Behind every champion there is always a story of how they were able to make it to the championships and how their love for their sports first started. In 2018, Cephus Beatty and his parents went on vacation and took him to go bowling and ever since that day, he’s found his love for bowling. He would consistently go bowling during his free time and later on he would join the Youth All New England team, where he and a bunch of other people in CT would compete in championships. So far in his bowling career, Cephus has won a youth open doubles tournament, a 4k tournament in Long Island, an Angle IBT major title, CDYST title, 4 300s, series of 799, and most recently a state championship for the Norwalk High Bowling team.
The Norwalk High Bowling team all started when CIAC (Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference) contacted Mr. Marchetti about Norwalk High participating in a bowling tournament, but they would have to build their own team in order to participate. The first person that came to Mr. Marchetti’s mind for bowling was Cephus because he wasn’t playing soccer at the time so with no hesitation, he said yes to making a team. Cephus had such little time to make a team, and it was a lot harder to even practice with his team because of the lack of chemistry they had. With the little practice they had, they still managed to play very well in the CIAC High School State Bowling Championship and his team ended up winning it all in their first year as a team, beating all 24 teams they had to face in the tournament.
After Norwalk High won their first state championship in bowling, I had the chance to sit down and talk to Cephus and how the journey was from Norwalk High not having a team to participate in the bowling championship to winning the championship. Cephus first described the process as very stressful because he had to go out and find people around the school that go bowling and would like to be in a team. To help him stay consistent and good at bowling, he bowls 3 times a week, practices 10 minutes before every bowling tournament he participates in, and tests each ball at whatever bowling place he’s at to see which ball is the best one to use when he’s playing. He handles all the pressure at every bowling tournament by focusing on himself and playing it like it’s just a normal game of bowling. He made a tough choice and didn’t play soccer this year because he never had time to practice bowling, and he knew the only way to get more time to practice was to stop playing soccer. This decision would forever change him because, with all the practice he had, he was able to bring together a team and win a championship.
The Norwalk High School Bowling team is looking to adding more people to their team for the next tournament, so if you would like to join the team, contact Mr. Marchetti to join the team.
