Storymania - Goals Achieved by Vanessa Caldwell

Goals Achieved
Vanessa Caldwell

Thud! The bowling ball skids down the lane. Nevaeh, shady blonde hair, hazel eyes, 5’4”, just bowled her first 300, on October 6,2004. She had been working for this her whole life. As she slides her red and white shoe cover on, Caleb and Charity run and embrace Nevaeh congratulating her on her accomplishment. For as long as they can remember Nevaeh has been a beautiful, loving, caring, and most importantly a strong working sister.

Nightly practices and weekend tournaments keep Nevaeh busy. She is constantly striving after her passion and still manages to have time for school. As her father I see the pain my daughter goes through, and pieces fall off my heart like petals from a flower. I wish there was something I could do for her. She takes challenging classes, but still manages to slide through with the outstanding grades. Nevaeh keeps up with her church youth group, also. With all the activities they have she misses quite a few because of bowling, but they understand and they are behind her all the way rooting her on. Normally she leaves on Friday nights for tournaments, but occasionally keep them open to spend time with her friends.

On Sunday June 6,2004 Nevaeh and I were on our way back home from a busy weekend of bowling. Nevaeh was still excited about winning the tournament and qualifying for Nationals. Nationals were the biggest tournament she had heard of. The official name was USA Junior Gold National Championship. Nevaeh was calling everyone she knew excited with the announcement. All I could hear while driving was, “Hey! How are you? I am doing great. I just wanted to tell you that I won the tournament and I get to go to Nationals next year…” Nevaeh not heisting to say what she wanted, and then hanging up the phone. Thoughts going through my head, “Can they even understand her? She is talking 100 words per minute.” Not loosing a breath, she called at least 20 people. Finally, after the last phone call we were able to talk. We talked about where we were going to eat and who was going to drive the rest of the way home.

    “I don’t want McDonald’s!” Nevaeh yelled.

    “Ok where do you want to go?” I asked.

    “I don’t care! I am just hungry.” Nevaeh said softly under her breathe.

    “Well pick somewhere!”

    “Denny’s!” Nevaeh said with excitement.

    “Ok. That’s fine with me.” I exclaimed

    “It’s over there on the right.” Neveah told me the directions of where it was.

As we sat through dinner, we discussed how she had bowled that day. And how she could improve her game. We both agreed that she had rolled a good ball all day. All we have to do now is get ready, mentally and physically for next year at Nationals.

The next day after the tournament, at home, we went to Candy land Lanes to practice. Nevaeh ran in with her equipment to talk to Michelle, the owner of the bowling alley. She told Michelle the wonderful news and she was so excited. She said that she would help with whatever we needed done. They would put down tough oil patterns for her to practice on. Nevaeh bowled well that day. Nevaeh has improved a lot from last year, but still needs to practice.

Everyday for the next two months we went to different bowling centers to practice, also we went to tournaments to keep her confidence up. Nevaeh’s mental game improved and slowly her physical game improved, also.

When Nevaeh went to school and to watch others bowl they would ask: How did you do in that tournament?

She would calmly reply, “Good! I won and now I get to go to Nationals next year.” Everyone was excited for her. Nevaeh’s friends and church youth group threw her a party.

Many people have also donated money for her to practice and improve her game. Neveah is very pleased with how the community and friends have reacted to this accomplishment. She wishes there was something she could do to show her appreciation.

Friday that week Nevaeh called me from school and told me that the softball coach had talked to her and really wanted her to play. The coach had been bugging her for over two months. Finally, Nevaeh gave in. She had said, “Yes” to Coach George.

The next Monday Nevaeh went to softball practice. She got to meet all the new players and freshman. Chuck, the pitching coach, was extactic to see her pitching again for the team. She got to pitch and didn’t do that well. Everyone has told her it will take time to get back in the swing of things. Later on that week she had improved greatly. Her speed and control of the ball was falling back into place.

A few weeks later they had a scrimmage. Nevaeh had told me that she would get to pitch, but as a teasing father,

    I told her, “You won’t get to pitch.”

    Nevaeh got frustrated and replied, “Yes I will. Coach already told me I
would.”

    “No he just told you that so you would get your hopes up.”

    “NO DAD! Everyone else says I will to, so I know I will.” Neveah screamed.

    “Ok. Sure we will find out who is right when it happens.” I finished up the conversation.

During practice a few days before the scrimmage Nevaeh hurt her knee. She went to school the next day. Her leg was swollen up and she could barely walk. It was bothering her so bad that she went to the nurse to get a pain pill. About thirty minutes later she went back to the nurse because the pain pill didn’t help any of the pain. The nurse had checked out her knee and thought that she might have a blood clot. Nevaeh had explained to the nurse that I have had problems with my legs and her mother has, too. Nevaeh went home and sat with her leg propped up. Cindy, her mother, called the doctor to find out what she should do.

Her mother took her to the hospital to get checked out. They waited and waited for the doctor to come in. Finally, a half hour later he came in.

    “Hi! How are you all doing today?” asked Dr. Sunshine

    “I am doing ok, besides my knee hurting.” Nevaeh replied.

    “What did you do to hurt your knee or cause the pain?”

    “It started hurting last night. I had practiced softball and went and ate pizza with some of my friends. When I got home and sat down my knee started throbbing and felt like someone was stabbing it.” Nevaeh responded.

    “Ok. Tell me if this hurts. “ Dr. Sunshine had started pushing and feeling around her knee to see how Nevaeh responded.

    “OUCH!! That hurts.” Nevaeh screamed.

