Lincoln East and all Lincoln Public Schools recently announced the addition of three new sports for all of the high schools: Girls Wrestling and Boys and Girls Bowling. Kicking off this year, these three new sports will occur for the first time in Lincoln East history. As the winter sports season approaches, these new sports are gearing up for their first time.

In the past years at East High, there has been a boys wrestling team, along with a few girl participants, and a unified bowling team. However, there has never been an official girls wrestling team or a bowling team for the boys or girls. These new sports will allow athletes and the teams to be funded and supported by NSAA and the schools themselves.

LPS decided to implement these new sports because of the push by community members and coaches. With an increase in athletes interested in these sports, it was thought necessary to administer these new sports in order to support them in the best way possible.

“Anytime you can get students involved in something that ties them to the school, it helps them academically, it helps them socially, and I think it’d be neat to promote them and give them a sense of belonging with the school,” Zach Limbach, the athletic director at East, said.

The new official girls wrestling coach at East will be Allyn Gonsor, who has already been in the program for years and is currently a teacher at East. The girls bowling coach is Chelsea Richardson and the boys bowling coach is Lee Plath, both of whom are teachers at East as well. The bowling team’s permanent practice location is still up in the air, but will be at these three locations: Sun Valley, Parkway Lanes, and Hollywood Bowl.

The Spartan community is optimistic and excited for these new opportunities at East.

“I think it just allows more students to get involved,” Chelsea Richardson, the new girls bowling coach said. “It’s a sport that a lot of people will probably do outside of school anyway, so the fact that we can have it as a school event now, not just a club team outside of school, is really cool and allows more people to get involved.”

As the winter sports season inches closer, these new sports will definitely be something to look out for.