Tiffany Greene
BHSN Reporter

OVIEDO -- "I don't know the logistics of bowling that well," Oviedo's Julie Leonard candidly admits.

In fact, she says it was something she just kind of picked up. 

"My brother started bowling and was always at the alley with him so I just joined in.  I never really loved doing it until high school started and it got to be a lot more fun," Leonard revealed.

But when she steps up to the lane, none of that matters.  It just her, the ball and the pins.  

Spares make the game when you're not getting the strikes and Leonard is one of the best spare-makers there is.  This ball slinger's solid 200 average recently helped lead Oviedo to a district championship and a fourth consecutive appearance at the state tournament. However, it's been Leonard who's making news.

"This is about a team thing.  A lot of the attention has been on me and I don't like attention at all.  I just want to bowl and do well," said the defending 6A state champion bowler.

This coming from the drum major for the Lions' Marching Band.  Yet she contends it's totally different.

"She's been really good about it.  She hasn't made a big deal about it," said Allison Jesse, one of the team captains, Leonard is the other.  "She's still Julie and she's still on the team and it's really fun. All the cameras around just makes it even better."

Leonard says those cameras make her nervous.  Add to the that, bowlers are very superstitious.  Case in point, the Oviedo Lions decided to wear the same shirt they did last year when they made it to the state championship.  Despite the fact they lost, this season they're 16-0.  

As for the defending 6A state champion Leonard, she takes the same approach every time she approaches the lane.  She goes to the third dot puts the ball over her mark stoops down a little bit and releases the ball. 

"Julie is a great leader," says 6th year Oviedo Head Bowling Coach Paul Wilkie.  "She's does everything we've asked her to do and she's pulled the team together as far as improving them as individuals.  They saw what she was able to do and they feel apart of that.  She's always wanted them to feel apart of that."   

Leonard and the Lions continue their hunt for a state title in hopes of remaining undefeated at season's end.  The senior says it's a testament to the coaching and her teammates.  But what the state champion, as she's known around school, doesn't realize is that she's helped to single-handedly make bowling a big deal on her campus.