Leadership is needed for most things to run smoothly.

There are five Xavier seniors leading the girls’ bowling team this year: Katelyn Jakel, Ellie Marovets, Olivia Nolte, Katherine Skoumal, Morgan Simoneau. 

With the team heavy in upperclassmen, the seniors are focusing on leading the current team. 

“We are going to lead the team by example and all of us are practicing really hard so that the underclassmen have a strong team to lead next year,” Marovets said.

In order for there to be a varsity girls’ bowling team, there must be six girls. With losing five seniors after this year from a roster of nine, the girls are making sure to support their younger teammates and pursue future bowlers to join the squad.

“I’m going to try to be uplifting and encouraging this year and help out the new bowlers,” Nolte said.

The Saints are getting ready for their upcoming meets through practices. 

“Our practices consist of Coach Camacho starting us off with a pep talk and how the week will look. Then we warm up for about five minutes, and after that, we bowl three games total,” Marovets said. 

Before every meet and after every practice, they pray a Hail Mary. The Saints also like to eat together after their meets. If the meet is in town, they go to Texas Roadhouse and hang out at someone’s house afterwards. If the meet is out of town they enjoy stopping at McDonalds.

They have big aspirations for the postseason.

“Our biggest goal is to not only make it to state, but to win it as well,” Nolte said.

In order to make sure the girls are comfortable around each other, they participate in multiple team bonding activities throughout the year to welcome new bowlers and spend time together outside of the practices and meets.

The Saints’ compete on Thursday, December 5 at  3 p.m. at May City Bowl.