed everyone to step up this year and bowl as a team to make it back to state,” said Kaity Galka, who has been her mom’s assistant since 2012 and who competed on two LC state championship teams in 2007 and 2009. “My mom did an awesome job keeping the girls focused and a lot of them have improved over the season, especially during the postseason when we needed it.
“Every week in the postseason the girls were reminded that the goal was just to advance each week. From experience we know that the mental game is huge in bowling. So we try to teach that to the girls, remind them to keep calm and just bowl their best.”
Yes, the largest school in Northwest Indiana only had six girls bowling. But that was enough, with teamwork overcoming lack of depth.
“This year’s team had its ups and downs, but the girls all seemed to come together at state finals and grinded out a win,” Cooley said. “The shot was difficult, so we concentrated on spares because we knew we weren’t going to strike a lot.”
Cooley and Galka have been part of four Indians’ state titles (the first came in 2003). But don’t ask them to compare them.
“This title was definitely the most nerve-racking because it came down to one pin, which has never happened before … even when I bowled,” Galka said. “But state finals my junior year in 2009 when we won and had that record-breaking 1,292 team game and just crushed the competition is still my favorite.”
Johnny Gorches is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.
