On a day when everything needed to go right, events didn’t go quite so well for Hinsdale Central senior Kelly DeJong.
Just as DeJong started bowling Saturday at the Hinsdale South Sectional, she developed a blister on the thumb of her throwing hand.
The more she bowled, the more her thumb expanded and refused to stay in the ball.
DeJong still managed to roll 626 in her morning series and finished with 1,191 at Willowbrook Lanes to earn the final qualifying spot for the state meet Friday and Saturday at The Cherry Bowl in Rockford.
“My thumb started out getting swollen. I tried to shoe my thumb in, instead I let it rest in there,” DeJong said. “At lunch, we tried to (get the thumb hole) on my ball to open up.”
On Sunday, DeJong took her bowling balls to a pro shop to have them re-drilled. She owns five balls, but uses just three in competition. She said she would take off Monday to give her thumb a rest.
When DeJong first entered Hinsdale Central, her sport was travel soccer. But after three concussions and a broken wrist, DeJong was ready to try something less dangerous her sophomore year when she heard school announcements about tryouts for the bowling team.
Bowling turned out to be much safer. She averaged 120 pins in her first season on the JV, then improved to a 180 average this season.
“I’m rolling the ball with more speed … two miles per hour more than last year,” DeJong said.
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“Kelly has put in a tremendous amount of effort learning the game and perfecting her form and performance,” Hinsdale Central coach Sanskruti Patel said. “Both Lauren Otahal, my assistant coach, and I have been blown away by her growth over the last few years. It is a testament to her dedication and all the time she’s committed to the sport outside of the season.”
While the Red Devils’ home lanes are Suburbanite Bowl in Westmont, they prepared for the regional and sectional at Willowbrook Lanes by practicing there for two weeks.
“I usually don’t like Willowbrook Lanes at all,” said DeJong, a Hinsdale resident. “Willowbrook is dryer than Suburbanite.”
DeJong is the first Red Devils bowler to qualify for state since Sabrina Cothard in 2010. Her sister, Veronica Cothard, rolled a 1,178 Feb. 7 at the Hinsdale South Regional but did not advance to the state meet.
“I was not surprised at all about Kelly qualifying because I know she is one of the best bowlers in our conference,” Patel said. “I was a little nervous about how the other girls in our sectionals would perform, knowing that Kelly was up against the best.”
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