Latrobe Bowling Team Persevering Through Challenges to Achieve Success

James Gatto and Matthew Martinosky celebrate each of their qualifications for Jr. Gold last year.

 Senior captain, Matthew Martinosky is a key asset to the boy’s team. He spends his Tuesday nights practicing with his team and he puts in six to eight hours a week of voluntary practice all to better his skills as one of the lead bowlers for his team. Martinosky said, “I usually throw strikes. My top score is a 289, and once I threw nine strikes in a row and the first shot of the tenth frame I only left  a pin.”

Although he has high scores, that doesn’t prevent him from putting in the extra work where it’s needed. Martinosky said, “Heading into each season I try and work on perfecting and practicing a specific skill that I need to improve on, and each year is something different. This year heading into the season I was really focused on improving my release.” Martinosky calls his release technique the “yo-yo technique” and explained that it is the one technique that works the best for him.

While this year’s season is still ongoing, Last year, Martinosky along with his fellow teammate, junior James Gatto, was able to qualify for a singles tournament held last spring in Las Vegas.

Not only did he find success on his own, but the team was able to make it to states. The Greater Latrobe High school team in its first season qualified for 4th place out of 6 in regional teams in the Western PA conference. Unfortunately, coronavirus hit, and the states tournament along with the Las Vegas tournament was cancelled. 

Along with the team qualification for states, Matthew and his teammates James Gatto and Alex Brubaker qualified for conference and regional singles.

While the team hadn’t been able to qualify for states yet this year due to some rough competition, such as Greensburg Salem and Hempfield, they are sending Kaylee Zuzak, Sidney Batsa, and Ayden Leone to the girl’s conference singles tournament. They will also be sending  Matthew Martinosky, James Gatto, Alex Brubaker, Justin Taylor, and Cole Pfiefer to the boy’s conference singles tournament on Wednesday, February 24 at AMF Mount Lebanon. Martinosky said, “ We hope to qualify for regionals and possibly states as well after this tournament.”

With all of the extra work he has been putting in, such as bowling for different leagues at Lincoln Lanes, and practicing on his own time, Martinosky said, “I have been feeling very good lately about myself gong into this singles tournament.”

The singles tournament will be different indefinitely. Martinosky said, “Currently, there aren’t allowed any spectators besides the senior’s parents at our home matches. I would imagine that these upcoming tournaments will definitely have spectator limitations, and there is a chance that they may not allow any to attend at all.”

Martinosky said, “Spectators aren’t my main concern. I am more worried about the fact that there is now always a chance for a cancellation. My team and I have had to make up numerous games during our season because of the shut down, and we are hoping that this isn’t a repeat of the end of last year’s season.”

Martinosky is currently worried about the chances of his senior season coming to an end at full-term, yet he is hopeful for the future in regards to his bowling career. Martinosky said, “While it really depends on the school that I choose to attend, I would absolutely love to bowl in college, but more for the fun aspect of it rather than the competitive one.” 

Martinosky is looking at many different schools, however, he said “I will most likely end up bowling on a competitive team for either Penn State Altoona or Bowling Green State University in Ohio.”

Wherever Martinosky ends up going to school, he will make an impact on the team, just like the one that he has made and will continue to make on the Latrobe Bowling team.