Twice a week, the Copperfield Bowl slowly fills as the Cy Woods Bowling Team files in where they take a few lanes and bowl a of couple games. Established in 2006 by calculus teacher Chi Wong, the bowling team has grown since its creation.

“I was over at Cy Springs, and I was a coach there for seven years. When I transferred, I became the bowling coach,” Wong said. “Coming over from Springs, I already had experience in terms of working with the head director of Copperfield Bowling, so it was an easy transition for me.”

As a bowling sponsor, Wong determines the top bowlers based off average game score, UIL academic requirements and behavior. With this information, Wong is responsible for forming the lineup and deciding who is best for certain positions.

“Last year was probably the pinnacle of all 11 years since the school opened,” Wong said. “One of our boys finished second in the state, so the last two seasons in terms of achievement was pretty successful. Right now, our goal is to recruit more players and continue to grow for future teams.”

The bowling season starts in November and continues through March where the team goes to regionals.

“We’re split up into two different divisions. Right now, we’re in the west division with Cy Ranch, Langham Creek, Cy Springs and Cy Lakes,” Wong said. “Half the teams make it to regionals so by splitting up the schools into five teams, three out of the five continue on to regionals in each division so a total of six schools continue.”

From there, the top four advance to state in San Antonio. However, next year with the induction of two new schools in the bowling tournaments, the atmosphere will be more competitive at matches.

“We go back and forth every year with Langham Creek,” senior and captain Travis Drummond said. “Last year, Cy Woods lost to them, but then we went on to regionals and beat them there and went on to state. Our record is about five to five, we won five and they won five.”

Despite the competitive relationship with Langham Creek, the team remembers to enjoy the game.

“Bowling is a fun sport that anyone of any skill level or athleticism or build can [participate in],” sophomore Greg Finke said. “You don’t have to be tall or strong, you just got to be able to knock down pins. It’s something that appeals to almost everyone, and it’s something you can do till the day you die. It’s just good clean fun.”

As the bowling team gains more recognition, the team hopes to gain more members and advance to regionals.

“I know this year we tried really hard to advertise for the bowling team because a lot of our guys left last year. I hope we pick up more underclassmen this year so that they can carry it on,” Drummond said.

Although more underclassmen would be beneficial to the team, the girls varsity team is in need of more members as well.

“The girls bowling team doesn’t normally have the full amount of people. Last year, we had four girls and three of them were seniors. [Because of this], we’d almost always lose because we wouldn’t get the full amount of points,” sophomore Lauren Krause said. “I’d like to have more girls on the team in the future and have more recognition.”

For many of the players, bowling is a fun but friendly competitive sport, and their small team makes a closely-knit family that take their games with an enthusiastic outlook.

“Bowling is just about muscle memory, the more you bowl, the better you get. You need to be able to have consistent release and make your spares, that’s a very important part of the sport,” Finke said. “I would say [to anyone considering joining the bowling team] to just have a positive attitude, not to take it too seriously and to stay behind the foul line.”