Bowling Team receives National Championship Rings

The Apopka Boys Bowling Team has been making history for some time. But three state championships is a row was just not enough. Back in July they earned the title, "National Champions," at the inaugural US High School Bowling National Championships held in south Florida.

At this tournament the Apopka High School Boys Bowling Team competed against the best teams in the country. And won.

Yesterday the tournament director drove up from south Florida to deliver the proof; the Championship Rings.

The photo shows (Left to right): Coach Todd Hauser, Pete Vergos, Alex Highfield, Assistant Coach Bud Endicott, Nick Moyer, Keith Horton, Gage Stelling and Assistant Coach Doug Campbell. Not pictured; Keyfer Koppe.

This is the fourth Championship Ring for the team.

Becoming National Champions was not easy.

The Apopka team was in 3rd place after the morning qualifying round and advanced with 11 other teams to Round 2. They dropped to 4th place and were one of the 8 teams that advanced to Round 3. The team stayed in 4th place and edged out Bayside High School by 6 pins to make it to the semi-finals.

Apopka had the top score in the semi-finals; 237, 213 and a 269 for a 719 series.

In the finals they were matched against a team from New Mexico; The Rams of Rio Rancho High School. The finals consisted of 3 Baker Games.

After Game 1 the Blue Daters were up by 14 pins (221 to 207).

Apopka's lead dropped to only 5 pins after Game 2 (205 to 213).

Both teams struggled in Game 3, but in the end Apopka won the National Championship by 12 pins. The final game score was 192 to 185 making the series scores 617 for Apopka and to 605 for Rio Rancho.

It was a long day.

"We were at the bowling alley for 12 hours today!" exclaimed Sue Moyer at the time. "We are so proud of Nick, Gage and Keith for their showing yesterday in the Individual contest. And today the team became the National Champions. The boys brought it home for Apopka! It has been a long weekend. Stressful, overwhelming, exciting and everything in-between. The boys are truly blessed with great skill."