She went ahead and asked anyway.
“She asked if she was good enough for me to bowl with,” Jackie Coterel said of her sister. “I told her absolutely.”
While Coterel was already bowling with a few other partners in the Greater Dayton United States Bowling Congress city doubles tournament, she wasn’t about to pass on the opportunity to bowl with her sister. And they couldn’t have imagined a better outcome.
Coterel and Reynolds took Poelking Lanes by storm, rolling 1,438 in the scratch women’s division, easily taking the title. Coterel – with the help of her sister – eclipsed her then tournament leading score of 1,356, bowled with Shannon Pluhowsky, to claim both first and second place. Reynolds and Coterel finished with 716 and 722, respectively, during the final shift on the final day of competition.
“Courtney didn’t know what we needed to beat and I didn’t tell her until we were finished,” Coterel said. “She was so stoked, we both were. It meant so much to win this with her.”
It was a pleasant surprise for her big sister.
“I was kind of shocked,” Reynolds said.
While the siblings have been bowling since they were just 5 years old, the win marked their first title together – after more than two decades on the lanes.
“I don’t have words,” Reynolds, 32, said. “Just excitement.”
While bowling has been a constant for Coterel — a Beavercreek graduate who also competed for the University of Northwestern Ohio — Reynolds split her time between the lanes and the softball field until recently when she increased her bowling from one league to four this season.
“My husband didn’t want me to waste my talent,” she said.
That investment, paired with the fun of bowling with her sister, paid off in a city title.
While Coterel already had a city doubles title to her credit, this one meant even more.
“I wanted to try a little harder because I knew how great it would feel to win with her,” she said. “This win has a special place in my heart.”
It was also much more than a tournament win for Reynolds.
“It definitely boosts my confidence,” the mother of three said.
And it likely erased any hesitation she might have about asking her sister to bowl with her in the future.
Greater Dayton USBC City Champions
Open Doubles
Handicap: Sheena Smith/Philip Duncan, 1,465
Scratch: Keith Schooler/James Tucker III, 1,534
Women’s Doubles
Handicap: Micki Sumner/Megan Shell, 1,394
Scratch: Courtney Reynolds/Jaclyn Coterel, 1,438
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