Huntington Football Goes Bowling
Huntington football players prepped for the upcoming season by going bowling. The varsity and junior varsity squads traveled to Larkfield Lanes in East Northport for what rookie head coach Ron Wilson billed as a “field trip” that was designed to be a fun team building activity.
“I must say it was very successful,” Wilson said. “We sat and watched in awe as the young men enjoyed an evening out with their teammates. For some it was their first time to a bowling alley.”
Assistant coach Tim Madden, organized teams composed of a mix of varsity and JV players. In all, ten teams of four or five players each were created and soon thereafter the sounds of balls streaking down the alleys could be heard. “It was a blast,” Madden said.
Senior quarterback Brian Ruggiero captained a team consisting of three signal callers and a receiver. “One of his younger teammates became very frustrated and did not want to continue bowling,” Wilson recounted. “Ruggiero, a leader in his own right, talked to him and before you knew it the younger player was back on the lanes throwing the ball. That was a great moment for me to capture.”
As the night wore on it was the team captained by senior receivers Joshua Daves and Sean Whitney that grabbed the win late in the tenth frame to beat teammates Joe Brown and Ricardo Caballero and several other linemen, by three points. The winners were excused from sprints at the next day’s practice.
The evening’s highlight came when players challenged Wilson and assistant coach Todd Jamison to a three-on-two match. A player’s victory would have allowed the entire team to escape dreaded conditioning stations. “They picked the best, and highest scoring bowlers,” Wilson said, including sophomores Qu'Ran Carter and Thomas Wilson and Whitney.
“It was nice to see how the team was rooting on the players,” Wilson said. “But, unfortunately for them, they came up short.” Wilson and Jamison sealed their victory in the eighth frame when the pair bowled back-to-back strikes.
“The athletes had a great time and I, for one, enjoyed the evening away from the football field with them,” Wilson said. "We are, of course, a team of differences. Those differences don't make us weak. They're the source of our strength. And that's what we're going to build our team on.”
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