Self-funded Southeastern bowling team celebrates big win

Team wins Clark County title in second season.

The Southeastern High School bowling team won the Clark County Invitational on Jan. 21. Front row: Trey Cooper, Tyler Carper and Robbie Hannah. Back row: head coach Tony Cooper, Zach McGraw, Alex Smith, Zach Battin, assistant coach Brian Cooper.

Contributed photo/Submitted photo The Southeastern High School bowling team won the Clark County Invitational on Jan. 21. Front row: Trey Cooper, Tyler Carper and Robbie Hannah. Back row: head coach Tony Cooper, Zach McGraw, Alex Smith, Zach Battin, assistant coach Brian Cooper.

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By David Jablonski, Staff Writer Updated 2:51 PM Sunday, January 29, 2012

SOUTH CHARLESTON — Tony Cooper gets creative when it comes to motivating his Southeastern High School bowlers. He quotes rappers like Lil’ Wayne. He references the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“When a UFC fighter roundhouse kicks a guy, he doesn’t help him up,” Cooper told his team during a recent match. “He jumps on top of them and finishes them off.”

The coach does whatever it takes.

“He’s a football coach in a bowling alley,” said his son Trey, the team’s leading bowler.

Just a year ago this month, Tony was fighting to make Southeastern a varsity program after three years as a club sport in time to compete in the postseason tournaments.

Cooper said he had to beg to get Southeastern into the Clark County tournament last season. They finished seventh out of eight teams, but they weren’t eligible for individual awards. A few days later, the school board approved the program as an official school sport with one stipulation — the Trojans wouldn’t receive any financial assistance from the school.

It is part of a trend at the smaller Clark County school as the wrestling team is also self-funded.

“We were kind of caught in the middle,” Southeastern athletic director Tim Bell said. “We wanted to have a bowling team, but financially, the school district wasn’t sure they could afford it. This is kind of meeting in the middle.”

Cooper doesn’t get paid to coach. Neither does his assistant and nephew Brian Cooper. Parents provide transportation to matches. The team pays for its own uniforms, in part through fundraising.

Tony spends some of his own money on tournament entry fees. Some of the balls the team uses have been donated.

Tony was willing to agree to all of that.

“I don’t need your money,” he told the school board. “I don’t need your transportation. Just sign on the line to make us a sport.”

The bowling team’s success supporting itself opened the door for the wrestling squad to do the same this year, Bell said.

He doesn’t know if the teams will ever get financial assistance, but at the very least, it’s an opportunity for more students to participate in athletics.

“We’ve got close to 30 kids competing right now who wouldn’t be doing anything in the winter,” Bell said.

Tony Cooper’s determination to get the team to the varsity level has translated into success this season. The Trojans scored a big early victory this season by beating Ohio Heritage Conference power Mechanicsburg, though the Indians later avenged that defeat.

Last Saturday, when the Trojans boys won the Clark County Invitational in just their second season as a varsity sport, Tony urged his bowlers to maintain their intensity throughout the event. They ended up beating two-time state champ Kenton Ridge by just nine pins. But not knowing where they stood late in the match, they couldn’t lose focus for even a moment.

“A lot of teams were running back and forth trying to figure out what other teams were bowling,” Tony said. “My kids focused on lanes 3 and 4. We had no idea what other teams were doing. We hoped the numbers took care of themselves. We concentrated on the next ball.”

Trey Cooper leads the team with a 224 average. Zack McGraw averages 222. Zach Battin averages 201. Rob Hannah, Tyler Carper and Alex Smith all average over 190.

Southeastern’s victory at the Clark County meet proved it can compete with anybody — self-funded or not.

“We knew we had the ability to do things like this before,” Trey Cooper said. “We’ve never really showed it, and all together, we hadn’t bowled 100 percent before. When we bowled Mechanicsburg, we showed a little bit of what we could do.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or David.Jablonski@coxinc.com.

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