BATON ROUGE - It is Championship Week for the LHSAA and high school bowling. This has the potential to be a very entertaining three days of bowling. 

Wednesday at 1 p.m. will be the girls team semifinals and finals. Thursday both the boys Division I and II titles will be decided (D2 starting at 9:30 a.m. with D1 starting at 11:45 a.m. The team championships will be decided at Premier Lanes in Gonzales.

Friday, the singles championship will be decided with qualifying and the stepladder finals beginning at 11 a.m. at All Star Lanes in Baton Rouge. A total of 81 boys with averages 189 and up and 48 girls with averages 151 and up will take part in a four-game qualifying that will send six boys and six girls to separate stepladder finals. 

The girls’ semifinals will have defending champion and top seed Archbishop Chapelle (14-0) against No. 4 seed St. Joseph’s Academy (13-1), while No. 3 seed St. Amant (12-1) meets No. 10 seed Albany (12-2).

In Division I, in a bracket which fell apart as far as seedings, No. 6 East Ascension (12-1) will meet the eight-time champs and defenders from Brother Martin (No. 7 seed, 11-2), with the other semi sending No. 5 Archbishop Rummel (12-1) facing the 16 seed, Dutchtown (10-3).

Division II features the best story in the Baton Rouge region in first-year team undefeated No. 1 seed Episcopal (14-0) against No. 5 Patrick Taylor (12-2). In the other semifinal, two-time defending champion No. 3 seed Archbishop Shaw (11.5-1.5) against No. 7 seed Houma Christian (12-2).

Episcopal turned an opportunity and a chance to form a bowling team into an amazing opportunity because of one of the best bowlers in the state serving on the school’s staff.

Gregory Snee serves as the wide receivers coach for the football program for Episcopal and circumstances allowed him to approach new Athletics Director Brent Broussard with an ideal for the Class 2A school.

“I thought it was a great time to approach the idea to the new AD about my bowling background and how I thought it would be fun and good idea for me to start a program if it was ok,” Snee said. “(Broussard) did some research and realized I kind of undersold my ability and bowling resume and was all for me starting the team and has been supportive throughout the year.”

What started as high school bowling’s expansion team turned into an undefeated team to date.

“I'm constantly so impressed how they went from throwing house balls up the middle arrow to now understanding and being able to adjust on the fly with ball speed, moving left/right, rotation, spare shooting, etc,” said Snee. “They are all really starting to grasp the game and I just wish I could've started this sooner.  I would have loved to see what we could've done if I had this group for three or four years. I still am kind of in shock just how much fun and how well this season has gone. I figured I could make a team that would be competitive and have some fun but the amount of success we've had and now having 12 boys who absolutely love the sport and love to compete has been amazing to be a part of.”

Here are brief capsules on the semifinal matchups:

Girls

1 Archbishop Chapelle vs. 4 Saint Joseph’s Academy

Defending champs from Chapelle have won with ease and feature the third (Alexandra Young 205) and sixth best singles qualifiers (Addison Belle, 194). The Chipmunks will be looking for their third state title. SJA’s only loss this year was in its opening match to semifinalist St. Amant, by one pin, which swung a 16-11 decision. SJA won two 14-13 matches against Denham Springs and Woodlawn. Ava Doucet is second in state in average (206) and Molly Milligan is ninth (190).

3 St. Amant vs. 10 Albany

St. Amant’s lone loss was to Denham Springs in the first match of February and it defeated French Settlement and fellow Ascension High school, Dutchtown, in the quarterfinals. Addison Kirby, a 163 average bowler, won 19.5 of 21 matches during the regular season. Albany brings in the state’s top average female in Caroline Engeron (216) and she posted a 30-5 individual match game record. Engeron in the state tournament in March shot a state record 814 series. 

Boys Division I

5 Archbishop Rummel vs. 16 Dutchtown

Rummel is led by the state’s fourth best bowler, Anthony Linker, with a 221 average and Blake Caire (No. 7, 218). The team is expected to post three 200-plus averages in its lineup. Don’t let Dutchtown’s No. 16 seed fool you. Although seeding in the division was a little off, they still get credit for beating the No. 1 and No. 9 seeds to get to this point. Justin Ohler leads the team with a 206 average. 

6 East Ascension vs. 7 Brother Martin

EA had a huge win in the quarterfinals, knocking off undefeated and third seed Slidell quite easily. They will need a similar effort to stop a team that has won eight state championships in the Crusaders. Royce Wheat and Anthony Authement comes in with 200-plus averages. Until Brother Martin gets taken down a couple times in a row, they remain the top team in high school bowling history. A couple losses, including one to Rummel, make them slightly vulnerable and EA has home lane advantage, but the Crusaders in pressure matches with their loud, raucous crowd can be a handful. Five 200 averages in the lineup doesn’t hurt either.

Boys Division II

1 Episcopal vs. 5 Patrick Taylor

Get the right coach to start a program, get students who become invested in the program and go undefeated all the way to the semifinals. No matter what happens, this has been one of the best Baton Rouge bowling stories in a while. On paper, like their opening playoff match, they will be the underdogs but again, paper means nothing when the lights come on. However, PT will throw a lineup out with six bowlers averaging 202 or better.

3 Archbishop Shaw vs. 7 Houma Christian

The two-time Division II champs made sure everyone was paying attention in the first round when they smashed the state 6-player three-game total with a 4,117, 105 pins better than the old record. It was the fourth 4,000 shot in state high school bowling history. Shaw didn’t finish the season well with a tie and loss, but announced their playoff presence with that series. Houma Christian is a wild card with no average over 168. This one may be quickly over.

So time to see how it all plays out. We’ll have coverage this week on WBRZ.com and I’ll be joining Ken Trahan and Lenny Vangilder on the streaming coverage on Crescent City Sports of the championships.

Keep an eye for our recaps and until then, good luck and good bowling,

Kent Lowe