Recently, two local high school students proudly represented the Carbon County area at the Wildcard Singles Eastern PA Qualifying Tournament in Ephrata.

The purpose of the Wildcard Singles Tournament is to allow students from schools that do not have PIAA board-recognized bowling programs to be able to qualify for the Eastern PA Regional High School Bowling Championships.

Brian Steigerwalt, owner of Cypress Lanes, helps to coach over 30 student bowlers from local high schools such as Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Palmerton, Tamaqua, Panther Valley and Northern Lehigh.

This is the fifth year that Steigerwalt has coached students at this tournament. In order for these students to qualify, boys needed to have an average score of 170 while girls needed an average of 150.

Jason Bauder, a senior at Lehighton Area High School, and Stephen Yuhas, a freshman at Jim Thorpe Area High School were two of the student bowlers able to achieve this average and attend the tournament.

The tournament took place at 222 Dutch Lanes on Feb. 20 with 15 other bowlers from Downingtown West, Central York, Spring Grove, Souderton, Boyertown and Liberty high schools.

This was Bauder’s second time attending the tournament after previously competing at districts his sophomore year. The tournament faced cancellation his junior year due to COVID-19.

With Yuhas being a freshman, this was his first time attending a large-scale tournament like this one. He noted that he was “a little nervous at first,” but after arriving there he eventually got used to the atmosphere.

Each bowler competed in five games, and a total score of 1,075 was necessary to advance to the regional tournament. Bauder finished with a score of 1,050, placing fourth in the tournament, and Yuhas finished with a score of 1,046, placing fifth in the tournament.

Although they did not qualify for regionals, both bowlers placed well out of the 17 bowlers.

Steigerwalt voiced praise for Bauder and Yuhas, saying, “I’m very proud of both of them, they bowled excellent. They really did a good job.”

Moving forward, Yuhas plans to practice getting more spares and hopes to attend the qualifying tournament again next year.

Bauder plans to work on his consistency.

“I want to be able to maintain a similar score throughout and not go one high one low. That’s what I’m looking forward to working on.”

Although Bauder graduates this year, he plans to continue bowling whenever he’s in the Lehighton area.

Yuhas said he enjoys the sport of bowling and it is a fun pastime to have. He gave advice to young bowlers saying, “Start early and then you can improve for the future.”

Bauder said his favorite aspect of bowling was the competition involved with it. His advice for young bowlers was to not get discouraged and stick with the sport so that they could get better over time.

Steigerwalt said bowling is not only limited to high school students.

“I just recommend to just get involved with the sport of bowling. It’s for a lifetime. It’s not just for high school students because there are so many adult leagues also so you’ll never lose the sport. It’s not like football where once you get so old you can’t play anymore. We have older gentlemen that are probably in their 90s still bowling. You can bowl for a lifetime.”