×

Cassidy Williams Striking out to bowl for Tulane

Cassidy Williams in action recently at Concordia Lanes.

At 7 years old, Cassidy Williams would go down to Concordia Lanes with her dad Chris to bowl a few games. But neither of them knew what those early lessons would lead to.

Williams, now a senior at New Ulm Cathedral High School, continued bowling over the years, eventually competing at the high school level for New Ulm High School.

As she became older, her scores were noticed by those all over. That eventually led to her signing a National Letter of Intent to continue her bowling career next year at Tulane University, a Division 1 college in New Orleans.

Division 1 athletics is extremely rare, but Williams’ highest average was 185 and her highest sanctioned game is a 279. She also had a three-game series of 666.

For Williams, that journey to a Division 1 school started out at Concordia Lanes. And while she’s one of the best bowlers at her age level in the state now, she said she wasn’t an instant star at Concordia Lanes when she first started.

Cassidy Williams signed a National Letter of Intent to continue her bowling career at Tulane University. Back row: Chris Williams, Sydney Williams, Kurt Balbach. Front row: Cassidy Williams, Laura Williams.

“My dad bowled league at the bowling alley h

ere in town,” she said. “It took a long time, I struggled in the beginning but with a lot of coaching from a few different coaches, I figured it out a little bit and kept getting better as the years progressed.”

She said her dad and her godfather helped her progress in those early years, but she started getting more one-on-one coaching starting her eighth-grade year, which included four different coaches over the years.

Williams eventually started bowling varsity beginning in eighth grade. She said that year she also struggled a bit, going back and forth from the varsity and junior varsity teams.

After that, her career took off.

“It was more that I had to figure out my technique,” she said. “I’d work on my hook, I’d work on my hand position. I had to work on my spares — spares are what win games.”

Williams holds her team’s first-place tropy at USA regionals.

She was named the Most Oustanding Player for Minnesota High School Bowling in 2018 and in 2019, she finished third in the U20 156-185 Division in the Minnesota Singles Youth Bowling Tournament. She was also a member of a team that participated in the USA Regional in Detroit in 2019.

Her name really got out there in 2020 and 2021 when she was the Most Outstanding Player for Girls’ Minnesota High School Bowling. She was also First-Team All-State in 2021 and she was named the Most Outstanding Player for Minnesota High School Bowling.

“That was a great experience, it was something that you definitely have to work for,” she said. “All the hard work that I put into coaching, the technique, I finally felt good with myself.”

Then in 2021, she had probably the biggest moment of her career when she participated in the Junior Gold Championship in Indianapolis, Indiana. There, she placed 63rd out of 551 girls nationwide in the U18 Division.

“Junior Gold is such a great experience, you go against the top bowlers in the country,” she said. “To even make the Top 100 was just crazy, it was such a good experience and I felt accomplished. Bowling is a lot more than people think, the mental grind and Junior Gold is definitely a mental grind. But I felt proud of myself for the first time in a while.”

Cassidy Williams at Code 3 in Gibbon.

That helped get the attention of the Tulane coaching staff. After emailing them a few times and Zoom meeting, Williams quickly decided that New Orleans was the place she wanted to be.

“It started around Thanksgiving when I got an email and they wanted to see a video of me,” she said. “Bowling colleges, they want to see a video or a collage of you bowling and you send that to the college. If they want to pursue you, they will send you and email and they sent me an email back and I had a chat via Zoom with both of the coaches and they wanted me to come down. I went down there and visited and from there, I decided that it was a perfect college for me.”

She said that Tulane made her feel comfortable once she visited.

“One of the biggest things for me in finding a college was I wanted to feel comfortable and at home and it was almost instant,” she said. “I just felt very welcome, everyone would say ‘hi’. The weather was nice, the coaches were nice, I felt very comfortable.”

She’ll head down there sometime in August and she’s looking forward to the challenges ahead.

“It’s going to be an awesome experience,” she said. “I’m super excited and I’m so ready to meet a great group of girls that want to bowl and want to be there and to better each other, to work as a group and as a team. The coaching staff wants to see you succeed and I’m just excited.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today