by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
No one knows UNM has a bowling team, said team vice president Ashley Dale.
"They're like, 'You guys are on a bowling team?'" she said.
The seven students, who are not funded by UNM, drive to Rio Rancho two nights a week to practice at the family-owned Tenpins & More.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"It's a great place to bowl," Dale said. "The only hard part is the drive out here. All of us live on the other side of town."
Two years ago, they practiced at Silva Lanes-EuCan Bowl.
At Tenpins, students convinced co-owner Mike Miller and his sister Dana Miller-Mackie to help coach the team.
"He didn't really have time for them, and I said, 'Well, I really don't want to leave them. I think there's potential here, and I don't think it's right to just leave them,'" Miller-Mackie said.
With the help of Miller-Mackie's mother, Dee Miller, who was New Mexico's first female bowler, Miller-Mackie took the team under her wing at the beginning of this year.
"It's pretty cool," Dale said. "They let us practice for free. Dana will do some crazy things. Once she got an oil can and just poured oil all over the lane, and then last week she took a sweatshirt and wiped all the oil off. She tries different things, so we get used to different lane conditions."
Team president Tom Garcia said they raise money themselves.
"We put on tournaments and different things to raise money, have raffles and stuff," Garcia said. "The guy from bowling.com donated a bowling ball to everybody on the team. That helped a lot."
Team member Brandy Silva, who has a clear ball with a bright yellow rose inside, has bowled since she was three and plans to bowl professionally.
Silva said she listens to music during tournaments.
"I try to listen to more rock stuff to get my adrenaline going, like Linkin Park or Papa Roach," Silva said. "I have to keep my mind off of what I'm doing. Usually I concentrate too much, and my head's just not in the game. I've lost lots of tournaments because my head wasn't in the game. I have the physical abilities, just not the mental yet."
Dale said she's less competitive than the rest of the team, but she understands the importance of being prepared mentally.
"There's two parts to bowling: the physical and the mental," she said. "I like to bowl for fun. They're a little more competitive than I am. I'm working on my mental game slowly - that's one thing Dana's working with me on is my mental game. We're trying to get me to where I have the confidence to go out there and just bowl a good game instead of just being like, 'Ah who cares, let's just throw the ball.'"
