Daemen Bowling Rolls Towards New Season With Bowl U Program

LOCKPORT, N.Y. – The separation is in the preparation. 

In what has been a year of uncertainty, the Daemen women’s bowling team chose to control what they can control during this unprecedented and extended off-season with hopes of resuming action in early 2021. 

Earlier this month, the Wildcats began working on their skills and knowledge related to bowling through the Bowl U program, which is taught locally by Brad Angelo at his Brad Angelo Lanes in Lockport, N.Y. A nationwide educational program founded by Rick Benoit in 2006, Bowl U’s ultimate goal is to spread the knowledge of the sport to all ages and skill levels, and has been used by other collegiate programs in the past, including Wichita State, which has a record 20 men’s and women’s national championships. While Daemen is only a few weeks into the program, the dividends are already paying off.

“I think it’s a great experience for the girls to be exposed to elements of bowling that they probably haven’t been exposed to before,” said Daemen head coach Carrie Racsumberger, who is entering her third season with a Daemen program that is coming off a program-best 40-win season. “They’re given opportunities to do things on the lanes that they can’t do at a normal bowling center, where they’re able to go up to the pins and knock them down at a very close range to see how the pins deflect to learn a little bit of science behind bowling… We’re just fortunate here that we have somebody in Buffalo, locally, that we can utilize.”

When Benoit started the nationwide program, Angelo was one of the first people he contacted and quickly convinced him to become an instructor. It’s been a perfect fit as Angelo has been a passionate advocate for the sport for decades.

“Bowling is a legitimate sport at the competitive level,” said Angelo, whose resumé includes the PBA Tour Rookie of the Year award in 2002-03 and being named the top bowler in the world the following year. “It does take some athleticism and it’s not just somebody rolling a ball down a lane to knock over some sticks at the other end of the lane. There’s a whole lot more to it than that. And it really appeals to the creative mind. It’s a creativity and strategy sport. Repetition sport. It is not a speed and strength sport. It’s a sport that appeals to the creative mind and to people who like to figure things out.”

Since joining the Bowl U staff, Angelo has traveled across Europe, the Middle East and other countries and passed on what Benoit has preached to professional bowlers over the years – the five elements of bowling. In his sessions with the Wildcats, this is fused into a six to eight-week program. 

In the first element, Angelo teaches about the pins, from how and why they fall to how they need to collide together to efficiently fall every time. The second element studies the “Athletic Aura,” and determines the true mindset of a champion – not what to think, but how to think. The third element discusses the bowling lane and its different surfaces and the amounts of friction the lane creates. Then, the fourth element dissects the physical game and helps the bowler find their identity and learn how to stay within their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. The fifth and final element uses outdoor training routines to fix the bowler’s flaws. 

“In the Bowl U program, we’ve found that the learning curve has accelerated at such a quicker rate because they understand things prior to learning them on their own,” said Angelo. “Now their physical game can develop more quickly and it ends up making it a whole lot more fun because they’re challenged every time when they put their shoes on to compete. It ends up becoming fun trying to figure out everything and putting everything together.”

Making connections to her own game has been what Daemen senior Alex Hasiotis has learned the most the past couple weeks. After first hearing about Bowl U at a national tournament held in Detroit, Mich. in the summer of 2019, Hasiotis said her understanding of the physics of the sport and how to adjust her own routine based on how the pins are set up is what she hopes to build off of, especially as a left-hander.

“For each bowler, it’s going to be different but we’re all looking at the same reference point of whether the pocket is opened or closed and make a personal adjustment to my style of bowling to try to combat that, so you can throw the perfect strike,” she said. 

Secondly, her confidence has grown after Angelo introduced the PACER routine in the sessions. The PACER routine is an acronym for Preparation, Acknowledge, Commitment, Execution and Reaction. By failing to do one step, a bowler’s timing will be off immensely.

“The mental one definitely is a good one for me because it’s so easy to get up there rushed, throw a shot, get mad about it, or just not think about it and then go up for your next shot and have no idea – what did the last shot do? Am I going to do it again?”

For other programs, coaches and teams may be forced to travel for hours at a time for a single Bowl U session. Having a bowling alley like Angelo’s, located just 12 miles away from the Main Street campus, is also a plus.

“Brad said, ‘A lot of these places aren’t going to do these things for you, like take the oil off the lanes to walk down there and do drills,’ added Hasiotis. “At Brad’s center, you can go over there and work on this type of stuff. I think it’s just really convenient for us compared to other places.”

In just a matter of weeks, Angelo said Daemen’s growth so far has been “unbelievable” to watch. 

“I told them, ‘If you guys really put some work in, you guys can do some real damage nationally and if you really put the work in and things go right, you can make a run at a national title,’ which I think is great,” he said. “They have a pretty talented group of girls and they have a coach in Carrie, who is looking at it from a very proactive way of reaching out to somebody – or a program – that she can root her college program in to be able to help get the best out of each athlete. It’s more than just somebody trying to give their two cents into how they think somebody should bowl. They are learning to grow together and communicate together as a team. Carrie is the one that’s facilitating that, which I applaud that.”

Knowing of Wichita State’s success in Kansas through their Bowl U partnership, Racsumberger agreed the future is bright for the Daemen program.

“There’s a ton of talent here locally in Buffalo and tapping into that talent and getting them on board and into this Bowl U and using that as a foundation for our program, I think, really gives us a shot for being very competitive,” she said.

2020 has been uncharted waters for collegiate programs across the country, including Daemen bowling, compared to a year ago. Last November, the Wildcats were approaching the halfway point of the season. Since mid-February, though, the team hasn’t competed in a tournament and hasn’t held a traditional team practice since March 8.

But instead of dwelling over logistics, Hasiotis and her teammates are solely concerned on rolling with the flow and embracing their time with Bowl U currently.

“Right now, we’re preparing and we don’t have a date, but it’s helping us prepare for whenever our first our match is going to be,” she said. “We’re going to be ready for it.”