PASCACK VALLEY—Congratulations to the 2021–2022 Westwood Cardinals Girls Bowling Team, winner of the NJSIAA Group 1 State Championship, held this year on Feb. 14 at Bowlero Lanes in North Brunswick.
According to Westwood High School Head Boys & Girls Bowling Coach Dan Rattacasa, the Lady Cardinals went toe to toe with the best the Garden State could assemble, knocking down eight programs after three traditional games were rolled.
This is Westwood’s third girls bowling state championship, following a historic win in 2015, a follow-on in 2017, and this year senior Amelia Hanson rolling her career best game, 192, in the final game of the series.
Westwood started out in fourth place after the first game, climbed to second place after game 2, then rolled the best team game of the season in deciding game 3, with an 846.
Rattacasa said, “The Lady Cards mathematically took home the gold in dramatic fashion as junior anchor Haley Adkins rolled a turkey in the 10th frame, pushing Westwood ahead for good.”
He said the Lady Cardinals finished the regular season with an impressive 16-1 match record, won the league title for the ninth time in program history, and made the semifinals of the prestigious Bergen County tournament.
Rattacasa’s been coaching Westwood bowling for 18. The girls team was set in 2009.
He told Pascack Press on Feb. 22 the boys are bowling well. “We’ve had our good years in the mid-2000s, 2015 and 2016 we were competitive. We’re not breaking through recently, but we’re doing pretty well.”
He said “The last two years with Covid, we had a really strong girls team but the state didn’t have any tournament. We were one of the top three or four teams in the state, girls-wise. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to compete, and they all graduated. So I had a new varsity team this year.”
Rattacasa said one girl had “bowled a little varsity two years ago, but these are all rookies, basically, competing on the varsity level. So for us to break through in the biggest tournament of the year was super, super exciting.”
He said, “I knew with what we had, if it was our day, we would definitely be in the running to compete. But with them not having the experience you can’t think it’s gonna all work out— you think you’ll get there and get the experience and try again next year, but for them to win, it was just tremendous.”
Rattacasa praised the team’s two seniors, Francesca Andolina and lead-off bowler Amelia Hanson.
“Amelia was just steady for us. During the biggest matches she would always just kind of bowl her average, or bowl a little bit above her average, and she would come through more than likely.”
The championship was different, he said. “In the last game — you bowl three games in the series — we were down by 30 pins, she bowled her career best. She’s a 145 bowler’ she bowled a 192. And that’s her career best in the last game of her high school career. That’s a nice story for her to take with her.”
He said the girls haven’t announced where they’re off to next, describing them as very soft-spoken, with bright futures.
And he said of his third championship with the girls program, “It feels good that you’re doing something right, definitely, I’m just really proud of what we were able to do. In 2015 we won our first one — and we were the first girls Bergen County team to ever win a bowling state bowling title.”
Two years later, he said, “We won it again, kind of unexpectedly because of graduation, and then we had to rebuild, and had that really good team, and then because of Covid we lost them to graduation.”
As much as this win is a brilliant achievement for his girls of 2022, Rattacasa says, “I really feel that what we did this year was not only for us, it was for the group that graduated last year. It was closure for them too. I deep down feel that way, even though the connection’s a little lost, with them not being around and this being a whole new team.”
Asked if he had anything else to note about the season, the championship, or the way forward, Rattacasa said, “This isn’t for me, but for the school and for the kids. I’m just so proud of them.”