Minooka bowlers go west

Minooka senior bowlers Brad Greenup, Chris Ruffino and Sam Biesack have signed to continue their careers at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, IA. The trio of Indians will be part of the first men's bowling squad at the university. (Herald Photo by Adam Nekola)

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MINOOKA — Chris Ruffino, Sam Biesack and Brad Greenup will continue their bowling careers.

Together.

Ruffino, Biesack and Greenup have all signed to attend St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.

Which is a good thing — for both St. Ambrose and the trio of Minooka bowlers — according to Indians coach Derrick Rapsky.

"That is huge," said Rapsky, following the recent collegiate athletic scholarship ceremony held at the Career Center at Minooka High School. "They have been here for four years and been through just about everything. They know what they are going to face. And with the three of them going together, they will be able to help each other and support each other."

St. Ambrose joins William Penn University and Viterbro University as Midwest Collegiate Conference schools who will sponsor boys and girls bowling squads. That will bring the total number of NAIA schools sponsoring intercollegiate bowling to 19.

"I know there are only three Illinois schools that have boys bowling," said Rapsky. "This will be a great opportunity for Sam, Chris and Brad to go to college and be able to continue bowling. That is wonderful. I think it is great that the three will be going to the same school."

And St. Ambrose University assistant bowling coach Jeff Griebel pointed out that the Minooka bowlers will actually benefit from attending the Iowa school.

"We added bowling for both men and women and the sport is actually supported by the school," said Griebel. "Some of the larger schools that offer bowling in the area have it as a club sport. So the bowlers have to do fundraisers and raise money to keep the sport going. When our teams will go out for a tournament, we will take care of all the expenses."

Griebel also likes the idea of the three Minooka bowlers attending his school.

"We are looking to add 30 players, including 20 guys and 10 women," said Griebel. "And we will have a no-cut program. We should be very competitive, especially with the athletes that we have recruited."

Griebel says he targeted athletes with certified 200 averages or close to it.

"That should make us very competitive, even early on," he explained. "I attended some (bowling) sectionals up in the Chicago area but we also recruited the top local bowlers. We have very good bowling in this area and we got the word out that we were looking for local bowles. The idea trickled down and we got athletes that certainly like the idea of bowling at the collegiate level."

Ruffino and Greenup were both four-year varsity starters for the Indians while Biesack is a three-year varsity starter. Biesack and Greenup were two-time Southwest Prairie All-Conference picks while Ruffino made All-Conference his junior season.

Rapsky also noted that Biesack "was our team leader. He was the first one (bowler) to commit (to St. Ambrose) and the others followed.

Biesack indicated that he will room with Greenup as a freshman.

"I was happy to see Chris and Brad pick St. Ambrose," he said. "I made my decision and they were probably influenced by me a little but still, it is nice that we will all be together."

Biesack plans on majoring in either criminal justice or exercise science at St. Ambrose. Greenup is considering criminal justice or industrial engineering. Ruffino has selected business finance as his major.

Rapsky said the personalities of the Minooka bowlers were all different.

"Sam was the clown," Rapsky explained. "And I mean that in a good way. He was the least uptight bowler on the team. If things weren't going well, he was able to just let things run off him. Chris (Ruffino) was the most competitive. And he felt the pressure at times. That's what made Sam so helpful. Brad (Greenup) was the most consistent bowler we had. He was also very quiet and a great teammate. Everything he did, he put the team first."

Rapsky said the trio will be remembered as "the turning point in our bowling program."

And Ruffino, Greenup and Biesack put in the time and effort to become good bowlers.

"They spent probably twice as much time bowling as most of the others on the team," said Rapsky. "They would work after practice for another hour or two. They usually stayed after and would work on something. They put in extra hours but they looked at bowling as fun. They wanted to practice more. They were alley rats."

Ruffino went to state as a freshman. He also plays volleyball for the Indians.

"I have liked bowling all my life but I started playing volleyball when I got to high school because our middle school did not have (offer the sport) it," Ruffino said. "Going to state my freshman year is my favorite memory. It was a great honor."

Ruffino agreed with Rapsky's assessment of his competitiveness.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best," Ruffino said. "Sometimes, when I wasn't doing well, it bothered me. But I tried to be a good teammate."

Greenup also played football in high school.

"I liked bowling and football about the same although football is a lot more intense," Greenup said. "Bowling practice is a lot more fun although coach still made us do pushups."

Biesack also played baseball for Minooka.

"I liked baseball, it was a lot of fun," Biesack admitted. "I played it with all my friends. But then when I got into high school, I started drifting away from baseball. It started to become more work than fun. My favorite memory in high school was definitely going to state as a junior."

"Right after our school decided to start a bowling program, I sent letters to every high school in the state that featured bowling as a sport," said Griebel. "I started getting a lot of interest and tried to get out and see some matches. I think the players we recruited were all impressed by our institution. Actually, it wasn't that hard to receuit. We had no record to sell. So we could tell our recruits that they would be a part of history for our school."