AW’s Mike Pedro Wins District Bowling Title, Competes In State Tourney
BY SCOTT CALHOUN — MIRROR SPORTS
Anthony Wayne junior Michael Pedro qualified as one of 16 individual bowlers for the Ohio High School Athletic Association State Bowling Championships at Shawnee Lanes in Chillicothe on March 6.
Pedro finished 47th among 108 total scored competitors.
“Just going down there was a great experience,” he said. “That was the first time I was really ever nervous going into a bowling match. It was really loud and there were a lot of really good bowlers there.”
Pedro tallied a three-game total pin count of 567. He opened the tourney with a 173, improved to 182 in his second set of frames and then crested at 212 in his third and final game of the season.
He qualified for the premier high school event by putting together a three-game score 684 (228 average) in the Northwest District team championships on February 27 at Rossford’s Interstate Lanes to finish as the individual district champion.
As a team, the Generals finished 13th with a 2,616 compiled three-game score across five bowlers.
Pedro’s 684 proved to be 11 pins better than the 673 each posted by runners-up Sean Black of Port Clinton and Riley Parent of St. Mary’s. Parent earned the second solo state qualifying nod on a tiebreaker determination.
“I just got into a groove and kept throwing strikes,” he said. “Before districts, coach (Paul Amstutz) and another player’s dad (Mark Post, father of Kelsey Post) worked really hard with us on getting better.”
Pedro’s district score sent him into the state tourney as the 14th highest statewide, including those participating on the 16 teams vying for a state team title. His performance was impressive on many levels. Among the 107 NW district bowlers, only Pedro and fifth-place finisher Devon Dobie (213-214-209) rolled three games of 200 or better.
The AW bowler started off with his lowest game score (212), progressed to a 232 and then clinched the district crown with a 245, the third-highest single game score of the 300 rolled at Interstate.
“It didn’t really hit me that I was the district champion until I got home that night and realized I was the first at AW to qualify for state,” Pedro said.
In addition to being the first-ever Generals bowler to qualify for the state championships, Pedro’s accomplishment is extraordinary in that just three months ago, he hadn’t even bowled a single game on the AW boys varsity team.
Pedro, in fact, only began bowling competitively three years ago as a freshman and only recently reached varsity status during sectional competition.
“I didn’t make the basketball team, so I tried out for the bowling team,” Pedro said.
Prior to his surprising breakout performance in the district tournament, Pedro said he had only rolled a 200 or better “maybe two or three times” in his life.
In the sectional tournament at Napoleon, Pedro rolled just two games for the Generals, who compiled a fourth-place score of 3,742 to advance as a unit to the district tourney. Senior Stephen Stidham led AW at Napoleon with a three-game total of 614 (221-213-180).
Ben Davis put together a 549 and Cleo Trumbull a 503. Thomas Keyser (154-224), Scott Anderson (196-137) and Pedro (172-163) combined forces to fill up the two remaining slot totals that helped the Generals advance.
Although Pedro’s recent accomplishment comes within a minimal varsity career, he said he intends to take the big step and build on it for his senior season.
“I’m looking forward to working hard on getting ready for next year,” he said.
Pedro, the son of Tim and Karen Pedro of Waterville, is a 3.7 GPA student who also plays on the boys golf team, is a member of the Spanish Club, Boy Scouts, Young Life and CYO basketball. He is the sports editor for The General’s Dispatch, the school newspaper.

AW Eighth-Grade Girls Bounce Gateway From NLL Tourney
BY KYLE BORCHERS — MIRROR SPORTS
Anthony Wayne’s eighth-grade girls basketball team had no problem disposing of Gateway in the first round of the Northern Lakes League tournament last Thursday at Perrysburg.
The second-seeded Generals held an 18-5 lead at halftime and that was more than enough to eventually secure a 27-12 win.
With Jasmine Bonivel notching three steals in the first quarter, AW had a 5-0 advantage heading to the second.
Early in the second, a nice pass inside from Lindsey Hood to Bree Copley made it 7-0, and then Sarah Petrell padded the lead with her own bucket down low.
With 4:31 left before halftime, Tara Kline finally got seventh-seeded Gateway on the scoreboard, 9-2, but soon after, the Generals went up 13-2.
A long jumper by Copley provided the 18-5 score at halftime.
Kline opened the second half with a three-point play, but Megan Bedard answered with a trey for the Generals.
Anthony Wayne proceeded to go up 25-8, and the Panthers never threatened after that. It was 27-11 heading to the fourth.
Kline led all scorers with seven points, and Madison Jimison grabbed five rebounds for the Panthers.
Bedard and Sara Zankl both scored five for AW, while Copley and Bonivel each had four.
Also, Bonivel finished with five steals and five rebounds. Zankl added three steals.
On Tuesday, March 9, the Generals were scheduled to face the winner of the game pitting Rossford (No. 3) and Bowling Green (No. 6).