From the ashes, Shelton’s bowling team returns to state prominence

Shelton High School won the first 3A girls bowling state championship in 2008, outscoring second-place Kelso by 354 pins.

Months later, the Highclimbers’ chances of developing a dynasty went up in smoke. Literally. Just before Thanksgiving, the Timber Bowl, the last remaining bowling center in Mason County, burned down.

Shelton finished second at state in 2009, but disappeared from the upper echelon of prep bowling after that. When current coach Dann Gagnon took over the program in 2014, he drove a van with seven girls to practices in Olympia and Tacoma, on the way to a 0-16 season.

Teaching one skill at a time, Gagnon, who has coached a variety of sports at Shelton for 44 years including the current boys and girls tennis teams, has the Highclimbers back within reach of a state bowling championship.

With 23 girls in the program — including one veteran of Gagnon’s first team, senior co-captain Rebecca Robinson — Shelton heads into the state tournament Friday and Saturday at Narrows Plaza Bowl in University Place after finishing second in the West Central District tournament. The 4A tournament begins Thursday.

The Highclimbers wound up just 44 pins behind powerhouse Wilson at districts, 3,071-3,027.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Kaylee Schilter, a junior co-captain who was Shelton’s top bowler at districts.

“It’s totally amazing. It’s a ‘Rocky’ story,” said Gagnon as his team practiced at Westside Lanes in Olympia earlier this week. “When I took over, they were about to cancel the program.”

Hired for his familiarity with Shelton and because the administration heard he was the first person in Mason County to bowl a 300 game, Gagnon persevered with little of the support a successful program normally has.

“When Timber Bowl was still there, we would take kids from all the schools down to bowl for PE. There were Saturday morning programs for kids. They could walk down after school and bowl,” he said. “Now we have none of that. We bowl four days a week. That’s it.”

Shelton rose to the top of a tough 3A South Sound Conference because of its depth. Sophomore Dreann Merriman compiled a 160 average this season, with four of her teammates topping 138.

“I tell them, ‘Don’t be obsessed with winning. Think about correcting the mistake you just made,’ ” Gagnon said. “If they throw a bad ball, they’ll come right to me and know what they did wrong.”

The Highclimbers might not be obsessed with winning, but they did find some motivation when a tiebreaker among Shelton, Capital and Yelm — after each finished with an 11-3 regular-season record — was decided in Capital’s favor.

Three days later, in the 3A SSC tournament, Shelton handily won the title. Capital, led by 146-average bowlers Miranda Smith and Ali Nazy, finished fourth at districts to qualify for state as a team. Three Yelm bowlers, Bethany Place, Carley Johnson and Gracie Mathis, will go as individuals.

“We felt like we deserved to have the No. 1 spot in the league and we wanted to prove that on the day of the league tournament,” said junior Courtney Chamberlin who, like Schilter, also plays softball at Shelton. “For us, that was a really big accomplishment.”

Winning without a local practice facility is a factor the Highclimbers take as much pride in as their coach.

“It is cool to us that we won the league tournament when we can’t just drop by somewhere to bowl,” said Merriman, also a member of Shelton’s golf team. “It’s more difficult for us without having a bowling alley like Capital and Yelm do.”

“It’s really inspiring,” Chamberlin said. “We’re from this little town where there’s not much for us to do, and we’ve improved so much over the years.”

At state, Shelton will be faced with teams from the eastern and southwest corners of Washington with multiple high-average players. They’ll also be confronted with a heavy workload of games and changing lane conditions as heavily-oiled surfaces dry out.

“We do have the capability to be one of the top teams,” Merriman said. “It’s a lot of games so we need to stay hydrated and bounce back if we make a mistake. We know how to adjust as the lanes dry out, which is one of the reasons we’ve improved so much.”

With Robinson and Tayler Brown the only seniors among a top seven that also includes junior Kaylee Slone and sophomore Annalee Schilter, Gagnon sees a tough task at state, followed by a bright future.

“I’m a realist,” he said. “So I told them, ‘Win lose or draw, I want you to remember the journey and we’re going to build on this for next year.’ ”

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 1:54 PM with the headline "From the ashes, Shelton’s bowling team returns to state prominence."