With winter sports officially coming to an end, De Soto High School’s bowling teams ended the season achieving much more than they expected.

“A lot of people did not expect our varsity girls to go to State, because for most of the game [at Regionals] we were in fourth place, and last minute we ended up in second,” said junior girls bowler Tiye’ Kindred.

For the first time in school history, both the girls’ and boys’ varsity teams qualified at Regionals to be a part of the State tournament.

“For a lot of us it was our first time going to State, so it was just a really cool experience,” Kindred said.

Both teams made individual goals at the beginning of the season, reaching and exceeding their own expectations.

“The boys had said they were going to State, and the girls wanted to place well at Regionals, with a couple [girls] dreamed of wanting to go to State they just didn’t really know how competitive they would have to be,” head coach JR Kindred said.

To only make the experience better for the team, they had a great deal of support in the audience.

“[State] was very chaotic. There were a lot of people. The crowd was amazing. It was a lot of family and friends, and was just a great atmosphere,” Tiye’ said.
As bowling has not been one of the most populated activities at DHS, being on the team has brought many new friendships together that may have never started without going out for bowling.

“Just being on the team in general [is fun] with all my friends. It’s just really cool to make that bond. Even after the season we [the bowling team members] still  text each other and continue to talk,” Tiye’ said. “It’s [the bowling team] just like a big family.”

The girls team did not place at State this year, but now they know what to expect, and that they are capable of qualifying. Some girls have already started to brainstorm ways to prepare themselves for next season; with thoughts of joining a bowling league together to improve.

Following such an impressive season, the team has high hopes to make even bigger accomplishments next season.

“I feel like next year will be our best year ever,” junior bowler Sean Cauthron said.

At state, Cauthron finished fourth overall and competing with his team, the boys came in third place. Junior Alex Wright added a 14th-place finish. The boys are proud of their finish at State and are ready to return next winter.

“For one, a positive for us is that we have everyone coming back. We had no one graduate this year,” JR said.

The team has already set goals higher than their achievements made this season to come back during the 2019-20 school year, confident about to making more improvements and memories together.