MINOOKA, Ill. — Minooka Community High School girls’ bowling team will continue to practice and compete in Joliet, even though Channahon has its own bowling facility.
That was the decision recommended by the co-curricular committee and approved by the board of education Wednesday night.
“It’s the recommendation of the (co-curricular) committee to keep the girls team at Town and Country this season,” said board and committee member Karen Buchanan.
The committee will continue to monitor and revisit the situation prior to next year, Buchanan said.
Channahon Lanes owners Tom Doud and Greg Paul asked the board at a meeting earlier this month why the girls’ team doesn’t use the local facility and instead buses team members to Joliet. Doud said he had been trying to bring the team back home since it left in 1998, the same year the partners purchased the lanes.
The facility was in bad shape at the time, admitted Doud at the last board meeting. But things have been brought up to date and the boys’ team has called Channahon Lanes home since 2003.
Each year the reason is different, Doud had said.
A group of students from the team and parents attended the board meeting and didn’t speak out against the decision.
“I have tremendous reasons to believe the girls’ team would want to stay where they are,” said Superintendent Jim Colyott following Wednesday’s meeting.
“They love practicing there (at Town and Country), the coach has established a routine of success for the program there,” Colyott said.
The girls’ bowling team has gone to state in six of the eight previous seasons.
Minooka High School spends over 90 percent of costs and expenses for bowling services in district, which includes the boys’ bowling team, physical education courses, and Project Indian bowling courses.
Having both the girls’ and the boys’ teams simultaneously at Channahon Lanes was a tight fit for the coaches, Colyott said.
Jeff Bailey, representing Town and County Lanes, addressed board members saying he was there to show support for both the girls and the high school.
“I understand you want to work with your community, I don’t want to take anything away from Mr. Doud,” Bailey said.
He asked that, if the issue is revisited, it be discussed during the coming school year instead of three weeks prior to the start of the season, as it was this time.
“So the girls don’t get wind of moving to another facility and go into panic mode for nothing,” Bailey said.
Board president Chris Kobe said the issue was only brought to the board at the meeting two weeks ago.
“We appreciate both facilities and what they have to offer,” Kobe said.
“It’s not our practice to just line our pockets,” Bailey said. “We care about the program. We have a great relationship with Coach Y (Yudzentis).”
