Sunday, April 20, 2025
The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District boys’ bowling team won the county championship at Garden City Lanes last month, competing in state-level competitions and clutching sixth place on March 14 and 15.
The Bellmore-Merrick team accepts students from Mepham, Calhoun and Kennedy high schools, as well as varsity players from Grand Avenue and Merrick Avenue middle schools. The team has recently earned two awards — the boys’ bowling champions’ 2024-25 gold medal and the Nassau County conference runners-up medal.
Lucas Lam, 15, a Mepham High School sophomore, ranks as the number one bowler in Nassau County with a strong average score of 230. He is competing both as a member of his team and on his own in the solo tournament. He competes alongside his brother, Nathan Lam.
“I won the county championship with our team, and we set a new high record of 6,620 pins, and everyone had a great performance,” Lucas said. “I ended up getting the second highest score overall with 1,458 over six games. It felt great that we won because of how much work that our team put in, in order to get this accomplishment.”
His father, Merrick resident Siu Lam, helped support the team in preparing for the tournament.
“We did throw a party a couple of weeks before the championship to get them to have a friendly bond and a better rapport with each other,” he said, adding that a strong bond is important in all team sports.
“They need to all step up and have each other’s backs,” he continued. “The thing with bowling is, with any sport, one bad day can determine whether or not you’re successful. They understand that it’s a team effort. If one person has a bad day, someone else needs to step up.”
Riley Kolinsky, 13, a Bellmore resident and a student at Grand Avenue Middle School, is the first eighth grader to become a member of the team. His athletic performance — currently rated with an average score of 205 over 24 games — convinced officials to allow him to compete with older students. He started bowling at age 10 in the PAL bowling league.
“It’s very interesting to me,” Riley said. “It’s the way you can drill a bowling ball, or how there’s so many different oil patterns on lanes, and how many different bowling balls there are and what they’re used for. I just want to get really good at it.”
Being a member of the team offered Riley an opportunity to make friends with like-minded peers from different grades and schools, he said.
“He works so hard, he’s very disciplined, and he is very serious about it,” Staci Kolinsky, Riley’s mother, said.
“I’m just so proud of him,” she continued. “I am just happy that he found something that he’s passionate about and that he loves doing.”
Lee Kolinsky recalled taking his son to try out for the Bellmore-Merrick boys’ bowling team.
“He was in seventh grade, so he was very excited about trying out,” he said. “We weren’t sure if he would make it because it’s a lot of high schoolers. He actually did really great. He was the first seventh grader in almost 20 years that actually made it to the high school team.”
Joseph Bianca, who coaches the team, worked rigorously with the squad in preparing to win the county championship.
“What we worked on was our endurance,” Bianca said. “During counties, you have to bowl six games. So all my practice is leading up to the counties. We bowled six games to build all the kids’ endurances. And it worked, because in the last game of the tournament, we had our highest score.”
Bianca’s training routine was designed to allow team members to maintain a score of 200 or higher throughout the entire competition — enough to qualify for individual tournament play. One of the greatest accomplishments, according to Bianca, is the camaraderie team members had experienced along the way.
“They all root for each other and support each other,” Bianca said. “So, it’s a really great group of kids that are very close together.”
