By John Raffel
Coach William Armour III had a fun season with his Portland boys bowling in his sixth season of coaching.
The squad was 8-2 in the league and 11-5 overall.
“This has been a rebuilding year, losing eight seniors last year,” Armour said. “We had a great year, only one of our team bowled with the varsity last year and we came out strong, winning our first match vs. East Lansing early in December. We used nine different bowlers this year to find the right six by the end of the year. These young men had their struggles but I was proud of how they worked together to get better. They finished in second in the CAAC Blue Division only losing to DeWitt twice.
“We just missed being CAAC champs as we have the last few years. But on an individual basis the team exceeded my expectations. Luke Dalman was the CAAC individual champion two years in a row, and all members of the varsity team hit all-time high scores. Josh Rutkowski showed he is ready to lead his team next year and freshmen Cooper Hoskins has proved that he deserved to be on the varsity. Kyle Edlund gave a concerted effort at regionals coming up close to making states. He switched from one-handed to two-handed one month into the season.”
Armour said his team practiced very hard.
“The first match vs. Dewitt, our freshman Cooper Hoskins, just days before the match, his father died,” Armour said. “His comment to me is ‘I want to bowl’ and he did. Unfortunately, we lost the match.”
Dalman averaged 193 this season and had a high game of 257 also qualifying second at regionals out of 87 bowlers. At states, he made it to 22nd out of 60
Josh Rutkowski averaged 175 this season.
Cooper Hoskins was honorable mention, averaging 157 and a high game of 224.
Graduating this year is Dalman. Portland has 12 returning bowlers.
“It will be a great year with most likely being CAAC champs and state finalists,” Armour said.