The UW Oshkosh bowling club offers a chance for students to compete in bowling at the collegiate level in competitive and casual leagues and is gearing up for next season.

Vice President, social media manager, board member and team captain, Matthew Steffen, said that he and the coaches are beginning planning for practices in order to improve for the next season.

“The coaches and I have talked about how to be overall better in practice,” he said. “To set ourselves up better for weekends and enjoy what we’re doing when we go out and do these tournaments.”

Bowling club member Cole Hietpas said that the club is open to different levels of players. Players range from those who travel to different tournaments, to those who just practice with the team.

“The club can have a competitive atmosphere if you want it to,” he said. “We have a traveling team that competes around Wisconsin, the Midwest and even Las Vegas, but if you are more of a recreational bowler who just wants to learn more about the sport, that is okay too. You are still more than welcome to join the club and come to practices to improve your game.”

Steffen said that the team was successful throughout most of the season and is ready to grow off that success.

“We have competed in 14 tournaments,” He said. “In the conference we were top 5 in every tournament … Sectionals was a month ago, and there was a lot going on there but wound up finishing towards the bottom half, we’re going to take away from that and learn as much as possible. It’s a young team so there is a lot of room to grow.”

In order to grow, Steffen said the team will continue to work through the summer and add to the team.

“Over the summer we have summer practices,” he said. “We started this last season so that people can keep growing in the off season in order to make sure people can keep getting work done … we’re also recruiting people to keep the youth of the program as well as expand so more people can come to tournaments and get them to where they’d like to be.”

Steffan said that he encourages everyone to join the club due to the opportunities it provides.

“Please give it a chance,” he said. “If you want to come and get a little bit better at bowling, reach out to someone in the club. We would love to make you a part of it. We have league options as well once a week. There are a lot of opportunities on the team for fun and competition.”

Hietpas said that competing in the club is a great opportunity for all members to improve themselves.

“Collegiate bowling is one of the best ways for bowlers to improve their game,” he said. “Whether you accrue accolades and accomplishments or not. Ultimately, college bowling is one giant learning experience, and it is up to the bowlers to take advantage of the opportunities as best they can.