BATON ROUGE - Most of you know who have read Spare Notes here and the many years of my former column in the daily publication.

The singles stepladder competition for the state title is my favorite part of the three days of LHSAA championships in the sport. 

And maybe, I was a little more excited when the six qualifiers for the girl’s stepladder were announced because I knew five had more than a little chance to walk away with the gold medal. If the right circumstances were there, all six could have walked away with it.

I also saw something I have to admit I liked very much. There was a very good chance the winner would be a Baton Rouge area bowler.

First Parker Blanchard of St Michael the Archangel showed her stuff with a 221 game in the 4-5-6 first match, before part of that strong contingent of team champion Archbishop Chapelle, Addison Belle, found the way to get through the semifinal match despite a couple of missed 10 pins.

But waiting was one of the stars of the St. Joseph’s Academy team that advanced to the semifinals in top qualifier Ava Doucet. She won top seed honors with a four-game total of 893 and in the final match she used five strikes in a row to get out to a big enough advantage before a pocket 7-10 stopped her progress for a moment. She finished with the title and a 222.

The UAB signee was not quite done yet as she came back over the weekend and won the renamed Louisiana Scratch Championship U18 girls division at Four Seasons.

On the boy’s side, the first two matches were tight but I felt if anyone could run the stepladder, sixth and final qualifier Beckham Lieu of Division II champ Patrick Taylor, would be the one. Lieu bowled 244-236 and then a 215 in the championship match to win. The first two matches put him in pressure shots to win matches, but he delivered each possible opportunity.

Let me also credit third qualifier Dominick Emory of Benton High in Northwest Louisiana. I know I have been critical the last few years with how highly some of the Northwest Louisiana teams have been seeded and unable to either on paper or on lanes deliver. But it is great to see a bowler like Emory get through a decorated field of bowlers to make the semifinal round of the stepladder.

Regarding the team competition, it was another year of watching the New Orleans area teams win and dominate. The St. Amant girls’ team was the only team to get to the final match from outside the New Orleans area in any boys or girls’ bracket.

Patrick Taylor knocked off two-time champion Shaw in Division II (4A & below) with six starters averaging over 200. I just don’t know a Baton Rouge team that can compete with that at present without a lot of help from PT in not bowling well. The Chipmunks in girls are extremely young and even started an eighth grader. Two championships down, they are already the heavy favorites for next year and the route to equaling Denham Springs four straight girls’ championships (2005-08) appears to be available for Chappelle to achieve.

Then there is Brother Martin. They probably didn’t bowl their best, but it’s a ninth championship in 11 years for the Crusaders and they just show up with a confidence and a swagger that seems to be worth a few strikes and spares before the competition even starts. Their crowd has proven to be able to push them forward a bit as well.

I know this will not make local people happy but right now New Orleans teams own the three divisions and where is a city of Baton Rouge potential team champion going to come from?

We’ve had the good state title runs of the Dutchtown and Denham Springs girls in the three years between the 2021 and 2025-2026 championships of Chapelle, but the closest a Baton Rouge city team came this year was the amazing 14-0 run of first-year team Episcopal. Gregory Snee should get a coach of the year nod for what he did. Unfortunately, PT was way too much in the semifinals, but it was a heck of a year and hopefully he can find another group to inch closer.

Give a lot of credit to St. Joseph’s Academy coach Garth Ridge on the girls’ side, getting that team to the semis with just one loss in the first match by one pin to state finalist St. Amant. I watched some of their preseason work on nights before our league bowled and he did an amazing job developing a group of new and young players to a state semifinals spot.

I also have some thoughts on the brackets and the power rankings that we’ll talk about next week.

A Final Note

The PBA finally returns to Bayside Bowl in Maine on Sunday for the Roth/Holman doubles event. This should be a lot of fun with the crazy, but knowledgeable fans at Bayside Bowl. It will air at 4 p.m. on Sunday on The CW.

Back with you next Monday.

Thanks for checking out this week’s Spare Notes, 

                                      Kent Lowe