Demarest's seniors exit after winning the program's second ever state sectional championship..
MONTVALE – There are many layers to high school bowling. Let’s start with the technical side that is not immediately recognizable to the casual observer or clueless reporter.
“Balls are drilled differently. There is conventional, there is fingertip grip, there is the weight of the bowling ball. You have to try to maximize how fast a bowler can throw a ball with a certain weight ball to try to get the optimal result and pin carry,” said Northern Valley/Demarest Darrell Quazza. “Then you teach the kids how to release the ball. Your thumb comes out first and then you pull with your fingers.”
And don’t even get him started on bowling ball materials and oil patterns and how the two of those in combination affect rev rates and friction and etc., etc., etc.
Then there is the social aspect of a high school bowling team that brings together a wide cross section of the student body. Bowling is where Demarest senior Kenny Miner fits in.
“I love this sport and being a part of it is always what I look forward to. It’s more than just a high school team, it is really where my competitive journey began,” said Miner, who is hoping to keep the ball rolling through a college career. “For most of my life I have struggled to find a group of people that I can feel comfortable with. This team welcomed me with open arms and that meant so much to me.”
A miscellaneous benefit?
“There are nachos in bowling alleys,” according to NVD senior Anthony Carpanzano.
There is the structured and competitive aspect, just like any other sanctioned sport, and Demarest has it rolling. The boys team won its second ever state sectional championship last week and both of them have come in the last seven years while the girls have won six straight league titles and one section title over that same span.
Want rivalries? Bowling has those too and the Demarest and Pascack Valley boys teams have one of the most heated and competitive of any sport in the past couple of years.
“So in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons we have bowled against Pascack Valley six times. In those six matches we have bowled three games, so we have now bowled 18 games total. The score is 9-9 in those 18 games and I don’t have the updated numbers, but coming into this year the separation is like 60 pins, which is nothing,” says Quazza. “Last year we won the league by beating them on the last day, then they beat us in the section semifinal. This year we got to the section final, they got to the section final and it was like here we go again. In my time coaching it is the best rivalry.”
Then there are the underdog stories, the unsung heroes that step up and make themselves a part of any successful team’s championship story. Demarest had a bunch of those on their way to the North 1, Group 2 state sectional title.
Ralph Baldino subbed in the second game of the state sectional quarterfinal against Sparta and then got his first varsity start in the next round where Carpanzano also made his mark. Carpanzano had been in the varsity lineup just once all season, against Passaic as Demarest celebrated Senior Day, and just once in his life before being summoned into the lineup after the Norsemen, missing a couple of starters, dropped the first game in the best-of-3 against Jefferson in the state sectional semifinals. He came up clutch as Demarest swept the final two games to move on to the final.
“They pulled me in for the second and third games and I bowled a 170 and a 173. I was walking around school and people were telling me that I really stepped up and pulled through,” said Carpanzano, a fledgling renaissance man whose other hobbies include restoring muscle cars, shooting pictures with a film camera and listening to classic rock. “I didn’t know that I did that well. I was just throwing a rock.”
So then it was on to the final where they ran into Pascack Valley, the defending champion, again. While Carpanzano was the surprise contributor in semifinals, it was junior Ben Faehndrich’s turn to come out of nowhere in the championship match.
“It was crazy. I was more than a little surprised to be called into the starting lineup. I didn’t find out until right before the game started and I really wasn’t expecting it at all, but I bowled way over my average, which I am really happy for,” said Faehndrich. “The first game, the first four or five frames I was super nervous, but after that I was much more relaxed. I feel like a much bigger part of the team at this point. Before this I was a part of it and I supported my team, but now playing in [state final] makes me feel a lot different about it.”
Faehndrich bowled a career-high 590 series with a 205, 190 and 193 to help put the Norsemen over the top.
“He actually bowled 21 consecutive clean frames. He just got spare, spare and then started throwing in a couple of strikes in a row and he was completely relaxed,” said Quazza, “He played the lanes the way we wanted him to and he was a big reason we were able to beat Pascack Valley that day.”
Demarest went 18-4 this season, which ended in the Group 2 semifinal when it lost by a single pin to Snyder, which went on to win the outright Group 2 state championship. The Demarest girls reached the section final before falling to Holy Angels, which also went on to win a state title.
Common goals, reached by a disparate group of participants.
“It is an interesting community. I started bowling before high school and then joined as a high schooler, but then we have people that chose to bowl because they are not that good at swimming,” said junior Aneis Zerillo, a fixture in the starting lineup. “Everybody gets together and tries to work at something. People try to pick each other up and it seems like bowling is something that everybody quickly adopts and has fun with.”
And it should continue as Demarest will lose four seniors to graduation, but have a lot coming back, including bowlers like Zerillo, Faehndrich and Baldino, who finished second in the Big North JV tournament and earned his starting spot in the state tournament.
“I just love coming here, getting to play every day and getting to be a part of a team. I watched the varsity team last year and the year before and wanted to be a part of it, so getting to be a part of the state tournament just felt really good,” said Baldino. “We just want to keep the tradition going.”
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