By Mark Coddington
mark.coddington@theindependent.com

With its raucous cheers and manic energy, the self-proclaimed "loudest team in the state" is willing to take any comers whether they're going for pins or decibels.

"The other teams, they think they're louder," said Nate Horner, a senior from Ord. "Then they hear us and they just give up, because they know we're louder."

Last weekend, the team really had something to cheer about a sweep by the boys and girls teams in the Class C Nebraska High School Bowling Federation state championships, the schools' first-ever crowns in the sport.

Both teams won in dramatic fashion: The boys used a 1-2 finish by brothers Preston and Zach Wilson of Ord, and the girls squeezed out a win over Centura in the last frame of the fifth game of a best-of-five series.

The teams didn't exactly return as conquering heroes, though. The players cite a litany of grievances: sarcastic remarks from teachers, apathy from fellow students, one small article on page 8 of the local paper.

When you're competing for attention with the winter trio of wrestling and boys and girls basketball, it's tough to be taken seriously.

"When we won state volleyball, we had the fire trucks out," said Levi Smith, a junior from Ord.

"We come back from winning state, and everyone's like, 'Woo hoo,'" Racheal Rowse, a Burwell senior, added dryly.

But taking the state's top bowling prize after just a few years with a program was no small task.

The team has practiced three days a week since November, with meets on the weekends. Many team members grew up around the bowling alley, and they say it's essential to bowl regularly in the offseason to keep in peak form.

And their scores indicate they're no slouches, either. Preston Wilson, a freshman, took the individual crown with a 598 three-game score.

And don't tell them bowling isn't a sport, either. Kristi Manasil of Burwell, the team's coach, notes that on every ball, most students are rolling 15-pound balls down a 60-foot lane.

Over an in-season week, "that's close to 5,000 pounds over 18,000 feet," Manasil said. "That's a sport."

Manasil began coaching the team three years ago, when the two-year-old Burwell girls team added a boys team and students from Ord. The team's previous coach had to bow out because of an injury, so the team had just 24 hours to find a replacement.

Manasil stepped in, but what she saw wasn't pretty. Burwell and Ord share an intense rivalry in every other sport, and bowling was no different.

All of the Ord students bowled on lane 1, and the Burwell students bowled on lane 4.

"No one would bowl on 2 or 3," Manasil said. "And I thought, 'Oh, what have I done?'"

Three years and a few forced inter-school bowling pairings later, teammates from the two schools mix comfortably.

There are no squabbles between schools, and this year they added a girl from nearby Arcadia into the fold.

Horner even does the unthinkable: He sits with the enemy at basketball games.

"All my friends are in Burwell," the Ord student said nonchalantly.

And make no mistake bowling is a team sport for this crew.

Each tournament's final round is in a Baker format, in which four team members rotate each frame, so one good bowler can't carry a team, Manasil said.

And then there's the mental aspect. After a failed spare attempt or botched split, team members can always expect a chanting, yelling team behind them on their next ball.

"I'll get down if I have a really bad frame," said Karissa Owen, a junior from Burwell. "These guys keep me going."