Weekdays after school one can find team hopefuls of the Girls Bowling team at Mission Bowl, intently focused on the pins lined up in front of them, trying to knock all the pins down with one swift strike of the ball. In the next few weeks, the girls we be getting ready for team tryouts, which start Dec. 4 and end on Dec. 6. Throughout the course of the three day tryouts, math teacher and coach Kim Spencer will be tallying up the girls’ scores and selecting the top 12 girls to be on the team.

After graduating nine seniors last year, Spencer is looking for new members interested in joining. The team will welcome back only two returning bowlers, juniors Madeline Fines and Brooke Tilley.

“Hopefully [this year] we can start building a team instead of graduating [the girls] every year and starting over,” Spencer said.

The 2014 season will be Spencer’s third year of coaching the team. In the 2013 season the girls had successes at Blue Valley Quad tournament and Regionals, in which they finished first and ninth, respectively.

“[This year] We’d like to continue our record of getting a place higher [at Regionals],” Fines said. “Eighth place would be awesome.”

At the informational meeting after school on Tuesday, Nov. 12, Fines, Tilley and 10 new interested members, including junior Kylie Jennings, attended to learn about the upcoming season.

“I wanted to join the team because I’ve been doing softball for the past two years, but I decided I didn’t want to do softball, so I decided to go out for something else, and that was bowling,” Jennings said.

After tryouts, the first tournament for the team will be hosted on Jan. 13 at Mission Bowl against Blue Valley West, De Soto and Kansas City Christian. While the girls try their best, the environment is a lighter hearted one for the team.

“Tournaments are kind of different because of the other schools are really serious and intense,” Tilley said. “The environment is different.”

With the 2014 team consisting of mostly new bowlers, Spencer encourages girls to join and get involved.

“It’s a good way to get involved,” Spencer said. “It’s fun. It’s a no cost sport. It’s not very time consuming. It’s a lot of fun and I think the girls enjoy it.”