Camas senior gets ball rolling for school’s bowling team

Bowling became a sanctioned sport in the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association in the 2005-06 school year. Since then, programs throughout Clark County have reported large participation numbers. A varsity match might only use five or six bowlers, but a program can have 30, 40 members total, with athletes competing in junior varsity matches and honing their skills at practices.

Porsche Chartrand has been bowling competitively since she was 11 years old. She wanted to experience the sport with her school friends, too.

“I was bummed. I go into high school thinking that I was going to be on a bowling team, and there was no bowling team,” she said. “I went to my mom and said, ‘How do I get a bowling team at school?'”

Her parents, Marilyn and Jesse, got involved, too. With Porsche leading the way, the school announced a program would begin during Porsche’s sophomore year.

“I was so happy I did not know what to say,” Porsche said. “I started getting all my best friends to join, and they did.”

Jesse said he never understood why it took Camas so long to get on board with a program.

“When they got it, we didn’t question it, though. We were just happy they got it,” he said.

That first year, the Papermakers had 10 bowlers.

“It was fun, but there was a lot of pressure,” Porsche said. “It wasn’t supposed to be, but I put it on myself.”

That is because she made a promise to Camas administrators that she would get to state if there was a team.

Sure enough, Porsche made good on that promise, finishing third at district and qualifying for state.

Last year, the program grew to 12 bowlers, and Porsche won the district title and placed eighth at state.

This year, co-coaches Doug Huegli and Con Tornow have 21 bowlers.

“We have three girls who have never been in any sport at all,” Huegli said. “It’s been fun to see the growth.”

The next step is to get more bowlers to invest in the sport year-round, with training, shoes, and balls.

“We’re trying to foster that excitement,” Huegli said.

He gives all the credit to the first family of bowling at Camas.

“The Chartrands were the voice behind this,” Huegli said.

One of the beneficiaries of Porsche’s mission is Shelby.

“I started bowling again back when I saw how much fun my sister was having,” Shelby said. “Now, I have so many friends because of bowling.”

Shelby said Porsche pushes her to do better. Now, Shelby is the one with the goal of reaching it to state, of matching her older sister’s accomplishments.

They are sisters, so there is some rivalry there.

Recently, Shelby rolled a 266, a personal best and the top score of the two sisters.

“One week later, Porsche rolled a 272,” Jesse said.

“Three weeks later,” Shelby corrected, making sure she held the record a little longer than her dad recalled.

They also are teammates, though.

“We’re in this together, and it’s not really a competition,” Porsche said.

In it together, on the same team, on a high school team that did not exist when Porsche first arrived at Camas.