Nineties pop music blares through the speakers at AFM Strike and Spare Lanes, a bowling alley in Mattydale, N.Y.

‘It’s a crap shoot with the music here,’ Ron Kaye jokes.

Kaye, a senior aerospace engineering major, is president of the Syracuse University Bowling Club, part of the club sports program. The team members meet every Sunday night at the 72-lane bowling alley to compete against one another and have a good time.

This is Kaye’s first year as the club’s president, and he said he was looking to bowl when he arrived on campus four years ago.

‘It’s something I’ve enjoyed doing for a while,’ Kaye said. ‘I knew there was a club I could get involved with when I was up here.’

Kaye said he simply fell into the presidency of the club when the position needed to be filled after the team lost its previous leader.

Kaye’s right-hand-man is Peter Vicario, a senior accounting and finance major. Vicario, who is in charge of the club’s finances, explained all the club members are just there to have a good time.

‘If you come looking for a bowling club, we’re here, otherwise we are just looking for people to come and have fun,’ Vicario said.

The club is made up of 11 teams, each with three bowlers. Every Sunday they compete against a different team for three games. The teams are set at the beginning of every semester and stay the same throughout the four-month period.

Unlike some other club sports offered by the university, the bowling team does not require previous experience to join. The team does offer some competition for seasoned bowlers, but is also very relaxed for those who are just there to have a good time. Vicario calls it a ‘for-fun league,’ but warns the team is a commitment.

‘It hurts the team when you aren’t here,’ Vicario said. ‘We don’t want people who just come randomly when they feel like it.’

Ryan Brewster, a senior hospitality major, is in his second season with the bowling team. He became involved when a team of some of his friends needed a third member, and has stuck with it ever since. Brewster claimed to be a mediocre bowler, but did bowl his highest game of the season last Sunday night.

‘(Some) people here take it way too seriously; we’re just here for fun,’ Brewster said.

Brewster’s teammate, Scott Goryeb, a junior marketing major, said he bowls with the club to get away from school stress.

‘It’s nice to get off campus sometimes,’ Goryeb said. ‘It gets you away from the work and all the craziness.’

Shane Yeskey, a junior environmental science major, has been with the team since his freshman year. He said he enjoys bowling because it’s not strenuous, but it does require some finesse.

‘It doesn’t take a lot of effort, but it does take a lot of skill,’ Yeskey said

Published on October 9, 2006 at 12:00 pm