Despite coming from a family of bowlers and having bowled her whole childhood, Rose Becker was ready to give up the sport for good at age 13 because she had not earned a score above 95.
Then, in her next game, she bowled at 215.
“That was the point where I was kind of like ‘No, I think I’m going to stick with this,’ ” Becker, now a junior, said.
While that remains her high score, Becker has gone on to a strong career with Baldwin’s bowling team. This season, Becker was named the girls section MVP and qualified for WPIALs with an average of 141.8 at individuals.
Teammate Kelson Kleinhampl credits Becker on her accomplishments.
“Rose had the highest average in the section (among female bowlers), so she definitely represents the girls well,” Kleinhampl said.
Becker made it to regionals this year as well, compiling an average score of 119.4.
“I’m not surprised she made it. She always keeps a good mindset,” Kleinhampl said.
When Becker moved from Young Scholars of Western Pennsylvania to Baldwin for freshman year, her family pushed her to get involved in a sport. She chose to continue bowling.
Being right-handed, Becker struggled the most with hitting the 10-pin, which is the far right pin. She focused on this especially when preparing for WPIALs.
During an average week during the season, Becker would be at Legacy Lanes two to three days a week. After qualifying for WPIALs, she practiced every day after school, focusing on hitting the 10-pin continuously.
Teammate senior Nico Puglin said that the work Becker put in since the start of the season is obvious in her scores.
“Her averages improved a lot,” Puglin said. “She’s spent a lot of time working with our coach and now she’s pretty consistent too.”
Puglin said that competing in regionals is a big change from regular games and is a lot more stressful.
“You have to plan to compete against a lot more people,” Puglin said. “It’s a lot more stress and it’s harder to do, but it’s still fun when you focus on yourself.”
Boys’ and girls’ bowling teams compete separately but at the same time. Becker, Baldwin’s only female bowler this year, said bowlers from other schools sometimes had awkward reactions to her presence at matches.
“It’s a lot of weird looks, but not anything more than that,” Becker said.
At practice, Becker practices with the Baldwin boys’ team.
“It’s not that different, honestly,” he said. “She’s there to bowl and so are we.”
While Becker is the only member of the girls team at Baldwin, some other schools have much larger female teams. Because of this, the Baldwin girls team did not win any matches as a team this season.
“It’s a little frustrating, but there’s not much I can do about it. So I focus on individuals,” Becker said.
