Friday (Jan. 31) ended up being the greatest afternoon in the history of the Cleveland Central High School girls bowling program.
The Lady Wolves secured their first state championship by winning the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class II Girls State Bowling Tournament at Fannin Lanes in Brandon.
CCHS ended up winning in impressive fashion by bowling a tournament score of 3,089 to finish 133 pins ahead of second place Corinth (2,956). In past years, the Lady Wolves have been close to winning the title. They finished state runner-up in 2019 and 2020. They finished third in their first year as a school in 2018 and have finished third in back-to-back years in 2023 and 24.
CCHS Head Bowling Coach Wade McLemore said the squad has been prepping for this moment.
“We’ve been right there at it for a while,” said McLemore. “We had a really good season this year. The girls worked really hard. It’s one of those things were they kind of knew what the expectation was in the tournament. The funny thing about the way the ball rolled was nobody in the house was at their best. The winning score on the girls side was less than a 3,100. The winning score on the boys side was less than 3,800. What I’m happy with and pleased with was even though we weren’t at our best, we were able to push through it and finish things out.”
CCHS senior Dmya White said she was confident in the team’s ability to come out on top.
“I knew we were going to win,” said White. “I had told everyone we were going to be state champions this year. I told my mom that we’ll win the state this year. I knew from last year we were going to win. Our attitudes improved tremendously. My girls have been bowling and working hard. We had our ups and downs, but we knew we were going to win.”
CCHS was in second place after the first two games as the Lady Wolves bowled a 759 in the first game and a 763 in game two for a 1,522 which put them 26 points behind Corinth (1,548).
CCHS stayed consistent in game three by bowling a team score of 754 while Corinth dropped off with a 668 to move into first place. The Lady Wolves found their stride in game four as they bowled an 813 to secure the championship.
CCHS got clutch play from all five of their starting bowlers through out the day.
Sophomore Diana Ramirez bowled a 691 and was consistent through out the day as she bowled a 164 in game one, a 181 in game two, a 178 in game three and a 168 in game four. Her series was the second best at state.
Ramirez said the championship lets the team breath a sigh of relief.
“We’ve always wanted to win the title,” said Ramirez. “We’ve always been so close to winning it, and we just needed to believe in ourselves a lot more and put in more work to be able to get the title.”
Eighth grader Isabelle Wardlow had the second highest series on the CCHS team with a 645. She rolled a 136 in the first game, a 181 in the second game, a 181 in the third game and a 147 in the fourth game.
“In the first game, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” said Wardlow. “We kind of doubted ourselves. In the second game, we bounced back up and got all of the nerves out and just bowled. It went smooth sailing from there.”
Junior Paizley Davis had the third best series of the day for CCHS with a 639. She started things off right for the Lady Wolves with a 200 in game one. She ended up bowling a 165 in game two, a 127 in game three and a 147 in game four.
“When we won state, the feeling was immaculate,” said Davis. “I can’t even describe the feeling that we felt when we won. We were in a rough patch in the first game, but some of our scores held on more than others. I can say personally for myself, I had a good first and second game, but I fell off my third and fourth game. I can say we have good teammates. It’s a team effort. If one person’s score is low, the other person’s score is higher so it levels out. I thank my team for that.”
Sophomore Emma Gong had a big day for CCHS as she bowled a 622 series. She bowled a 146 in the first game, a 138 in the second game, a 149 in the third game and a 189 in the fourth game.
“Being a state champion is very exciting,’ said Gong. “It wasn’t the best we’ve done, but it wasn’t the worst either. We just pulled it together.”
Junior Mackenzie Berryhill wrapped up the Lady Wolves’ performers with a 492 series. She bowled a 113 in game one, a 98 in game two, a 119 in game three but came on in the clutch in game four with a 162.
“State has been a top notch priority for us,” said Berryhill. “We’ve been trying our hardest for four or five years now, working our butts off to win this title. We’ve finally done it, and it’s unbelievable. I did not do my best in my first or second game, but I had my team captain Dmya White sit me down and tell me that I’m okay and need to shake it off. I got back out , and I did my best. We pulled it through.”