Who are the RMIT Redbacks? Part two: Tenpin bowling

Photo credit: Richard Tan

RMIT’s tenpin bowling team was one of two RMIT teams (alongside cycling) to win a gold medal at last year’s Division 1 UniSport Nationals. This made the tenpin team back to back champions at the event.

Current team member and member of last year’s team, Scott, said they expect to be “back to back to back” champions after this year’s event.

Scott is a third-year Aerospace Engineering student and the upcoming Nationals at the end of this month will be his third.

The tenpin team is one of RMIT’s most successful and is also the most diverse in terms of gender and the mix of domestic and international students.

The format for the tenpin competition has changed this year, which will be a new challenge for the group.

“The new competition format of Singles, Doubles, Team and All Events means four gold medals are up for grabs,” team manager Terry Lu explained.

“Our team completely dominated the competition last year as it was a team-of-five format and the top four bowlers overall in the competition were from RMIT. I’ve got high hopes that our team is strong enough and will be able to secure the maximum number of medals possible, and most importantly bring home the overall title for the third year in a row.”

This will be IT student Terry’s second year in the team.

“Our team this year is nearly a full revamp of the team, as our top three bowlers from last year aren’t participating. We are, however, lucky enough to have some new bowlers for this year including Daniel, a national bowler for Australia, Marco, a bowling alley technician and highly experienced bowler, and MinJae, a rapidly improving bowler who only started training in April this year,” Terry said.

Last years victorious team. Photo credit: RMIT Sports.

At RMIT, mid-semester break in semester two falls after week six, meaning that the student-athletes who compete at UniGames miss a week of classes in week ten.

While this can be stressful with final assignments fast approaching, Scott said the “little vacation” from classes was one of the main reasons he was looking forward to the event.

Team manager Terry mirrored Scott’s response, with both athletes adding getting into the Gold Coast sunshine and seeing friends from other universities or states who play the same sport as other highlights of the trip.

For the international students in the team, being able to travel to another state of Australia is a very appealing aspect.

The tenpin team has been training hard to achieve their triple-champion goals, but has also been following up each training session with a KFC run. For the tenpin team, traditions like where to eat don’t stick too hard.

“We are ditching KFC for McDonalds due to the Monopoly starting up,” Scott explained.

And for their nutritious breakfast at UniGames?

“Maccas for sure!” Scott answered.

If that breakfast plan has worked for two years now, why change is the attitude of this team.