Dennis Erlich Quotations

We bowled the way I knew we could in the final round. They came out firing and had some fun.

This was not an easy test. I played out there today and the course was wet and playing long. If you got off the fairway you had some tough times.

I'd like to congratulate Adam on his great day. The guys and I all know him really well and he really bowled well all day long. I think this is his third trip to state and we're all really happy he's going to be there this weekend.

But we lived to bowl another day. That was goal number one for us coming into this tournament, to qualify and bowl again on Saturday and we did that. Now, tomorrow, we need to get off early and get going and see if we can make a game of this.

Bryce has been really, really good at times and sometimes not so good. He's been kind of inconsistent by his standards. Now, at the end of the season, he's starting to improve and play like he was last year.

We can do it. We've done it before. I wish the kids would quit writing this script for me. I'm not as young as these guys, this pressure is not good for me. But if we can come back again, I'll take it.

What I like is the consistency. At the Southwestern Conference Tournament, we only had two scores in the 70s. Today we had five.

He's a very solid bowler and a very confident young man. And he's got guys all around him with experience to show him where to go and what to do, so I think he will be fine.

It came down to the last frame in the last game. We had some guys make real good shots and Granite City had some unfortunate bad breaks and we won the thing.

Jon and Tim both admittedly didn't have their best game. Jon said he kept grinding all the way to the end. We say when you don't have your stuff you grind it out. Tim said he was four or five strokes over early and just kept grinding.

That's the kind of leadership I want to see from our seniors. Bryce really came through for us.

We had two really good scores. Brant's 71 and Carson's 72, that's really what won it for us. It was kind of shaky there on getting our third and fourth scores. When it comes to tournaments, I like four scores in the 70s. So that's something we have to address.

We got off to a great start and really gave ourselves a good chance. Then we just kept shooting 1,000 every game. Our low game was 1,001 and we shot 1,005 in the last game of the day. That's what we have to do, we have to be consistent and when we do that, we're pretty good.

We did what we wanted to do -- we qualified. It was ugly, but we got it done and go on to another day.

We had a great final day last year, and just about won it again. So losing by 14 pins kind of left a bad taste in our mouths, coming so close and not getting there.

We just wanted to qualify for state, winning the sectional was just a bonus. We had a real good team effort and came away with a tight win.

We are very, very fortunate. Belleville East and O'Fallon are good teams. We lucked out and are SWC champions.

The Southwestern Conference was extremely good this year, and I think we proved just how good it was this weekend.

They shot a great. I hope this proves to our guys that every shot counts. You have to grind it out on every shot.

It was a tough field and really tough sectional. I'm a little disappointed with our scores down the line. Once again, I always like to count scores in the 70s, we get four in the 70s, who knows.

That's something to be very proud of. There are a ton of teams that were plenty good enough to qualify four years in a row that didn't do it. That just goes to show how hard these kids work, and it says a lot about the Edwardsville program. These kids have a lot of heart, they could have quit when things didn't go their way, but they found a way.

That's an incredible jump. But we finally caught some breaks and started stringing strikes in bunches. When we get our number one bowler to strike, it trickles down and becomes contagious.

I'm sure he wanted better. But a 73 is nothing to shake a stick at.

I'm very pleased. We had five scores in the 70s so I can't be upset.

In my opinion he's probably the best player in the area, best player in the Southwestern Conference. He's showing signs where he is mentally tough.

I like those scores -- everything in the 30s. Those are the types of scores we're going to need the rest of the season.

Honestly, every team there has a chance or they would not be there. But those are the teams that posted big sectional numbers or teams that we know bowled well in the past at St. Clair.

You can't win a state title on Friday. We are taking it one step at a time and just trying to get into the top 12 teams and come back Saturday and have a shot. One step at a time.