EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally and incorrectly referred to coach Eric Bottrall’s daughter as Shaunna. Her name is Kadence.
A bittersweet bowling season for Wayland is under way and it already features many astonishing connections and coincidences.
Just this past week we learned that former Wildcat standout Sydney Urben individual state champion in 2018, now owns the third best per-game average on the collegiate circuit. It also is interesting, but not a coincidence, that two others listed in the top 10 bowl for her former coach, Bill Holbrook, who guided the Wayland girls’ team for several years before moving on to coach Midland University in Nebraska.
A coincidental sidelight is that Holbrook is the son of 1964 Wayland High School graduates Sandy Kotrba and Bill Holbrook. And two rollers on his Midland roster have serious Wayland connections, Erin Porteous, a WHS grad, and Mackenzie Banas, who graduated from Otsego but rolled for Wayland before moving and is the daughter of former Leighton Township Fire Chief Tony Banas.
Another standout on the Midland team is Brittney Schnicke, who bowled for Caledonia and was coached by Eric Bottrall, new Wayland girls’ coach after guiding teams at Byron Center and Caledonia for 18 years and winning coach of the year accolades.
And Bottrall, who lives in Dorr and is a 1997 Wayland High School graduate, isn’t coming alone. His daughter, Kadence, will be a freshman on the team this season.
The connections don’t stop there, but this is where it makes a dark turn. Wildcat boys’ coach Sherry Miklusicak has reported that her father, Frank Rybiski, is in late stages of lung cancer and is receiving Hospice care at his home. Rybiski, widely regarded as Wayland’s best bowler ever, until this year had been a volunteer assistant coach. He also has been a longtime friend of Bottrall, who said tonight after seeing this column, “Frank is an amazing man that has been a huge influence and inspiration to me!”
Astonishing, bittersweet and fascinating are the best adjectives I can come up with in assessing Wayland bowling. And when thinking about Frank Rybiski, my neighbor for the last 33 years, only sadness.
COVER PHOTO: Eric Bottrall
