Briggs helped his team topple mindset first

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LAKE STATION -- This year's improbable rise of the Lake Station girls bowling team can be traced back to last March.

It was at the Duneland Conference banquet at Wheeler High School in which first-year coach Wayne Briggs asked his young team to watch and learn.

Watch Griffith girls team team walk up to the front table and accept their medals for finishing first in the conference.

"I told them 'you girls pay attention because next year that will be you,'" Briggs said. "They looked at me like I was on drugs. Of course, I told them when you're over 50 (years old) you're always on some kind of drugs."

Humor aside, he wasn't joking that day.

His prediction came true last Saturday at this year's Duneland banquet at the same place when the Eagles all got to stand up and accept medals and their new jackets that say "Duneland Conference Champions" on the back.

But that's not all the Eagles accomplished. They also advanced to the regional for the first time, coming one frame away from defeating Griffith in the sectional final.

Briggs knew his team had it in them a year ago and now he can add an award of his own to the jacket and medal -- 2009 Post-Tribune Girls Coach of the Year.

"At the end of last year I could see the improvement in the girls," Briggs said of the team that finished third in the conference last season. "In practice I kept telling them how good they could be and I think they finally got confidence in themselves."

That confidence might have come to fruition after the first match against Griffith.

The Eagles were already garnering a little attention after the Post-Tribune's girls season preview story on them.

"Everybody was watching in that first game," Briggs said. "We lost the first game by a lot, but we came back and won. We had never beat (Griffith) before -- they were so happy."

Coming from behind became a pattern for Lake Station. Its only loss came in the final match after the conference was already clinched. Griffith won the first game 4-1, but the Eagles still rebounded to tie the match at 5-5, though they lost on total pins.

"So many people (in the conference) came up to me to compliment the team for never giving up," Briggs said.

Much of his difficult job of building up the girls confidence stemmed from the athletic history of Lake Station, or more accurately, lack thereof.

The small school hasn't had much success in athletics, especially in girls sports. The last sectional title in team sports came in 2002 in softball. The last one before that was 1979 in volleyball.

"They were like, 'we don't win titles here.' They weren't used to that," Briggs said.

But he helped change that perception resulting in almost being a celebrity when he brought results to the school for the announcements in the morning. Wait until next year when the Eagles try for back-to-back titles.