The doctor felt around her leg some more to make sure it wasn’t a blood clot. We found out that it wasn’t and that she had just pulled a tendon in her knee. Dr. Sunshine gave her an anti-inflammatory and a really strong pain pill, and told her to stay off of her leg and apply heat.

The next day, Nevaeh went and watched the softball scrimmage that she wished she had been playing in. Biting at the nerve to playing, the least she could do was cheer on everyone else.

The next day Nevaeh and I drove up to Terre Haute. She wanted to bowl in the tournament, Masters and Queens. She didn’t do that well. The total for her six games were 1062. That was bad for Nevaeh. She could go back up in a few weeks to try and improver her score. Nevaeh would take that opportunity to do so.

As Nevaeh’s knee healed up, she bowled more and played softball more. She had once again enjoyed them both. As they both tied up her schedule, she had to somehow fit church in.

A few weeks later, April 2-3, 2005, Nevaeh went up to Terre Haute again with one of her Saturday morning leagues to bowl in the state tournament. On Saturday they bowled team event and on Sunday they bowled singles and doubles. Nevaeh was so happy on Sunday because her doubles partner Levi, five years old, light brown hair, blazing green eyes, cute but too young for Nevaeh. Nevaeh made up her mind and was going to do everything she could to bowl her best so they could do well. The whole time everyone was teasing Nevaeh that Levi was going to beat her and she would look bad. Levi had made up a deal that if he would get a double, two strikes in a row, that Nevaeh would owe him two dollars. Nevaeh was so surprised that a little kid who was as quiet as a whisper would think of something like that to say. So Nevaeh agreed with the deal. At the beginning of their last game Nevaeh and Levi both started out with a turkey, three strikes in a row. Then Levi started letting everything get to his head but still finished up the game with a 156. Nevaeh staying strong and trying her hardest finished with a 196. That was the only game in the doubles part that Nevaeh bowled her average.

A few months away were nationals and Nevaeh had to get ready. All that week after softball games Nevaeh went to practice at Candy Land Lanes and Pot of Luck Lanes. The oil conditions were harder cause all the lanes had leagues and they were really dry. Both of us were pleased with how she bowled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two Months Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a week before Nationals. Nevaeh was as ready as ever. We had all of our stuff packed in the car ready to go to Penn. The week before nationals we were going to see Nevaeh’s Papa Papa, my father. We were going to leave right from Penn. To Indianapolis, Indiana. It was only about a ten hour drive we could make it in one day.

While we were in Penn. I took Nevaeh to a town near by so she could bowl. Eveyone at the bowling center looked at her like she was a professional bowler. They all had one bag for their ball and Nevaeh come in with two bags with six balls. Nevaeh got to show off a little bit and show everyone that a girl who is seventeen can bowl and is ready to win nationals. As a proud father, I went and told some people that she was going to nationals and she needed to practice and get ready for it next week. A few people who were bowling also came up to me and asked me how old she was and if she would give them lessons. I had to tell them that we were from Creationville, Ill. and that we were in to visit her Papa Papa, Phil Williams. Many people as Nevaeh bowled watched and still commented on how well she was bowling for her age.

------------------------------------Nevaeh tells the rest of the story---------------------------------

We arrived at nationals on Saturday night, July 8, 2005. I met up with Angie and a few other people I knew.

Monday was the first day to bowl. I got to bowl with Angie and we both bowled very well. Our scores qualified us to bowl on Tuesday. At that time I was in 17th place and Angie was in 15th place.

Tuesday I also bowled really well. I didn’t get to bowl with Angie or anyone else I knew, but I did get to meet some cute guys. Scott was a 6’4”, sandy blonde hair, skinny (but muscular), blue eyed, 18 year old. He was nice, sweet, and a very good bowler. He enjoyed bowling, hockey, football, going to church and just hanging out with his friends. Scott was from Evansville, Indiana, that was only an hour away from where I lived. Michael was 6 feet tall, light brown hair, skinny, hazel eyes, and 16 years old. Michael and I also had a lot in common. There were also many other guys and girls who I had traded screen names with on AOL and on Yahoo Messenger. They were all very nice. It is so awesome how you can go to a bowling tournament not knowing anyone and end up meeting a lot of new people.

Wednesday I didn’t have to bowl. My family and I ended up going to the Indianapolis Zoo. We had never been there and had heard that it was very cool. Mom, Dad, and I got to spend the whole day together, which we hadn’t had in a long time. Later on that night we went out to eat with Christina, Ryan, Jimmy, Angie, and their families.

Thursday I bowled well and got to bowl again on Friday. Friday was the last and final day for the tournament. Before bowling I was in eighth place out of 16 that day. At that point I really wanted to win the whole tournament, but if I didn’t I wanted to just do my best. As we were bowling I meet a few more people. I started getting nervous, because I was looking at all the other girls scores and they were doing better than I was. I just engorged them and finished my last three games not caring about everyone else’s score.

I ended the tournament in second place. It was the best thing in the World. I felt like I was in Heaven. When they announced my name and I got my awards I ran and embraced my mom and dad. Tears running like a river out of my eyes making me feel like a big baby. Angie was also there to congratulate me. She finished up in eighth place. I was also very happy for her.

Many college coaches wanted to talk to me after the tournament. They all had been watching me and were really impressed with how I bowled. The coach that really stood out to me was the Ball State coach. He was very nice and was going to talk the college into giving me a lot of scholarships so I could go there to school and help the bowling team.

That fall I was off to college. I had made up the best decision of my life and went to Ball State. It was the best college ever. It had my career I wanted and the bowling team was the best.