CCHS bowlers simply do the right thing

Charles City girls hand over bowling trophy to Le Mars

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

Numbers don’t lie. But for humans, it sometimes takes uncommon integrity for the truth to come out.

Charles City High School bowling coach Doug Bohlen noticed a four was mistaken for a nine in one of the baker game scores the Comet girls team rolled at the Class 1A Iowa High School State Bowling Tournament held Feb. 22 in Des Moines. If his eyes were correct, Bohlen knew the handsome third-place trophy the Comets received wasn’t rightfully theirs.

“It gave us a 199 instead of a 149,” Bohlen said. “When I saw that it was recorded in Quik Stats as a 199, I knew the official scorers didn’t catch it.”

With the recorded total of 2,728, the Comets finished only a mark away from attaining runner-up status as West Delaware finished with 2,734 behind champion Camanche (2,785). But a corrected score of 2,678 would move Charles City down to fourth in favor of Le Mars, which rolled a 2,723.

“When I found the mistake, I contacted Todd (Forsyth) our athletic director,” Bohlen said. “We knew we had to report it and give the trophy back. But I asked him to give me one day to break the news to the girls first.”

After a fitful night’s sleep, Bohlen decided to approach the girls in a team meeting the following morning with copies of the scores as originally reported.

“I wanted to see if they saw the same thing I saw,” Bohlen said.

Sure enough, the girls saw the mistake.

“They knew the trophy wasn’t ours and they knew what we had to do,” Bohlen said. “You could say they made the final decision to give it back.”

And they wanted to give it back in person.

“We thought it would be more meaningful if we did it face to face,” Charles City junior Mija Cotton said.

Giving it back in person was easier said than done.

“Le Mars is a long way to drive … more than three hours,” Bohlen said. “I contacted Le Mars’ coach (Barry Borchers), and we decided to make the trophy exchange halfway.”

On Tuesday inside a restaurant in Humboldt with Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union assistant director and awards official John Overton in attendance, the Comet girls gave the third-place to the Le Mars team.

It was worth the trip according to Comet sophomore Baili Girkin.

“We knew we did an amazing thing,” she said, “but it was also very emotional.”

For freshman Madison Ross, the revelation that they didn’t deserve the trophy was a disappointment at first.

“But we knew what we had to do,” she said, “and we knew we should go down and give it to them in person. We could have sent it back to the state offices by mail, and they could have given it to Le Mars themselves. But we felt that was our responsibility.”

The fact that the Comets went out of their way to right an error didn’t go unnoticed by the IGHSAU.

“(Overton) made a real nice speech about the importance sportsmanship and integrity,” Bohlen said. “It may not always be there in all sports, but in bowling, sportsmanship has always been held in higher regard than gamesmanship.”

Bohlen believes the way his team stepped up and did the right thing is worth “10 times more than any trophy.”

“It was an experience … a learning experience,” Bohlen said. “We’re a better team for going through it.”

Though trophies are not awarded for fourth place, the Comet girls didn’t go away empty-handed this past season. To qualify for state, they won the Sub-State title the week before in Forest City.

Sophomore Macy Ross was the Girls State Singles champion and was recently named to the Iowa Girls Coaches Association All District first team. Charles City sophomore Kate Sickman was named to the second team, and Cotton was an honorable mention selection.

Bohlen was named “District Coach of the Year”.

In addition to transferring the trophy, the Comets also gave the third-place medals to Le Mars’ girls.

In turn, Le Mars awarded custom-made medals to the Charles City team. The inscription on the back read: “4th Place at State Tournament, 1st Place in the Hearts of Le Mars.”