ALTON – Jeff Woszczynski made many contributions to Alton's bowling program during his tenure as the Redbirds' coach.
The program is in good hands, however, with new AHS coach Dave Meyer, who took over from Woszczynski at the start of the school year.
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“Jeff did a lot for the Alton program,” Meyer said. “He taught me a lot, too, and being able to take over for him is an honor; Jeff did a good job with this program, growing it and making the program get bigger.
“The Alton Invitational tournament that was held Dec. 22 at Airport Bowl in Bethalto) shows that he did.”
The Alton Invitational can be considered the area's holiday bowling tournament as it takes place right about the time area schools are letting out for the year-end holiday break. “Holiday tournament, invitational tournament – whatever you want to call it,” Meyer said. “I named it the holiday tournament due to the fact that Ir was right around Christmas.
“We had a good turnout – 13 schools showed up, that's 26 teams (boys and girls). It was a good turnout today and we had good weather for it today (temperatures in the low 40s with sunshine most of the day).”
The schools were a mix of those from the Metro East area and Central and Southern Illinois. The field consisted of the host Redbirds, Marquette Catholic, Jersey, Civic Memorial, Belleville East, Belleville West, Collinsville, Highland, Waterloo and Cahokia from the Metro East, Taylorville from central Illinois and Centralia and Harrisburg from southern Illinois.
Meyer has served previously as an assistant coach for the Redbirds; becoming the head coach in charge of the program has meant some adjustments needed to be made. “The adjustments are learning and setting up the tournament, making sure it runs as smooth as we can make it,” Meyer said, “paying the bills and getting the buses (for road matches), but it's getting better; it's a good adjustment.
“Whenever the kids bowl good and do a good job, that's the reward we get out of it.”
Meyer has set some goals for the remainder of the season. “We had a talk last night,” Meyer said. “From here on out, the goal is to do well in the postseason. We had the boys tournament (Dec. 30 in O'Fallon) and from there, it's to push and finish and grow so we can get to regionals and sectionals and get to state (Alton will host a regional tournament Jan. 14, with qualifiers advancing to the Jan. 21 Collinsville Sectional; the boys state tournament will be held Jan. 27-28 at St. Clair Bowl in Fairview Heights).”
