By Jon SantucciSpecial to Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers

STUART — Martin County High School senior Eric Gauroniak was determined to be a better bowler this season.

Despite being a first-team All- area selection in 2011 on the team that won the state tournament, Gauroniak wasn’t satisfied with his game.

Whether that meant extra time at Stuart Lanes or consistently seek-ing out Martin County boys coach T.J. Baral for advice, Gauroniak con-stantly looked for ways to improve.

“I’m very motivated to get better,” Gauroniak said. “I want to succeed. I want to win as many tournaments as possible and I’m as motivated as you can think anyone is.

“I want to win and I’ll listen to anything anyone has to say if that will help me out.”

His 2012 results were impressive. Gauroniak averaged 235.2 pins per

game in 21 regular season matches, finished seventh in the District 12 tournament and helped lead Martin County to an undefeated regular season and their second consecutive trip to the state tournament.

Gauroniak is the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers All-Area Boys Bowler of the Year.

“He worked so hard,” Baral said. “Even in the offseason, he’s constant-ly bowling and he asks a lot of ques-tions. I would say 90 percent of the time that I would give him advice, it

was him coming to me and asking, ‘how do you do this?’ or ‘how do I get better in this area?’ It’s very rare that I have to say, ‘Hey, you need to be working on this.’

“He’s not afraid to ask questions.”One of things that set Gauroniak

apart from others this season was his consistency.

Regardless of where Martin Coun-ty was bowling, Baral knew he could count on Gauroniak to post a high score. His lowest game of the season was a 180 and that happened just one time.

“By far, he was the most consistent bowler in the area,” Baral said. “It’s just crazy to average 236 for a bowl-ing season in different houses with different shots. Even if you’re hitting the pocket every time, it’s literally ridiculous.”

Even Gauroniak was pleased with the way he was able to post such a high average for the season. He prid-ed himself on being consistent and taking care of the little details.

“I’ve been trying to improve myself in bowling in multiple ways,” Gau-roniak said. “Things like keeping my trail leg down and keeping my lines more consistent, that’s pretty much it. I would work on it every time I prac-ticed — even if the high school team wasn’t scheduled to practice.

“I don’t know my highest game, but averaging (235.2) I think is fairly good. You don’t know if the bowl-ing centers will oil or not, or if your bowling on leftover oil from league bowlers the night before. It’s all un-known.”

Baral said Gauroniak also worked hard to improve his mental ap-proach, which helped push Martin County to state.

“I think we bowled good as a team until state,” Gauroniak said. “The way I see it, it was just another day of bowling and at state it wasn’t our day. We couldn’t carry pins and ev-eryone around us was carrying pins and getting motivated.

“Throughout the regular season, though, we bowled really good.”

ALL-AREA BOYS BOWLING TEAM

Jordan Abel

John Gallagher

Jake Corcoran

Roman Pedatella

Mathis Laird

Daniel Carr

Nate Garcia

Dakota Daniels

James Steiert

Sean O’Reilly

JORDAN ABELLincoln Park seniorStats: Averaged 201 pins per game in the regular season; finished 11th at the District 12 tournament

DANIEL CARRJensen Beach sophomoreStats: Averaged 211.8 pins in the regular season, was the District 12 tournament runner-up and advanced to the FHSAA Finals as an individual

JAKE CORCORAN Martin County freshmanStats: Averaged 205.1 pins in the regular season, helped Martin County win the District 12 tournament and advance to the FHSAA Finals

DAKOTA DANIELSMartin County senior Stats: Averaged 227.3 pins in the regular season, bowled a 300 game, was the District 12 champion, helping Martin County to district team title and spot at state

JOHN GALLAGHERMartin County juniorStats: Averaged 214.1 pins in the regular season, helped Martin County win the District 12 tournament and advance to the FHSAA Finals

NATE GARCIATreasure Coast seniorStats: Averaged 211.4 pins during the regular season for Treasure Coast High School

MATHIS LAIRDSouth Fork seniorStats: Averaged 210.6 pins in the regular season and bowled a 300 game in South Fork’s first match of the season

ERIC GAURONIAKMartin County seniorNotable: Gauroniak helped guide the Martin County’s boys team to its second state tournament appearance. He averaged 235.2 pins in 21 regular season games and was seventh overall in the District 12 tournamentCoach T.J. Baral: “Eric is probably one of the hardest working kids I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with. I’ve been working with him for six years and this kid is in the bowling alley every day. That’s hard to find in bowling. Players tend to get comfortable and not take advice, but he realizes you have to be open to new ideas. He has open ears and an open mind.”

Bowler of the Year

Coach of the Year

T.J. BARALMartin County, second yearThis season: Martin County went 14-0 during the regular season, won the Kegel Tournament, won the District 12 tournament and advanced to the state tournament for the second year in a row.Quotable: “We went into this year with the same mentality we had last year. We wanted to build throughout the year, get better and better and be our best at districts and, hopefully, do well at state. The process was all the same and we pretty much had all the same guys. We all had the common goal of repeating (as state champions), but you have to take that one step at a time.”

BOWLER OF THE YEARERIC GAURONIAK

All-Area First Team

First Team continued

The TeamThe 2012 All-Area Boys Bowling Team was compiled by correspondent Jon Santucci.

All-Area TeamsFind previous

All-Area teams on

TCPALM.COM

All-Area Schedule

SUNDAY

GirlsGolf

MONDAY

BoysGolf

TUESDAY

GirlsBowling

WEDNESDAY

BoysBowling

THURSDAY

GirlsSwimming

FRIDAY

BoysSwimming

SATURDAY

GirlsCross Country

DEC. 23

BoysCross Country

DEC. 24

Volleyball

DEC. 25

Football

SEAN O’REILLY Jensen Beach juniorStats: Averaged 218.3 pins in the regular season, bowled a 300 game in the District 12 tournament, finishing fourth, and advanced to state an individual

ROMAN PEDATELLAMartin County sophomoreStats: Averaged 210.6 pins in the regular season, helped Martin County win the District 12 tournament and advance to the FHSAA Finals

JAMES STEIERTMartin County Stats: Averaged 219.2 pins in the regular season, finished sixth at district, helping his team to a district title and sport in the FHSAA Finals

HONORABLE MENTIONANGELO BONADEO Martin County sophomore

COLIN CORLEYFort Pierce Central senior

PHIL HALEY St. Lucie West Centennial sophomore

LOGAN HARTSEILFort Pierce Westwood junior

ANDREW MATTHEWSLincoln Park senior

KENNETH MERRICK Lincoln Park eighth-grader

CHRIS REIDSt. Lucie West Centennial senior

TREVOR SANCHEZPort St. Lucie junior

Driven to succeedMartin County’s Eric Gauroniak pushes Tigers to the state tournament with hard work and determination

DEBORAH SILVER/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS

Eric Gauroniak is the 2012 Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers’ All-Area Boys Bowler of the Year.

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