With over 48 years of combined bowling experience, new Assistant Varsity Coach and adapted PE and Driver’s Ed teacher Adam Petersen as well as recently hired Head Junior Varsity Coach and Special Services English teacher Sara Hayduck are taking this year’s bowling team by storm.

Hayduck is a DGS alumnus who bowled for the team during 2003-2007, coached by Head Varsity Coach and Spanish teacher Robert Topor, and Petersen was previously the Boys Head Varsity Bowling Coach at Fenton High School for eight years.

After the recent passing of 62-year-old Assistant Coach John Ryan, the DGS bowling community was at a loss; fortunately, Petersen had already been offered a job at DGS and originally planned to be a volunteer coach for the girls’ team.

“[It] was a tough spot to step into. … Topor preaches that it’s a family; the girls’ program is kind of a close-knit community … but I just wanted to try to bring my knowledge into bowling,” Petersen said.

Topor, who coached with Ryan for 18 years, felt his loss greatly but has expressed great excitement for Petersen and Hayduck for this season.

“Ryan was very laid back. He knew bowling very well; he knew equipment very well; he instructed very well; he got along with the girls very well but … [he] was a little older and Petersen and Hayduck are younger. So there’s a different kind of youth and excitement to that. So you know, I’m excited about the direction the program will go in the future,” Topor said.

With new coaches come new coaching styles, which, to Topor, was very apparent given the age differences between Petersen, 32, Hayduck, 29 and Ryan. But, although Hayduck and Petersen are both young, they each have different ways of coaching the girls on the team.

“You watch people over and over and over again and you have to learn how they bowl, watch how they bowl because not everyone bowls the same. … I am working really hard with the girls [with] something that Coach Ryan taught me. He always said, ‘We need five seconds of concentration from you,’ so that’s something I always try to hit home with them,” Hayduck said.

“I like to try to do some video analysis with the girls and show them, so not just me telling them what they’re doing wrong, but they can see that what they’re doing wrong. I think they do a better job correcting it,” Petersen said.

As a returning member of the team, JV bowler and senior Bailey McCoy felt similarly to many girls on the team — hesitant to accept a new coach so shortly after Ryan’s passing.

“At first I was a little skeptical, just the circumstances with Coach Ryan passing away unexpectedly, and then all of a sudden we had a new coach. Me, personally, I was kind of upset about it, that we replaced him so fast, especially because he had basically the same illness as my grandpa [who died of brain cancer], so that kind of hit me deeper than the other girls. But once I actually got to know him I felt bad about it because I had this image in my head of ‘Oh great, we are replacing him, here we go, I have to start all over again.’ But he is super nice and super understanding of the circumstances … and he is a really great addition to the team,” McCoy said.

Varsity bowler and sophomore Gillian Czubernat has noticed an impact on her bowling since Petersen has joined the team and, although Hayduck does not coach her directly, she has high hopes for the JV team.

“[Petersen’s] a really good coach. He knows what he’s talking about, he really helps and he is a good person. He doesn’t make anything boring. … A lot of the time, you don’t have to ask him, he will come up to you and tell you everything; he doesn’t tell you the basics, he goes into detail instead of just telling you to do it,” Czubernat said. “[Hayduck] is definitely going to help the [JV team] because she has a lot of knowledge on bowling. She is definitely able to give [the JV team] more knowledge on the sport, which will especially help us next year when we lose a bunch of our seniors.”

McCoy has experienced the coaching of both Hayduck and Petersen, having practiced both JV and varsity and notices the differences between the two.

“Coach Hayduck coaches in a completely different way than Petersen and Topor. She is not as strict or straight to the point as the other coaches are, but she approaches it in a very nice way,” McCoy said.

But it is precisely because of their differences that Topor believes both coaches have a lot to offer to the team.

“[Hayduck] knows the program. She knows what it takes to be successful, and wants to help the girls to do that as well. … Additionally, which I think is fabulous, she’s a woman. And on the girls’ team, to have a woman and a role model I think is really important,” Topor said.

“And [Petersen’s] very outgoing, very personable which is very helpful because in bowling there’s a lot of downtime with the girls, there’s a lot of talking … He comes with a lot of experience as a coach in bowling and just a lot of knowledge about bowling and how to improve girls scores. … So Hayduck and Petersen both offer a lot to the girls in terms of coaching and it’s just a matter of us figuring out the best way to help the girls on a daily basis,” Topor said.

Junior and varsity bowler Amanda Wiggins has been pleased with the outcome of the situation and greatly appreciates the experience Petersen has to offer.

“Coming into our team, right away, he was very outgoing with us and not afraid to say anything. He’s very comfortable with us now, even though we’ve only known him for a couple weeks,” Wiggins said.

Although Petersen was hired two weeks before the 2018-19 school year started, he, as Wiggins mentioned, feels that he fits in well and is comfortable in his position at DGS.

“One of the reasons why I wanted to work here is so I could be involved as much as I could … I’ve always wanted to work in a high school and that’s why I was always coaching at the high school level … and when an opening came up it was for the adapted PE and Driver’s Ed and not a lot of people have the certificate for adapted PE and then also teach Drivers Ed on top of it, so I thought it was kind of a really good fit for me,” Petersen said.

Similarly, Hayduck has felt comfortable at DGS since she was in high school, bowling for the team. She was excited to take her job as an English teacher during the 2017-18 school year and volunteer as a coach for the bowling team in order to give back to the community, aiming to give the students and girls the same experience she had during her high school career.

Hayduck has not been coaching long but has been learning from Topor and Petersen throughout the year as well as Ryan last year.

“I feel like I came in at such a good time because I got to learn so much from Ryan last year and from Petersen this year, and Coach Topor has been this nice, solid rock. … I’m getting to learn a lot more about bowling, about coaching, forming my own personality as a coach, because I am newer to coaching,” Hayduck said.

Considering the total experience of 66 years in bowling between Topor, Hayduck and Petersen, this year’s girls’ bowling team plans on bolstering their performances on both levels, aiming for another shot at the state tournament.