It’s been 20 years. 20 years since the hand stinging high 5’s and yelling so loud I’d lose my voice. College Bowling. It feels like my collegiate bowling years were not that long ago.  I remember those days so well that any time I’m involved with the National Championship, I can’t help but reminisce. This week the Intercollegiate Team Championship is happening outside the Chicago area, and I’ll be there covering it. Since I’m the Storm Collegiate manager, I work with so many amazing coaches and teams. Half of the Nationals field are Storm-sponsored teams!

One thing that stands out in my memory is that collegiate team spirit. I remember getting to nationals knowing that we have a really strong team. Our team always arrived together at nationals with one goal and everyone on the same page for that same goal. When I played for Nebraska, we won two national championships, which not many people can say. To be able to say that is pretty special. And those National Championship teams were special.

What made our team so strong?

When I think back to those days, a few things stand out. The fact that everyone on the team is bringing something different is one of the first things that come to mind. Embracing everyone’s differences. It’s important to acknowledge that everyone has different strengths. That’s why teams win championships.

It’s important to realize that everyone contributes something. This transcends collegiate bowling. I’m talking about any team. In your life. Forever. A league team, a collegiate team, a high school team, a work team, family. Not everyone is going to look at the world like you do. But respecting everyone’s differences within the team can actually give the entire team strength. Showing up as a strong team isn’t always easy. It takes work by everyone on the team. When you’re all there for the same reason, and you all have one goal, it’s not necessarily easy to build that trust and respect for everyone else that makes for a strong team.

When we are looking at how we fit into our team, it’s important to look at what we are contributing. We need to ask ourselves what we are bringing to the team and how we are making it stronger. Ask yourself: Am I bringing accountability? Am I showing up with dedication? Am I bringing positivity? Am I bringing open-mindedness, knowing that not everyone is going to be like me? Am I supporting my teammates when they’re down? Am I bringing respect? 

In the Intercollegiate Team Championships it’s a quick format. In each game, you have to get it together quickly and remain tight as a team. With five people on the team, the coach strategizes who’s going where in the lineup, but it’s up to the players to each do their part. Bowling those fast baker games, the five bowlers that are bowling have a very specific way they are contributing. As an example, the leadoff bowler is important for a couple of reasons. A leadoff bowler must consistently be able to throw great shots. If the leadoff bowler is a little shaky, they aren’t able to give the team a good read, and most of the time, they are going in blind after moving games and entering a new pair. 

I was the leadoff in college, and I felt it was a big responsibility to provide good information to my team after my first shot. It’s also important that the leadoff bowler has the right attitude. It’s the first frame, and you are setting the tone for the game. Everyone is sort of reading you, not just the lane, after that first shot. As a leadoff bowler, being confident, happy, and supportive is important because you’re setting up the spirit of the team.

The fourth bowler has a responsibility to set up the anchor bowler who is bowling the tenth frame. That foundation frame is imperative. Each position is just as important as the next. Just in different ways.

When you’re in college, with every game and every tournament, your team melts together. You play off of each other’s strengths and fit better together the longer you bowl together.

The fact is that collegiate teams have an innate strength that other teams don’t have. No other team is ever going to have the kind of strength that builds over the year. There will be no other time in your life that you are on a team as strong as your collegiate team. You may play on teams at other times in your career, but you’ll never again train with them and see them every day in a way that develops into such a tight bond. Even when I was with Team USA, I didn’t see my teammates or train with them very often. We were always spread across the country.

My advice to collegiate bowlers now is to appreciate how special that time in your life is. When you’re in it, I think it’s easy to take for granted just how special it is. It’s when I look back on these years that I’ve realized how special a time collegiate bowling was. But if you can see that while you’re in it, I think it could make it that much more special.

More than being just a special time, I think collegiate bowling is also a really good analogy for life. You’ll always find yourself on teams. You can take what you learn in collegiate bowling and literally apply it to any team that you’ll ever be on for the rest of your life – with work, with friends and even with family. You can look at so many of these situations as being on a team. Knowing how you play on a team can set you up in a lot of areas of life beyond the lanes.

It’s the college bowling gift that keeps on giving.