Blose extends bowling career
BUTLER TWP — Being inadvertently struck by a car door gave Rachael Blose a concussion.
It may have changed her future as well.
The injury occurred midway through the Butler senior's high school career — and forced her to give up dance.
“I was splitting my spare time between dance and bowling,” Blose recalled. “My concussion had lingering effects and I just couldn't do the dancing anymore.
“The 12 to 15 hours a week I had been devoting to dance, I poured into bowling.”
And it showed.
Blose's average on the lanes was 126 her freshman season with Butler and 138 her sophomore season. It shot up to 175 her junior year and reached the 180's this year.
Now she is headed to D'Youville College in Buffalo, N.Y., to continue her academic and bowling career. Blose plans to major in exercise and sports sciences.
“Rachael's freshman year, she didn't look like a potential college bowler,” Butler bowling coach Bob Cupp admitted. “She came a long, long way.”
“It wasn't really a goal of mine when I first joined the team,” Blose said of collegiate bowling. “But I saw other girls on the team were getting those opportunities and when my average shot up the way it did, I began looking into it.
“If I didn't put in that extra time with practice the past couple of years, yeah, I doubt this would have happened.”
Blose also considered Shepherd and Pitt-Greensburg — two schools beginning collegiate bowling programs — before deciding on D'Youville.
The Saints, a Division III team, will be beginning their third season of competition next year. They were 5-8 this year after reaching the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) finals in their first season.
Coached by Susan Jeziorski throughout, D'Youville had six bowlers — including two seniors — on this year's women's team.
“I'll have the opportunity to compete there right away,” Blose said. “And they've got an excellent coach there who will help develop my game even further.
“The coaches at Butler are excellent. They've taught me everything.”
Jeziorski has more than 25 years of coaching experience. She is a two-time Buffalo women's champion and nine-time Buffalo team women's champion. She also was half of the 2006 USBC national women's doubles championship team and is a former Midwest Regional champion.
Butler's high school bowling program has sent seven girls to collegiate bowling in Cupp's eight years at the helm.
“Rachael's game is still coming,” Cupp said. “She's going to keep getting better because she's committed to it.
“Schools began coming after her. It's impressive, the way her bowling improved the past four years.”
Blose missed a chance to compete in the WPIBL regionals this season because of COVID-19 issues.
“I'm happy she is continuing her career in college,” Cupp said. “That would have been a tough way to end it.”
Blose hopes to establish relationships with teammates in college like she had at Butler.
“We really grew close as a team and supported each other,” she said of Butler. “I'm looking forward to that type of bond in college.”
