By Dominic Scianna
LaShaune Darden is a full-time locomotive engineer by trade, a pro shop owner, and part-time director of youth bowling at Olympia Lanes in Hammond, Indiana. And oh yes, he is also one of the top coaches in the Chicago Public League (CPL) mentoring the Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep Academy girls’ varsity high school bowling team.
“I’ve been involved in bowling my entire life,” said Darden. “My Dad got me hooked on the sport in 1968 and our whole family has been bowling for as long as I can remember.”
Darden has been coaching at Brooks since 2014. His Eagles squad won the CPL City Championship in 2020 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Brooks have been to the city championship finals seven of the past nine years and his current team is primed for another run at the title in January.
“The bowling format is a little different than other CPL sports,” Darden explained. “We take the top 4 teams from the northside and the top 4 teams from the southside, and those 8 teams bowl three games each with total pin count determining the overall city champion.”
Brooks is led by sophomore bowler Lindora Kamalu who averages 180 per game on the lanes, and junior captain Trinity Jones, who has amassed a 175 average and carries a 4.4 academic grade point average.
“Trinity is a major player in the city along with Lindora who is another one to watch,” Darden noted in praising his team leaders. “We have a good chance again this year. We practice four days a week and this current team is a very dedicated group.”
Darden also assists with the boy’s team at Brooks, and the school has another rising bowling star in sophomore Kaden Coleman who will lead the boys’ team into the city and state playoffs in 2023.
Coach Darden is a passionate advocate for his sport, and he bristles when the naysayers criticize bowling as merely a recreational activity and not a real sport. It’s a conversation Darden loves to have, and he welcomes debating the critics who think otherwise.
“A lot of people don’t see bowling for what it is, a fun and entertaining sport that you can make a living at or earn a scholarship towards a college degree,” Darden explained. “There was a time when ABC covered bowling (on Wide World of Sports) every Saturday. Now there isn’t the exposure there once was, and you don’t see bowling covered that much on TV anymore.”
In the CPL, there are just 38 high schools that offer bowling as a competitive sport. Promoting more participation and educating younger age groups to the benefits of bowling across the entire city of Chicago is the ultimate challenge for Darden and his CPL colleagues.
“We have no feeder system for bowling coming up through the elementary schools. Other sports like basketball and football do, and that’s what needs to change so that we can get more bowlers to compete and join our high school teams,” Darden acknowledged.
Many of the coaches in the CPL also do not have bowling backgrounds and are new to the sport as well.
“I take nothing away from our current CPL coaches. I give them a ton of credit because they give of their time and do everything they can for their teams,” Darden said. “We must find a way to instill interest in CPL bowling to attract coaches and prospective high schoolers.”
Clinics can be one way to raise awareness, and Darden notes that there are fall and summer offerings in Chicago run by local bowling facilities for coaches and bowlers to take advantage of.
Darden considers it his mission to stand by his sport and profess the legitimacy of bowling to all who will listen. And in the process help to work with coaches in the CPL to bring in new bowlers, experienced coaches, and develop a feeder system through the elementary school path that can help grow the game.
“Ultimately, we (the CPL league, coaches, and sports administrators) all have the same goal in mind and that is to generate more interest for our sport.”
