The Carle Place High School's boys' bowling team recently won their second consecutive Nassau County Championship title by holding off East Meadow and Hewlett for the victory.

The Frogs earned a 98 pin victory (6,314 to 6,216) over second place East Meadow. There was a huge crowd of Carle Place supporters at the Garden City Bowl to cheer on their team to victory. The Frogs never lost their focus, and each of the top five bowlers scored well over 200 in the final game to secure the win. Coach Ralph Capozzi and his group of superb bowlers never lost their confidence while helping the Frogs to their second County Championship.

Vin Capozzi, a senior bowler on the Carle Place boys' team, managed to overcome a separated shoulder earlier in the season. Vin, who is Ralph's son, even made a bold prediction on Thursday night's edition of the "Halftime Howie" radio program (WGBB), whereby he "guaranteed" victory at the Nassau County Championships. Coach Capozzi, who felt that the prediction was somewhat bold, nevertheless encouraged his team to defend their title. History will show that "his boys" came through once again," noted a spokesperson.

Individually, three of Carle Place's bowlers finished in the top ten for a six-game series, Chris Bilbao (1315), Kyle Lavery (1290), and Vin Capozzi (1288). In addition, Chris Bilbao had a high game of 267 and Kyle Lavery 247. There were also major contributions from L.J. Lopez (226 high game), Jimmy Amodeo (240 high game), and Sean Marshall (233 high game) during the County Championships. Vin Capozzi had four games over 225.

The Frogs also repeated as Conference II Champions, beating out second place Sewanhaka and third place North Shore. Throughout the season there were many fine individual efforts as well. Senior Chris Bilbao bowled a 299 high game and teammates Vin Capozzi had a 267 high game, Kyle Lavery bowled at 265 high game, Jim Amodeo an impressive 259 high game, and Sean Marshall a 242 high game. Chris Bilbao enjoyed a high three-game series of 781 (260.3 average game).

Carle Place will next represent Section VIII (Nassau County) at the New York State Championships to be held at the Sayville Lanes on Saturday, March 3. Only the best bowling teams from all over New York State will be represented at these championships, and the Frogs are eager to compete.

In addition, congratulations are in order to the Lady Frogs, who also competed at the Nassau County Tournament, finishing seventh out of the best 16 teams in the county. High game was recorded by senior Amanda Heinrich, who bowled the highest game of the tournament, scoring 247. There were 20 girls who bowled over 200, and Amanda was the very top. "Congratulations to Coach Erika Fallik and her team," noted a spokesperson for the team. The Mineola Girls' Bowling team won the Nassau County Championship over second place Clarke and third place Freeport.