The Daily Standard
Story Archive
New Bremen bowler Lexa Steinke, seated center, signed a national letter of intent on Wednesday to join the newly-founded bowling team at Ohio Northern University. Seated with her are her father Mike and mother Tracy, and standing from left are New Bremen head coach Brian Alig, Lexa's sister Meg and brother Ben, and Cardinals assistant coach John Parlett.
NEW BREMEN - As a freshman, Lexa Steinke was talked into joining the New Bremen bowling team by her friend and classmate, Megan Ritter, despite having no bowling experience.
Wednesday, she signed a national letter of intent to bowl at Division III Ohio Northern, as part of the Polar Bears' inaugural bowling team.
"It wasn't anything I was thinking about doing at all," she said. "It just came out of nowhere, just trying to get involved in something and do another sport. I didn't really know if I'd be doing it all four years, but as soon as I started, it was like, 'I love this.' The team aspect was great."
As a freshman, Steinke appeared in 13 games and averaged 112.1 pins per game, with a high game of 130 and a high series of 207.
She continued as a reserve as a sophomore, with her average barely ticking up but 36- and 74-pin improvements in her high game and series. As a junior, though, with lone senior Emma Bambauer hurt, Steinke and Ritter became the linchpins of the team.
"My freshman year, I was kind of just trying to learn the ropes," she said, reflecting on when she felt fully comfortable in her new sport. "I didn't know anything going into it, came in complete newbie, knew nothing at all. I'd say probably my junior year, when I had to take more of a leadership role… me and (Ritter) had to start our leadership role a little early, trying to build that teamwork with the other girls."
Steinke appeared in 24 games and earned an All-Midwest Athletic Conference honorable mention as New Bremen finished the season in sectionals, 59 pins short of a district berth.
As a senior, Steinke repeated her All-MAC honorable mention with a 146.2 average, a 188 high game and a top series of 340, then finished 14th at districts with a 532 three-game series and bowled two games at state.
"She improved a lot in her confidence," Cardinals coach Brian Alig said. "You could tell she had become a leader her senior year, taking over from the other seniors. She led the team, along with her skills getting better, but her leadership brought everybody else along with her."
The Cardinals also made the leap as a team, reaching their first-ever state tournament and finishing 14th.
"We worked together a lot better than we had in years past," Steinke said. "At our (district) competition, when we qualified for state, I think the biggest takeaway was that we were all just laughing, joking around, having a great time as a team and being together. I think that's something we were lacking a little bit before. Taking that role, trying to make sure everybody was connected together, definitely had a big impact on that."
At the team awards banquet, Steinke and Ritter were voted the Cardinals' co-MVPs.
Steinke, who plans to major in psychology, wanted to stay close to home, and she was already considering ONU after her former sixth-grade English teacher, now a professor at the school, recommended it. About six months ago, friends enrolled there told her that the school was starting a bowling team for the 2023-24 season.
She asked about it at a college fair and then got in touch with coach Jeff Robinson, who was named the Polar Bears' first head coach in late February.
"He reached out and called me, and we started talking and went from there," she said.
Steinke is the first New Bremen bowler to continue at the varsity level in college since Will Olberding went to Belmont Abbey in North Carolina in 2020, and the first female bowler from New Bremen since Kira Irick signed with the University of Northwestern Ohio in 2015.
"She knows she has to work on being more consistent," Alig said. "Better first balls so her spares are easier, hit more strikes. But she's come a long way since she was a freshman."
ONU has yet to announce its schedule, but the Ohio Athletic Conference doesn't sponsor bowling, meaning the Polar Bears will have to play a non-conference-only slate this season. Robinson takes over after his second stint in charge of the Ohio State bowling club.
