The West Texas A&M Bowling Team has started off the semester with their ongoing tryouts that began on Sept. 2 and end on Sept. 18. Students who were interested in the bowling team attended a meeting on August 27th. The coach for the WTAMU Bowling Team, Mark Scroggins, explained the tryout process and presented paper work that students had to fill out.  Along with this information students were to list their available times for tryouts and an overview of how to score their results when they bowl.
“We bowl four times a day, four days a week for three weeks,” Ashley Hansen, junior Bio-Chemistry Major said. “We bowl a total of 48 games throughout the tryout process, and it definitely gets tiring.”
There are a total of five squads each day that bowl from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. The bowlers sign up for two hour blocks to complete their four games a day. Coach Mark Scroggins attends every block to be able to see what each bowler is capable of. Every student will have their score card where they keep track of their results as they bowl their games. They submit their scores to Coach Mark, and he places the bowlers based on their performance.
“Each day we have different oil patterns that we bowlers have to adjust to,” Natalie Walker, senior Accounting major, said. “Coach Mark Scroggins gives us aggressive oil patterns to make us think faster and be better prepared for tournaments. This makes it harder to bowl but it is designed to make us better bowlers.”
Everyone has their scores posted on the wall down the bowling alley in the WTAMU’s Activity Center. Students are placed and compete against each other for a spot on the teams that are taken to the major tournaments. There is regularly a Team A and Team B for both men and women bowlers, and each team consist of about 6-8 bowlers depending on the tournament.
“The tryout process is to place the top bowlers that will have a spot on our first tournament on September 27-28, at Western Bowl in Amarillo,” Tim Crites, senior Accounting major, said. “If one has a bad game we have to stay positive and stay focus,” Hansen said. “Being mentally strong is what matters in tournaments.”