Funny Bowling Team Names for Syracuse Ny
At Sport Bowl on a Monday night, it's hard to miss the team of women on lane one. If their matching shirts don't draw your attention, the chorus of laughter and constant high-fives after every strike or spare certainly will.
The ladies of Just Here, their team name because at competitions they say they are "just here to bowl" without expectations, recently returned from the United States Bowling Congress Women's Championship tournament in Reno, Nevada. With over 3,700 teams competing and no skill requirements to enter, the trip isn't about the prestige of a national title as much as it is a bonding experience for the teammates.
(That isn't to say Just Here wasn't thrilled to learn one of their four-person squads held second place for the first month of the competition.)
"There are some people that are die-hard, but we are definitely a team that goes for fun," said Paula Ray, a member for over 24 years. "If we bowl good, yay, and if we don't, we mark it up as another travel experience."
While teammates come and go over the years, some configuration of Sioux Falls bowlers compete at every national championship. The two most senior bowlers, 79-year-old Joani Nelsen and 80-year-old Evy Meier, have bowled together for 52 consecutive years and are the only two women in the state of South Dakota to participate in over 50 national competitions.
"When I used to coach, I told the kids that it was a lifelong sport," said Nelsen.
She recalled being told decades ago that anybody would be lucky to make it to 25 tournaments as she perused her hand-made list of every location to which she's traveled for competition since 1969.
Those annual trips around the country have become traditions for the ladies of Just Here. They added days to their visit in Syracuse, New York, to explore more of New England together. They aim to find a new restaurant on each trip so they can call it a success even if they bowl poorly. And when they return to Reno every third year, they have to spend a night at the Roxy martini bar.
Between the years of national travel and weekly league competition right at home in Sioux Falls, these women say they have become a family.
"We can literally talk about anything," said Ray. "We've all been through a lot of life changes and we've been there for each other through those life changes."
Bowler Barbra Tuschen said her teammates are excellent bowling teachers because their years of experience.
"And they make good life coaches," Ray interjected. Tuschen agreed.
Tuschen joined the bowling league before she had a family of her own. Now in her 50s with grown children, her fellow bowlers are also part of that family.
"She's like an aunt to my kids," she said, nodding at teammate Jody Bymers.
Although the decades-long legacy that connects many bowlers on the team is strong, it is by no means an exclusive club. Any woman is welcome to become a member no matter how long it's been since she's picked up a ball.
Kim Heim only joined three years ago, but she too feels a strong connection with her teammates.
"It's something that gets us out," she said. "I started because my kids left the house and I thought, I've got to do something. And now working from home, this is my outing and social time."
It's unknown whether the members of Just Here will win the Women's Championship someday. What is certain is that on Monday nights, these women will be right back on the lanes at Sport Bowl as usual. You may even hear Jody Bymers recount the only time in her bowling career that she picked up the fated seven-ten split.
Source: https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2021/07/07/just-here-bowling-team-sioux-falls-us-bowling-congress-womens-championship-tournament/7447570002/
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