Ryan ChartrandIt’s the bottom of the 10th frame, there are two minutes left in the hour and she’s up. She slides her sweaty palms down the side of her jeans as she picks up her feet along the arrows with a deep breath. It’s a long lane ahead and pressure is building. Her team is counting on her as all eyes watch intently.
OK, so maybe it’s not so intense, but the game of bowling takes a spot in the lives of over 600 students each quarter in PE 109 and 112, beginning and intermediate bowling.
“I scheduled (the class) so it is after all my classes (and) at the end of my lab so that I can just bowl for an hour,” computer engineering senior Steve Shields said. “It’s a great way to wind down.”
This 141-average senior has already taken the regular course and is now enrolled in the intermediate level class.
“I wanted a one-unit class to do nothing in (and) to just get up and bowl,” he said. Shields topped the charts for high scores in his class after a game of 197.
“I don’t know what happened that day. I just started bowling, and when I looked up, I had a 197,” Shields said with a grin.
The two-day-a-week course offers students an opportunity to escape programming, Aristotle and microorganisms and replace them with a relaxing and social hour of bowling. And this is exactly what attracts a diverse selection of students to the alleys that house machines built in 1964.
“There is every major on campus on that roll sheet and we’ve got a lot of repeat offenders,” said bowling instructor Greg Bishop, who has taught the class since 1993. “One guy took it 17 straight quarters. He took it every quarter he was here.”
Fall, winter and spring quarters hold 15 classes each with 40 spots available in each class. This means bowling classes are running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
This comes out to 1,800 students enrolled every year. Plus, bowling is offered over the summer, with two classes from 10 to 11 a.m. Monday through Thursday this coming quarter.
A $40 fee covers the cost of bowling and shoes, bringing the average out to about 50 cents a game, Bishop said.
“After the first two weeks, we put them into a league format. They get their handicap set and every day they show up, it’s a competition,” Bishop said.
Each class session, the teams are given printouts of current team standings, high scores and individual scores. Teams are comprised of four people and are determined on the first day of class.
At the end of the quarter, the first place teams in each class have a big roll-off and the winning team gets brand new bowling balls.
The skill level ranges from students who have been on bowling teams before to those who have never even picked up a ball.
The highest game ever bowled by a student was 268 and the lowest was 14.
“She ended up being the most improved in that class,” Bishop said. “It took me three weeks to get her to hit a pin! But she ended up with a 68 average.”
The split up between gender is about 60/40, leaning toward the male side, Bishop said.
Ten student employees work for the alley, including business senior Dave Ponek, who has been there for three years.
“I get to talk to all sorts of people,” Ponek said. “And smell shoes all day.” Although he has never taken the class, he was once an alternate. Ponek said that the class adds three alternates once each class is full. The alternates can come to the class, and if anyone is absent, then they can take their place for the hour.
Associated Students Inc. used to be the head honcho for the bowling facility until it was leased out in 2005 to Steve Goldie, who runs the hot spot with his son Steve Goldie Jr.
Goldie Sr. and Bishop share the classes, while Goldie Jr. runs the business side of things. They hold a five-year lease on Mustang Lanes, along with owning Pismo Bowl and Paso Bowl.
“We got the whole county,” Bishop said, who also works at the other bowling alleys.
Besides classes, Mustang Lanes has recreational bowling for the public and for students not enrolled in the classes. Prices are cheaper for students, with even lower prices for bowling before 6 p.m. at $1.50 a game. Shoes are $1 for students and $1.50 for the public.
Special activities also include birthday parties on the weekends and Cosmic Bowling on Saturdays at 6 p.m., which is basically where they “crank up the music, turn out the lights and turn on the disco lights,” Bishop said.
There is also Pizza Bowl Night every Monday from 6 to 9 p.m. where students can bowl and eat pizza as much as they want. A $9 charge covers shoes, unlimited bowling and unlimited one-topping pizza from BackStage Pizza. It’s best to show up early because it is first-come, first-serve, and it fills up pretty quickly.
Bishop encourages all students to sign up for one of the classes.
“This is one class that you should absolutely take,” he said. “I love the competition and we’re all here cheering each other on, having fun, yelling random stuff.”