Although they started as a first-year team mainly comprised of athletes with no competitive bowling experience, the Elberta Warriors have put Alabama on notice following a fifth-straight trip to the AHSAA state tournament in just their sixth year as a varsity program.

A trio of seniors — Jon Devery Thomas, Harris Dunlavy and Copeland Bryant — grew from seventh graders on the inaugural squad in 2020 to leaders of this year’s team while only becoming closer friends. They said that camaraderie paid off in the bowling alley.

“We just gave each other the best energy we could to keep going when it came down to competitiveness,” Thomas said in a Feb. 18 interview. “We just meshed together.”

“I think we just all became really good friends,” Dunlavy said. “We started hanging out in school more and some outside of school, it just became easy.”

“(The closeness paid off) because we were always encouraging each other to do better, even if we weren't perfect all the time,” Bryant said.

Offseason leagues were key to development

It was time spent in the bowling alleys during the offseason that Elberta head coach Danielle Dunlavy said was the biggest key to the development of the team. Danielle said the athletes committed to competing in Saturday leagues at Gulf Bowl where they were able to receive further feedback from experienced bowlers.

“The people that are good people there (at Gulf Bowl) really helped me, and the coaches helped me learn how to coach bowling,” Danielle said on Tuesday. “Everybody in this community has been wonderful.”

Those practice sessions helped result in two eighth-place finishes (2023 and 2024), two fourth-place finishes (2021 and 2025) and a third-place finish (2022) at state tournaments — as well as one regional title (2022) and three runner-up finishes (2021, 2023, 2024) — as the Warriors continued to catch the attention of other teams around Alabama.

“You always have people that make it to state, and you're like, ‘Wow, we've never seen them before.’ So I'm sure it was like, ‘Wow, Elberta, I don't even know where that is.’ But then, if you start coming every time, then everybody starts watching you,” Danielle said. “(One coach) said, ‘Oh, I know your scores. I watch y'all.’ So now, people are watching the scores as they come out and watching for us.”

A new team in town

The athletes confirmed through conversations with opponents that nobody was excited when they saw Elberta lined up against them.

“A lot of teams started to know who we were, and they didn't want to play us in the bracket,” Harris said. “They would get upset if they had to play us.”

Bryant said the Warriors’ repeated state tournament berths made a statement to the other teams that traditionally walk away with the trophies.

“It shows that the South can actually be good and possibly better than them, because usually they win all the state championships,” Bryant said.

With a constant influx of new athletes who are taught the ropes, Thomas knows the Elberta program is in good condition even though their time is over.

“I think we do get a lot of new people every year so I think it'll be fine how we leave it, because we do have some good people that are still staying,” Thomas said.

“Bowling is no joke of a sport”

The Warriors’ pedigree is further evidenced by the relationship that has grown between Danielle and college bowling coaches.

“Every year I have colleges (who inquire about our players), I've become close with coaches from Spring Hill College and Mobile University,” Danielle said. “Every year, they’re interested in our players and they’ve offered several of our players over the years.”

While some look at bowling as a sport to brush off, the head coach said one can only understand the magnitude of a tournament by seeing it in person.

“People think that it's a joke, but when you go to these competitions, it is real. It is crazy,” Danielle said. “I remember the first time we went to state, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is like a basketball game with all the people and the signs.’”

Traveling to tournaments helped build team’s bond

While the bigger tournaments were indeed the athletic goal of bowling, it was the journey there and back that seemed to produce the largest increase in team morale.

“I think the most fun times were when we traveled together and I let the kids have control of the radio,” Danielle said. “They just played songs and sang, we just had real fun.”

“(The overnight trips) were really fun because we would just go to one room and hang out and mess around,” Thomas said.

“There are a lot of good memories from it,” Harris said of the travel. “We played a lot of games together.”

“Harris would bring his Xbox, we'd play video games and then card games like Uno,” Bryant said. “We’d play video games like Gang Beasts, maybe little bit of Fortnite.”

Still, memories from the bowling alley came to mind first when the athletes recalled their favorite memories from their time representing the Elberta Warriors.

“In eighth grade we were playing Beauregard and they were talking a lot of trash because I was so little,” Harris said. “But I bowled a 232, we were number one at regionals because we beat them and they were very upset.”

“It was probably in tenth grade when we were up at state and I got third for 1A-5A,” Thomas said.

Bryant agreed and said his favorite memory was when, “I got fourth at state this year for 1A-5A.”

Mother-son connection

For the head coach, Danielle said being with her son Harris was her favorite part and seeing him have fun with his friends was the best byproduct of the bowling team.

“It's been wonderful. And this year was special because those three have been like my children. I tried to even think about tallying up the hours that I have spent with them,” Danielle said. “I told the parents, ‘This year is going to rip my heart out, because they're like my children.’”

Even though Harris won’t be on the team next year, Danielle said she will indeed be back coaching the Elberta bowling Warriors as they continue to vie for a state title.

“I've loved this ride, I hope we continue. I'm definitely going to be on next year as the coach with (Jamie Jones, junior Chris Jones’ father who bowled in college),” Danielle said. “We're going to have to build. And this year, I did hold more children than I usually take on the team because I knew that we were growing for next year's spots and I wanted them to see because until you go and see it, you don't know.”