SJSU Bowling Team

Spartan Bowlers Roll for Team Concept

Darren Francisco, an undeclared junior, works on his form during San Jose State University bowling team practice on Thursday at the Student Union Bowling Center. This weekend Francisco and six other members of the team will travel to Chicago for their thi [Click to enlarge]

Head coach Jason Rehfeld said his team is confident it will reach the national collegiate championships scheduled for April in Tulsa, Okla.

"We've gone to the national championship just about every year," he said. "We expect to go this year."

Team captain Phil Campit said the team is focused on the goals needed to reach the national championship.

"No matter how well I do individually, if the team isn't a national champion at the end of the year, I've failed to reach my goals individually and as a team," said Campito, who was ranked seventh in the nation last season with a 215 average. "We practice hard and require a lot. It is difficult to maintain that level of performance."

Darren Francisco, an all-American award winner in 2001, said the team bowls all week and on top of two leagues, they are required to bowl 10 games per week.

"Our practice is more structured and strenuous this year," Francisco said." We're more geared toward team goals. I have no individual goals this year."

The majority of the players have shot a 300 and have competed in individual tournaments throughout the nation.

"This year we have the most experienced team with three seniors and two juniors," said Rehfeld, who is in his first season as head coach after four seasons on the team.

As the head coach, Rehfeld leads their practices and tries to strengthen the team.

"There are good and bad things about it," he said. "Because I bowled last year, it is easy to relate to them and to communicate, but it is hard to make the distinction between being coach and friend."

Campit said it was hard to make the transition of viewing Rehfeld as a coach after spending three years on the team.

"It's different because in one respect, he's one of the guys, but a coach is not some guy you can go and hang out with," Campit said. "A coach is above you like a teacher."

Since the SJSU bowling team started in 1976, they have experienced ups and downs.

The women's team was dropped from the program this year because of lack of interest in Northern California, Rehfeld.

He said the men's team was strongest in the early 90s when it finished second and third in the national championships.

Despite being a club sport and thus receiving no school funding, the team qualified for the national tournament the last five seasons.

"We do not like to call ourselves a club sport because we are more than that," he said. "We train just like a football and basketball team would."

Rehfeld said the team has ranged in the Top-10 out of 250 universities in the last five years.

He said people outside the sport do not understand what it takes to compete, so the players do not get a lot of respect as bowlers.

"The game of bowling is popular, but the sport isn't," he said. "It is hard to explain the difference between the two."

The team is not funded by the university and therefore has to come up with it's own funds. Francisco said they usually set up a ballot sheet to see how much money they need for the season and divide it among the bowlers.

"I know we're not as big as football, but if you represent San Jose State, and is a part of the unit, you should receive funds," Nolen Velasco said, who is going into his fourth year on the team.

On Friday the team is leaving for Chicago to compete in the Brunswick Great Lakes Invitational against 40 other men's teams.

"This is the first big tournament of the year," Rehfeld said. "It is like seeing everyone for the first time."

Even though four players did not come back last year, Rehfeld said the team's four new members Matt Witter, Ryan Ng, Taron Prakasn and Brian Villatuya are promising.

"They are young and it will be their first time competing in an atmosphere like this," he said. "We have not had this many new freshman coming in before."

Rehfeld said everyone is focused on team goals for their upcoming tournament.

"We usually do well in tournaments," Campit said. "I expect (the team) to finish pretty high, shooting for the top five."

Velasco said the Spartan's talent level was stronger now than before.

"We are a closer unit than in the past and we are a younger team. I think our potential will come out because all of us are good."

In their first tournament on Oct. 19 and 20, the 12 players split into two teams, one with returning bowlers and one with freshman, at UC Davis.

The returning team placed third after Arizona State University and Fresno State University out of 16 teams, while the men's freshman team placed 11th.