When beginning her FHC Bowling career, junior Emily Willemen originally joined as a simple joke among her friends, not knowing that this would be something that would last.

“I just thought it would be funny,” Emily said, “I always thought that bowling was [kind of] stupid, and now I’m just doing it. It’s going pretty well.”

Emily never really thought that anything would sustain from bowling, and it was just a one-time thing. As time went on, her passion for bowling started to grow, and eventually, it became a full-time hobby.

After meeting a former FHC bowling coach at her church, Emily changed her mind amount bowling. 

“After meeting [him] I realized what an incredible sport bowling is,” Emily said, “He gave me some of the old uniforms, and then I felt obligated to continue [bowling].”

This winter, the prime bowling season begins. Even though it is not a widespread sport at FHC, players and parents still treat it with just as much respect. Emily, however, focuses on improving her skills.

“I think state-wide [I’m] pretty bad”, Emily said, “but locally I’m pretty decent. I think [I want to] be better this season.

Even though bowling is not a traditional winter sport, it still holds a special place in many peoples’ hearts during the winter sports season.

However, during the winter season, many people celebrate sports that include the winter weather. Snow is sometimes the only reason that some sports are even held. One of the best examples of this is skiing.

Freshman Dawson Dowling joined the FHC Ski team this year, with his hopes held high. Dawson’s mom signed him up for it against his wishes, but now it’s turned into one of his favorite pastimes.

“I really like the snow,” Dawson said. “I also like being outside, it’s probably my favorite part”.

Even though Dawson is only beginning, he is still working hard to the be best that he possibly can be. Dawson believes that his ability in skiing would spike if he were to travel to harder places to ski.

“I really want to go out west,” Dawson said, “like Colorado or somewhere really mountain-y would be super cool. It would probably make me better [at skiing].”

This year, students at FHC have been preparing for seemingly forever for this season. Some students’ only shot at sports comes in the winter, so tensions are high. But, some sports go on year-round. Sports like these, even though they occur in the winter, have already been in full swing since the beginning of the year.

Sophomore Chloe Flowers-Stiles has been doing gymnastics since she was little, and never felt the need to quit. Chloe felt that she needed to be more active, and participating in gymnastics was the best way to do that. Through this though, Chloe would not be where she is now without her team.

“We’re really close,” Chloe said, “everyone makes [gymnastics] a lot for enjoyable [for me], and I think that helps me keep going.”

Even though Chloe seems to be doing alright, every sport has its downsides and sacrifices that ultimately help not just the individual, but the whole team. Chloe plans to make this year the best she’s had by training harder.

“I think I want this year to be better,” Chloe said. “Last year was okay, I broke my foot, [but] this season should be better.”

Chloe’s approach to this season is clearly a lot more focused than last year, but this doesn’t come without a change in mindset for her.

“Conditioning is probably the worst part,” Chloe said, “I also think that my work ethic needs to be better, because I really am not as good as I want to be.”

With everything that students have to endure during this winter season, athletes still enter this season with the utmost amount of enthusiasm and energy. From changing their mindsets to practicing for hours on end, the winter athletes at FHC have something to prove with the season approaching fast.

Dawson plans to get his FHC skiing debut off to a good start, with the definition of excitement.

“I’m really excited for this season,” Dawson said. “I hope [that] I’ll like it.”