By John Ring
GALESBURG - Coach Dave Sharp and his Silver Streak bowlers got the word with the rest of us that they are a “go” to start their season. It may be a little late, there may be little notice but Sharp and his Streaks are ready for some action in the lanes. Galesburg takes on the Moline Maroons on the road next Tuesday and then competes against Rock Island on Wednesday. Thus, they are the first Silver Streak team to be in action since October 2020. That seems like such a long time ago. As we did in an article previously here at The Burg, the Streaks numbers for the team—which started off very high at 17—has been trimmed down to 9. “We lost quite a few due to the grades and the remote learning was difficult for them to adjust to, plus some of the parents are nervous which is understandable as well,” said Coach Sharp. “It makes a difference for us because normally, when you have a varsity contest against Rock island, you field your top six bowlers. In our case, we have four very good bowlers, a fifth one who is good and then we have a drop off so it makes it harder, especially against a team like Rock Island.” “This whole situation has been hard for us, like it has for many teams,” continued the Streaks coach. “We’re trying to build a program and we get kids to come out to learn a sport and compete and get better. That’s what it takes and you make progress like that. The other thing is we really had a good possibility of sending two to three players to State this year and we also had a good chance to advance as a team to the Sectionals. That would have been a big deal for our team.” Coach Sharp is scrambling to even getting the materials needed to clean the balls for his team. “The condition of the ball is huge in bowling. It needs to be clean but finding the material to do that is difficult locally. So I’ll be going to the Quad Cities this weekend hopeful to get what we need.” “Still, the team is excited. They’re ready to bowl and compete and build on what we have done the last few seasons and that’s to advance and to win and have some fun. We’ve had a lot of talent come together for the Streaks the last few years and we sure would like to build on that.” The Streaks’ home meets will be at Abbe Lanes in Abingdon, as Northgate has been shut down for quite a while. Fortunately, the owners at Abbe Lanes have been incredibly receptive to host the Silver Streaks and their events.
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