Paramus bowler Brittany Hovan is one of The Record’s 50 seniors to watch during the 2013-14 school year.
Brittany Hovan enjoyed the greatest individual achievement of her high school career en route to earning a spot on the All-North Jersey girls bowling first team last winter.
The rising senior at Paramus hopes this season will bring about some added team success.
As a junior, Hovan joined the short list of Bergen County girls who have bowled a 300 game in a varsity match – Dyanne Robles of Immaculate Heart (1999) and Nikki Vucak of Paramus Catholic (2011) are the others – and scored top-10 finishes at the Bergen County and North sectional tournaments.
The 5-foot-8 right-hander averaged 192 to help the Spartans finish second in the Big North Freedom Division and third in Group 2 at sectionals, one spot shy of qualifying for the state team finals.
“I really want to see us get our league title this season, because we were so close to it this [past] season,” Hovan said. “Then I want to see how far we can get in states.”
As a team, Paramus has not advanced to the state finals since at least the turn of the millennium. Hovan’s 30th-place showing in the 2013 state singles finals made her the first Spartan (boy or girl) to earn a trip to North Brunswick in coach Jonathan Morrisette’s seven-year tenure.
“Brittany’s really worked hard, even since the season [ended], and has really improved,” Morrisette said. “There’s going to be a lot of pressure on her this coming year, but I think that she’s going to be ready for it.”
Hovan’s summer preparation has included some league bowling and plenty of practice. She competes in the Premier Junior Doubles Scratch League one night a week at Bowler City in Hackensack, “where it’s all high school students, and it’s for scholarship money,” she said.
“I go there sometimes for lessons, too, but I’m always out there bowling,” added Hovan, 16. “I try to go in for practice as many times as I can get in there.”
Looking down the road, Hovan is interested in several colleges, though not necessarily ones that would keep her competitive bowling career going.
“It really depends on where I can get into,” she said. “I’ve looked into Ohio State and UMass [which do not field women’s bowling teams], and I’ve looked into Vanderbilt [which does]… If I get in somewhere where I can bowl, I would definitely love to. But if I can’t, I always want to be in band.”
Her two favorite extracurricular activities can be tricky to balance sometimes. On the day she fired her 300 (and career-high 696 series) at Bowler City last December, the flautist/clarinetist had to make a prompt exit to perform with the school’s concert band back in Paramus that evening. This fall, she’ll be a drum major in the marching band.
“I’ve been playing flute since like fourth grade,” said Hovan, who said she’s been around the lanes a bit longer. “Probably since I was 5, when my dad had me in a league with him.”
Email: tartaglia@northjersey.com