The smell of fresh oil, the glare of the lights beaming off the lanes. Senior Jaylynn Gould stepped up on the approach, prepared herself, then stepped toward the lanes. Her bowling ball crashed against the pins; she qualified.
On Feb 2, 2026, the Davenport Central Girls Bowling Team traveled to Ottumwa for State Qualifying. They had to bowl 15 baker games where one game was shared by the team, then bowl three individual games. Although they didn’t make it as a team, Gould qualified as an individual. The top eight bowlers following the final game moved on. “I was really excited. It’s something that I have obviously been wanting and falling short on the past few years, it was kind of like all my hard work has paid off,” said Gould. A lot was going through her head at that moment. “Well, at first I cried because I thought I didn’t make it, but when I found out I made it, it was kind of like I was in shock, like I didn’t believe it…it was like wow, it actually paid off, and I’m so excited,” Gould said. State bowling was on Feb 12th, 2026, where Gould traveled to Waterloo and bowled with many other qualifiers. She was excited and looked forward to the unique experience she was going to have. “We went as a team last year, but I’ve always wanted to go as an individual, so just gonna take it all in…And there’s like 32 girls there, so at least I made it this far,” stated Gould. Bowling for state can be stressful at times, Gould shared how she deals with it, “I really struggle with after throwing a not-so-good shot, like not getting mad, but that’s what I’m really trying to focus on for state, like even though you leave something, just pick it up and move on.” She also mentioned an item that helps her, “I have this pair of socks that I always wear, I call them my good luck socks.” However, sometimes your luck runs out, and you mess up a couple times and wish you could go back and change it. “You always look back, and you see something you could have done different. And I feel like I could have done better, I’d say qualifying too, like as a higher seed. If I could go back and fix what I did wrong, I would.” Gould said.
Unfortunately Gould did not move on to placement brackets at State but tried her best even after she faced a big challenge. “Bouncing my bowling ball off my ankle kind of set me back, and it was hard to come back from that…but after figuring out how to work around it, I figured out how to bowl better.” Although it is a competitive game you still make friends that you love no matter what, “Having friends from Des Moines or Muscatine and Iowa City, everybody in one spot, it’s so fun to all bowl together, even though we were technically bowling against each other,” Gould said. “It’s one of the State traditions that we all see each other.” Bowling for State is such a unique experience that you physically feel the difference being there. “It was a whole different atmosphere, I don’t know how to explain it, but it was different than any other tournament I’ve bowled,” Gould shared.
