Published: September 17, 2011
For the second time in its brief existence, the highly successful Nature Coast bowling program will sit out a season.
This time, though, the decision hasn't been met with nearly the same hostility as when both the boys and girls team got temporarily shut down in 2008, a year after the boys won a state championship.
It makes sense, considering the primary reason. According to Head Coach Carrie Piechowicz, she received almost zero response when she attempted to round up either a boys or girls squad.
"I don't know what it was, if the seniors were the ones trying to keep it going," Piechowicz said. "But after that, it seemed like there wasn't (interest) anymore."
Piechowicz did feel she could have found a way to field a boys team, but would never have come up with enough girls. Thus gender-equity issues forced this end result, Piechowicz said.
Nature Coast Athletic Director Kristin Peeples did indicate that Piechowicz pursuit of a graduate degree also played a role, along with financial considerations.
"She just couldn't do it," Peeples said. "So basically we decided at this point to suspend it. With all the fees and everything else, we felt it was in our best interest to hold off and wait and see."
Piechowicz clarified Peeples' statement, saying that while she does intend to work toward her doctorate, she has not begun that process, and that she planned to remain on as coach.
In fact, she added that had she needed to step down, she had lined up another teacher willing to take her place.
Without bowlers, the point is moot. The Sharks won't be bowling in 2011. Whether they'll do so in 2012? They'll cross that bridge when they come to it.
When Nature Coast has bowled, from 2006-07 and the previous two years, it has produced. The boys have won three district titles, plus the school's lone state crown. The girls have won districts twice and finished as high as third in the state in 2007.
However, bowling is not a supplemented sport in Hernando County, meaning the head coach does not receive any official paycheck. That eventually caused Shaizey Beach to depart following the 2007 campaign.
Because of the off-campus nature of the sport, the school insisted on replacing her with another full-time school system employee. When one didn't surface, the team lost its 2008 season.
That sparked a harsh reaction from both bowlers and parents, who decried that Nature Coast would allow the county's only bowling program to fold, especially coming off such lofty achievements.
Parents responded by forming a booster club to help fund the boys and girls teams, and Piechowicz, a guidance counselor at the school, was willing to step in.
Under Piechowicz the girls captured back-to-back district titles, and the boys won in 2010 after shockingly falling short in 2009.
But this year things figured to change. For the Lady Sharks, the top three bowlers ? Nikki Williams, Melissa Martin and Franki Palermo ? were not going to take part. The latter two graduated and Williams, a junior, now attends Florida Virtual School.
According to Williams' father, Kevin, who owns Kevin's Pro Shop out of Spring Hill Lanes, the two-time defending individual district champion was ineligible to bowl for Nature Coast.
On the boys' side, four of the five starters from a year ago were seniors. The only potential returnee of that group was Darian Curtis, a junior in 2010.
However, Curtis said he left Nature Coast midway through the last school year and is now home-schooled, and though he still could have participated, he had no intention of rejoining the Sharks.
All that added up to the school following the current path.
"I'm definitely disappointed there is no team," Piechowicz said. "Just getting to know the kids and having that feeling of camaraderie with them was fantastic and I loved being a part of it."
cbernhardt@hernandotoday.com (352) 544-5288
Source: http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/sep/17/HANEWSO1-sharks-go-on-another-hiatus/areasports/
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