Seward wins Unified Bowling championship in its first year

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Until this year, the Seward Blue Jays had never fielded a unified bowling team.

The team was expecting to play a few matches but couldn’t have imagined going to the state championships.

On Monday, the Blue Jays won the Class B title.

“When we started this, this year, we were like, ‘Let’s just start off small, a few matches,'” head coach Candice Bridgford said. “And then here we are at the championship, and we never saw that coming.”

Bowler Carl Taylor said the championship was “nerve-wracking.”

“I definitely didn’t expect to be here,” he said.

Many of the students on the team played on the Special Olympics team in middle school and wanted to continue.

Having a team to be able to play on is important for the kids who may not have had an opportunity to compete at the high school level.

“I think it’s really important because some of those kids don’t really get to compete a lot,” Taylor said. “And I like being able to compete with them.”

The team won the championship match with a 3-0 sweep over Lexington.