Metea alum Sydney Lewis leads the lanes for Illinois State Bowling

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Metea Valley bowling alum, Sydney Lewis, gave us our first and still only perfect game captured in Naperville Sports Weekly History. Four years later, the Mustang is president of Illinois State (University) Bowling, and will soon graduate with plans to become a teacher. This Where Are They Now segment is presented by Grow Sports Psychology.

“I wanted to bowl and I knew Illinois State University (ISU) had that, but I also knew that it wasn’t an official team, just a club team,” said Lewis. “I really wanted to put my education first, so that’s why I chose ISU instead of going to a bowling school.”

“Also, noticing that it was a club team, I figured it would be a good way to keep bowling fun and not too stressful,” Lewis added.

The difficult transition from high school to collegiate bowling

Despite being one of the top bowlers in the IHSA for several years, the transition from high school to college bowling is far from easy. It’s more than adjusting to a new team – every bowling alley is different. Many casual bowlers don’t realize that no two lanes play exactly the same. Each alley uses different oil patterns, which are applied by a lane machine and affect how the ball rolls.

In high school, and most causal bowling settings, lanes are set to a standard “house pattern.” When Lewis arrived at ISU, she was introduced to more challenging “sports patterns” for the first time.

“High school (bowling) was a lot easier and those scores were pretty high,” said Lewis. “You get to college and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is really hard, I’m not great at this.’”

Another adjustment was the coaching. After four years under the guidance of Metea coaches Kristen Mansmith and Todd Ridgway, Lewis suddenly had to figure things out on her own. ISU’s club bowling team is 100% student-led, meaning there are no official coaches, but that hasn’t stopped Lewis from hitting her mark.

“Then, not having a coach to help me through (the lane pattern) adjustment was super hard,” said Lewis. “But, this year I feel like I finally like figured it out,” Lewis added with a smile. “It only took me two years to figure it out, but I finally figured it out.”

Sydney Lewis is thriving on the lanes for Illinois State Bowling

Lewis is thriving on the lanes and leads all ISU women’s bowlers in scoring this season, averaging 184 per game!

“I had my first all-tournament team placement this year, so that’s top five in a tournament, which has been a goal of mine,” said Lewis. “I really wanted to get that before I was done with bowling collegiately.”

The talent on the lanes was always there – it was just a matter of adjusting to the new challenges.

During her time at Metea, Lewis was one of the top high school bowlers in Illinois. In her sophomore and senior seasons, the Mustangs qualified for state as a team. She finished third at the 2021 Virtual State Championship—which was held remotely due to COVID-19—and placed 11th individually in her final season at the 2022 State Meet.

“Getting to go to state my senior year and going out with a bang was really nice and it kind of just brought everything together that we’d been working really hard for.”

Leading and teaching at Illinois State University

The ISU Bowling Club President is responsible for much more than just knocking down pins. She organizes team finances, travel, tryouts, and anything else the team needs.

Sydney Lewis is grateful for the community she’s found with the ISU Bowling Club

“It makes you feel like you have a family even though you’re not at home,” said Lewis about the bowling club. “So it just makes school so much better, you have this built-in group of people that you see all the time – and yes, you may fight, you may argue, but you’re all still a group and you come together and it’s a great time.”

This spring marks Lewis’ final semester on campus at ISU before she returns home to finish student teaching. She’ll graduate in the fall of 2025 and plans to teach at the third to fifth-grade level. Coaching could also be in her future.

“The thought of being a coach somewhere in the future sounds fun (and) I would love to try,” said Lewis. “I think it’d be scary to try, and just having that all on my own, but I think it’d be really cool.”

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Photo Courtesy: Darius Botley