LAWRENCE — Chanute is headed back to the KSHSAA Unified Bowling State Championships after earning second place at Tuesday’s regionals in Lawrence.
“We should’ve won it, like all coaches feel,” Chanute head coach Roy McCoy said. “We had a game where we went away and we found ourselves, but we couldn’t come all the way back. We were the top seed going in. But that’s why you roll the game.”
Free State won the regional title by six pins, posting a series of 792. Chanute was runner-up with 786 pins, followed by Seaman (732), Washburn Rural (729), Baldwin (726), Lawrence (682), Tonganoxie (659), Iola (605), Eudora (564), Silver Lake (560), Kaw Valley (533), Wamego (529), Topeka West (519), Wellsville (452).
“We’ve gone to state two of the last three years, so this is three of four,” McCoy said. “I’m hoping the experience of them being there helps. At regionals, we talked a little bit and we came back strong.”
The runner-up finish for Chanute is the highest placing for the Blue Comets in the four years unified bowling has been a championship-level sport in Kansas — Chanute previously finished third twice.
“It all started with our nucleus,” McCoy said. “The rules have changed over the years. We really went in as a fiveman team for the last couple of years and there wasn’t a lot of separation. This year, there really is. Our athletes have really become good bowlers. That is the key to success.”
Chanute’s unified bowling squad has become one of the enclaves of success and opportunity on campus.
The sport allows athletes with physical, mental and learning disabilities to compete on the same plane.
“We have kids that have extreme autism,” McCoy said. “They’re able to bowl in meets. That’s what success looks like. We have kids that learn to accept and deal with their surroundings — the noise and the crowd and the lights. And we adapt to help our athletes be successful.”
McCoy, who’s coached the school’s unified bowling team since its inception four years ago, knows his team is on par with their peers.
“I am such an advocate in trying to get these kids recognized as a high school sport,” McCoy said. “They are no different than a football player. They’re no different than a basketball player. They’re competing for a school letter. They wouldn’t have had the opportunity before unified bowling. I absolutely love it. I’ll be in Walmart and one of my kids will come up and give me a hug. That says it all, right there.”
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The KSHSAA Unified Bowling State Championship is on Tuesday in Lawrence.
“Our goal is to get first,” McCoy said. “I would estimate we’ll be picked sixth and eighth seeding wise. The scores that I see being thrown, some of them can really roll the ball. Some schools can average in the upper 900s to 1,000. And we can roll with these guys. The team that beat us at regionals bowled their best. That’s what we’re going to have to do at state.”
Mac Moore | Lawrence Sports
The Chanute Blue Comets unified bowling team celebrates with the runnerup plaque after its secondplace showing at the KSHSAA Unified Bowling Regional Tournament on Tuesday in Lawrence.
