MUSCATINE, Iowa–In the early 2000s, the Rose Bowl started putting out feelers to see if they could start a bowling league for people with special needs of all kinds. Laurie Lanfier remembers, “the owner of the bowling alley asked me to support it as a sponsor financially, and then he needed coaches, so my husband and I started doing it and we loved it.” Together, the Lanfiers helped start the Strikers Bowling League. Now, about 19 years later, the league has grown substantially and allowed numerous people to find an activity they love that can help them grow and thrive both socially and physically.

Each fall and spring, the Strikers hold weekly bowling nights on Wednesdays starting at 5:30 p.m. At each meeting, bowlers play three games. Sessions last for eight weeks each, and bowlers must pay their league fee of $64 up front, similar to the requirements of many other leagues. To keep their evenings fun and exciting, Lanfier gives them different challenges each week, such as high score contests and colored pin challenges. Through fun yet competitive play, the Strikers seek to give all participants the chance to enjoy league play just like any other bowler might.

Even bowlers who use a wheelchair may get in on the fun of Strikers bowling. Thanks to special bowling ball ramps provided by the Rose Bowl, bowlers who need to remain seated can adapt the game to work for them.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Strikers regularly had between 70 and 90 bowlers attending each week. When bowlers returned to league play, Lanfier noticed a decline in the number of people attending. However, she has found that having a smaller number of bowlers has allowed her to give each of them more one on one time, developing the skill of throwing the ball right down the middle of the lane to avoid the need for bumpers. “My goal is to get everyone off bumpers,” she shared.

Since starting the Strikers, Lanfier has seen players grow in many ways. She particularly remembers how bowling motivated one player who wore leg and arm braces to attend her physical therapy sessions regularly and keep up with the exercises her therapist prescribed so that she could eventually bowl without braces.

Lanfier also values the friendships that spring up between the bowlers as well as between the bowlers and coaches. “They just have so much fun and they make so many friends,” Lanfier observed. “The love you get from each and every one of them–that’s how everything should be,” she glowed.

As the Strikers Bowling League continues to grow in numbers as the COVID-19 pandemic abates, Lanfier encourages anyone interested in joining to come see them at one of their Wednesday evening bowling nights at the Rose Bowl, located at 1411 Grandview Avenue in Muscatine. She especially urges people to get involved with their fall session as she says, “there’s not much of anything in Muscatine that’s more fun than their Halloween party.”