by Ken Brown
CRAFTSBURY – Head coach Ashley Gravel will lead the Craftsbury Academy (CA) bowling program this winter as their season got underway over the weekend after losing several key pieces to graduation in what was a highly successful inaugural season.
Gravel replaces Connor Bean, who helped introduce the sport at the varsity level at CA as their athletic director last winter. Gravel assisted Bean last season and will take over head coaching duties after Bean took the athletic director position at Bellows Falls over the summer. Bean is also the Vermont Principals Association (VPA) director of high school bowling and has grown the sport in leaps and bounds at the varsity level all across the state.
Gravel takes over a revamped Charger team that lost Will Patnoe, Joe Wilcox, Verna Stoddard, Dalton Gravel, and Linden Stelma-Leonard to graduation. Patnoe was the sixth-ranked bowler in the state last winter and also set the single game school record. Stoddard will join Patnoe on the coaching staff this season, assisting Gravel.
“I’m excited to step in and help keep the program going this season and lucky to have Will and Verna here to help. Our goal is to continue to grow the program and increase interest in the sport. I hope to help mentor Will and Verna into taking over the reins of the program as early as next season,” said Gravel.
Gravel does return a solid core in Lake Region’s Matt Wilcox, North Country’s Jacob Marquis, and Jason Brown, who is home schooled. Wilcox finished the season strong with an individual state runner-up finish in the season ending state tournament. He and Patnoe helped lead the Chargers to their first title, as well as four runner-up finishes during the regular season in their first year as an official varsity sport. Gravel rounds out her young roster with ninth and tenth graders that include: Kosmos Gletos, Raz Mille, Andrew Royan, and Owen Foster.
“We have a good group of kids and we are practicing every Wednesday night, getting ready for our matches on the weekends. We’re excited to have Matt back after his stellar season for us last year and having Jacob and Jason also return, gives us three really solid bowlers at the top of our roster. The rest of our team is young, but they are working hard at improving every week. We’ll go through some growing pains, like we experienced in our opening match over the weekend, but we’ll improve as we get more matches under our belt. We’re all really excited for the season,” said Gravel.
CA opened the season over the weekend at the Rutland Bowlerama, attended by Hartford, White River Valley, Brattleboro, Essex, Fair Haven, and Burlington. Burlington defeated Essex 2-1 in the finals to take home their first title. Brown had the high game for the Chargers with a 149, followed by Wilcox’s 147. Gletos topped the century mark with a 108 to end his day, in his first varsity match. CA will be back in action this weekend at Randolph.
