On Thursday and Sunday nights, the first-ever bowling club at Oakland University revives family traditions and emerging sports careers with lifelong bowlers and first-time participants.
For two years, Avon North Hill Lanes has been the location of the Bowling Club at OU‘s weekly bowling meets, where attendees get a discount on two games in a non-competitive atmosphere.
“When I graduated high school I was getting Oakland information and everything ready so I was thinking ‘Is there a bowling club here?’” Jason Hollaway, a computer science major, said. “I’ve been bowling for about 15 years, so I’ve been in leagues since I was little but the last time I was in a league was my freshman year of high school.”
A majority of attendees echoed Hollaway’s story — lifelong bowling enthusiasts with family ties to the sport.
“I’ve been bowling since I was a child,” Hayle Monjaras, an education major, said. “Me and my family would go every Sunday to bowl and it became a regular family activity — that’s where my love for bowling came from, it’s a nice thing to do and have fun.”
“I went to the Beats and Eats with [a friend], and that’s how I met Ari — she told me about the bowling club,” Anderson said. “I was kind of interested because every time that my grandma would come from Arizona, we would always go bowling, so that would be our fun thing.”
With a record score of 290, Paul Dedenbach, one of the club’s star players also mentioned a recent resurgence in bowling among his family.
“Last summer my grandparents did a thing where, I think it was twice a week, we gathered with all the cousins to go bowling,” Dedenbach said. “ I had to change my bowling style because my fingers didn’t fit any of the balls and that has got me back into trying really hard.”
After scoring five consecutive strikes, Dedenbach explained his plans of joining a competitive league.
“Everybody in my family says I should join a league right now,” Dedenbach said. “I don’t really have the time or the money for it, so I’m probably going to wait either until I graduate college or over the summer.”
Whether it was an Instagram post, a quick browse through GrizzOrgs or at tabling events, all attendees first connected to the club thanks to its president, Arianna Thompson.
“I’d be on campus and people would come up to me and be like ‘Hey, are you the president of bowling club?’” Thompson said. “So it’s cool to see people know who I am and know about the club. I’ve heard positive feedback.”
Like the majority of the members, Thompson’s intention for the club resonates with family traditions and a life-long story with the sport.
“The reason why I created the club is because of my granddaddy, he’s the person that taught me how to bowl,” Thompson said. “When I first transferred here [to OU], winter 2021, I was on GrizzOrgs and I was talking with my mom. I told her ‘Mom, they don’t have a bowling club,’ so my mom actually helped me create the bowling club.”
The weekly group photos on the club’s Instagram profile attested to the community building fostered by Thompson and the student organization.
“I love meeting new people all the time and I love making the club that everybody loves,” Thompson said. “I want to build a community where all of us are very nice and supportive of each other, and that it is such a positive environment — so bowling is perfect for that.”
