Here's what makes Newark's Denise Wiley the Dispatch girls bowling Coach of the Year
Having known her future high school bowling coach since she was in elementary school, Newark senior Jade Gabor has nothing but praise for Denise Wiley.
But in Gabor’s mind, no compliments measure up to how Wiley helped her between the second and third games of this year’s Division I state tournament.
Unbeknownst to Gabor, she was only 27 pins out of the lead and in seventh place with one game to go. But having opened with a 226 game March 9 at HP Lanes only to follow that up with a 174, it felt worse.
“I started having a breakdown because I thought I didn’t shoot high enough in the second game to even be close (to contending for the championship),” Gabor said. “I was going to let the third game go, but (Wiley) put me back together, I stayed strong and ended up placing fourth.
“She saved me.”
Gabor closed with a 224, catapulting into fourth place (644) and finishing just nine pins from the championship.
As far as Wiley, The Dispatch’s All-Metro Coach of the Year, was concerned, she was just doing her job that day and all season — even if this season was, in her own words, “a shocker” to the only coach who has overseen Newark’s program since its inception in 2005.
“I wanted to send them out on a high note and they exceeded all my expectations,” Wiley said. “I could never have imagined they’d win district. I was just looking to get a team to qualify for state. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I just wanted to go to state one time.”
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While Gabor was at her third state tournament, the Wildcats made their debut as a team and finished fourth. That came on the heels of their first district championship and fourth consecutive league title in the OCC, the past two coming in the Buckeye Division after winning the Cardinal in 2021 and 2022.
A native of Coshocton, Wiley teaches government at Newark. She has been in the school district since 1999.
“She’s enthusiastic,” senior Makayla Adams said. “She is just so kind and down-to-earth.”
Newark’s recent success came with a core of current seniors that also includes Andy Hupp and Cipher McAlpine. Junior Regan Shanaberg and sophomore Lainee Elrenbach rounded out this season’s lineup.
“We spent a lot of time working toward this season,” Wiley said. “I have four seniors and three of them had been together when they were freshmen. Jade was my only freshman varsity bowler (in 2020-21). … They spent a lot of time over that summer practicing. Just about the only thing you could do during COVID was bowl.”
Gabor said Wiley has fine-tuned the art of calming her bowlers without distracting them.
“She’ll start talking to me about random stuff to take my mind off bowling,” Gabor said. “(She asks questions like) ‘what kind of prom dress will you get? When are you going shopping?’
“When you finally take your mind off (adversity) and calm down, it’s a big difference. You relax and throw the ball like you’re supposed to.”
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The Dispatch’s Athlete of the Year in girls bowling will be among the honors announced at the Central Ohio High School Sports Awards on June 20 at Mershon Auditorium.
While Adams plans to bowl on Bowling Green’s club team as she pursues a teaching degree, she and her teammates will carry the memories of this winter for years.
“(It was) very eventful,” Adams said. “We kept breaking record after record. We did our best, we got every pin that counts and that’s what Mrs. Wiley always told us.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Newark's Denise Wiley is Dispatch girls bowling Coach of the Year
