The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School men’s bowling team played against J.P. Taravella High School, Coral Glades High School, Coral Springs Charter School and Coral Springs High School for their “Senior Night” match on Tuesday, Oct. 16. The match was held at Sawgrass Lanes at 3 p.m. starting off with the Senior Night ceremony to commemorate seniors’ last year on the team. After the ceremony was concluded, the match between the teams was started.

The event is held annually during the last week of the season, serving as a farewell to senior players in the league before the start of district and state championships.

“I really have some great kids here on this team,” Coach Mike Gregory said. “My seniors and everything they brought to the team are definitely going to be missed by me and all the players.”

The event started with speeches from each school’s coaches and Bowling League Director Gary Hofer.

They congratulated all competing senior players for their time dedicated to the bowling league. After the speeches, senior players from each school were called up and awarded a medal for their hard work in the sport. These awarded players included team captain Vincent Ciullo and Jonathan Rios.

“I earned a medal at the game for recognition of being a senior since it was senior night,” Ciullo said. “It was basically a way to show the longevity of being part of the high school league.”

After the award ceremony, the teams started getting ready for the game. Each team is given 10 minutes to warm up and prepare, with players taking turns using the lanes, fitting bowling shoes and picking out balls for the game. After the 10-minute warm-up ended, the match began.

The match is structured into two regular games and a final game in the “Baker Format” to determine the winner. In the first two matches, five players on each team are given individual scores for their bowling with the pin total at the end deciding who won the round. The more pins a team has knocked down, the higher they place.

The final game in the “Baker Format” is scored differently, however. In each of the 10 frames of the round, a different player on the team bowls. At the end of the round, instead of counting individual scores, the total score of the team is tallied, the team with the highest score being the winner.

With the start of game one, MSD came off strong with exceptional performances from each player, especially Ciullo, with the highest score of 221.

Despite their goal to win, MSD lost game one to J.P. Taravella, with a total score of 882.

“The hardest part of leading the bowling team is trying to keep everybody positive during games,” Ciullo said. “Whenever someone has a bad frame, I try to encourage them so they don’t get in their head about it.”

Game two saw similar scores with MSD earning a total of 876 pins, and junior Bryce Gregory had the highest score of 201.

The results of game two were also similar to game one with MSD coming up behind Taravella, resulting in a loss.

By this point, Taravella had won the two regular games, leaving MSD with only one chance of redemption to win the final game in the Baker Format.

As the final round started, each player took turns rolling the ball. By the tenth frame, the winner was declared. MSD won game 3 with a team score of 202.

“Advice I give to my teammates is to never give up when all hope seems lost,” Rios said. “We have shown countless times that there is always a chance for victory.”

By the end of Senior Night, MSD came in second place with a total score of 1,960 pins, only being surpassed by Taravella with a total score of 2,172 pins.

With this high placement, MSD is favored to perform well at an even higher level next week when they go to district competitions.

In the league, the best teams in the local area go to district competitions to compete for the top two spots. Those two spots are then sent to state competitions with the chance of being declared the best team in Florida.

“For districts, the team is still having practices and we are mainly focusing on picking up spares and making sure our energy stays out at all time high,” Rios said. “I hope we can get first place in districts and qualify for states in Orlando.”

With the excitement shown at Senior Night, the bowling team hopes to make it far in their rise to the top.