SMYRNA — Olivia VanHooser won the Division II Miss Bowling award Wednesday for her performance as a senior. But in her case, it’s a career achievement honor for her five-year Friendship Christian career.
She began her prep career by winning the state individual championship as an eighth-grader and finished second the following year. She was a finalist for Miss Bowling all five years at FCS.
“It’s been a lot of hard work and I really couldn’t have done it without my dad (FCS assistant coach Dave VanHooser) and my other coaches, Mr. (Jon) Shoulders and Mr. (Mark) Strickland and Allen Slaughter and my really awesome teammates,” VanHooser said Wednesday afternoon from Smyrna Bowling Center moments after finishing fourth in the DII state individual tournament won by teammate Olivia Rush and hours after receiving the award. “Even in eighth grade when they were like, ‘Wow. Where did you come from?’, they were so supportive… I’ve never felt a lack of sisterhood with my teams. I’ve gotten so lucky every year to be surrounded by such great people.”
According to Shoulders, VanHooser’s influence on the program began well before she began competing for the Lady Commanders and her legacy will be felt even while she’s competing for Milligan University in Elizabethton.
“When she was in fifth or sixth grade, I would get her to come over, because she was so good, and bowl against my high school girls,” Shoulders said. “She was just in middle school and I would say ‘Y’all watch this 12-year-old little girl right here’. And she be giving them pressure at that early age and started being a leader from the very beginning. The day she started eighth grade she became the leader of that team. She’s a coach on the court out there. She’s been the perfect teammate that you want to have. She has been the captain that has led this team to multiple state championships.”
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