Within the last 15 years, senior Haneef Hampton was the fourth to break over 500 points in a two game series in Loy Norrix history.
“I surprised almost everybody I knew, my team and the whole entire school, all the high school bowlers,” Hampton said. Hampton has been bowling since early elementary school and has proven his ability and level of sportsmanship across the state.
Despite its popularity, bowling is often overlooked by the Loy Norrix community, which tends to focus on more popular sports such as football or basketball. Regardless, the Norrix varsity bowling team is dedicated to the game, and students like Hampton and other players like Ruby Drizck are keeping Norrix’s record strong to this day.
With support from the bowling community, Hampton was able to excel in bowling this year alongside other students of all ages, genders and backgrounds.
“So far, we have more girls this year than we had last year, ” Hampton said. “I’ve talked to a couple of people who want to join in. I know we had a few exchange students over the past couple of years. We had a couple of players from, I think, four or three different countries: like Brazil, Denmark, Spain and Italy who joined and they enjoyed the experience. It’s really a great opportunity with more people to come.”
Another member of the current team, senior varsity bowler Ruby Drzick joined the bowling team her senior year with a friend to try it out before graduation. After experiencing the bowling team for the first time, Drzick found the community just as social as Hampton did.
“You’ll meet a lot of new people that you probably would’ve never met doing other sports or other things in general,” Drzick said. “Everyone’s really nice. It’s really fun. It’s a good community, and the coaches are really nice. It’s really supportive and easy to jump into if you’ve never had any experience, and you learn a lot about the sport.”
While students like Hampton plan to continue bowling beyond graduation, other students like Drzick aren’t as interested in following competitive bowling after High School.
Drzick said she would play “probably not competitively, but just for fun because now I’m kind of good at it.”
