Chaney’s boys bowling team is on the prowl this season

By JOHN BASSETTI

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

CORY TACSIK, RICHARD Mauro and Kyle Staton took different paths to get where they are today: Starters on the Chaney High School boys bowling team.

Tacsik could step off his front porch, walk past a few homes and cross Mahoning Avenue to be at A-Plus Family Bowl in Youngstown.

Mauro would leave St. Christine Elementary School one afternoon a week to take part in the after-school program at Camelot Lanes in Boardman.

Staton, also a West Sider, got his experience at yet another house — in Austintown at Wedgewood’s junior leagues on Saturdays.

Tacsik, a senior who is this year’s captain, was a newcomer on a Chaney team that came within one place of qualifying for state in 2004-05 when the Cowboys were district runners-up.

They feel poised to make some noise when sectionals are held Feb. 17 at Camelot.

“We’ve had a few individuals go to state, but never as a team,” John Mshar said of the high school team he’s coached since the program’s inception eight years ago. “The kids want to shoot for that. We’d like to go as a team.”

Last season, Chaney didn’t advance out of sectionals, but the Cowboys lost only one senior from that squad — Kyle’s brother, Josh Staton. His departure gave junior varsity players an opportunity to move up.

“We want to at least get out of sectionals,” Kyle Staton said. “We’ve tried to get better and I think we have the talent to do it.”

Tacsik carries a team-high 200 average, followed by Mauro’s 195 and Kyle Staton’s 181. Bill Braun, Jake Seamons and Andrew Weiser are other core members.

Braun is a senior and Weiser a junior, while Mauro, Staton and Seamons are sophomores.

Growing up near an alley has left an imprint on Tacsik, who had a 300 game about a year ago while bowling in the Martin Luther King Day tournament at McKinley Lanes in Niles.

The 17-year-old credits former A-Plus proprietor Chuck Fairchild for providing a recreational venue that nurtured positive habits.

“I used to work there for big tournaments,” Cory said of A-Plus. “I helped out and he gave me free bowling. He was a very nice guy,” he said of Fairchild, who volunteered to share his experience as a touring professional with youth such as Tacsik. “I got a lot of help from people who were really good at the game.”

The son of David and Patty Tacsik attends Chaney in the mornings and Choffin Career Center in the afternoons for automotive technology classes.

“I like to work on cars,” Tacsik. “I’ve been around them all my life.”

Cory’s father and uncle own Huck’s Motors, a Mahoning Ave. business started in 1946 by Cory’s grandfather, Oscar Tacsik.

The Huck nickname originated from the grandfather’s adventure when he and a friend in their pre-teen years built a raft and floated down the Mahoning River, eventually as far as southern Ohio, where Cory’s great-grandmother had to pick them up.

“They called him ‘Huck’ because of the Huckleberry Finn association,” Cory said of the Mark Twain book whose title character ventured in similar fashion on the Mississippi.

Chaney, which lost to Harding on Wednesday after winning 10 in a row, can’t afford to drift downstream in its remaining regular season matches, especially against Fitch Feb. 4.

“We’ve got to work hard for Fitch,” Tacsik said of the team that has been state-tested several times, including an Ohio championship.

Like Tacsik, Staton, too, lettered as a freshman on the varsity team.

Now 16 and a Spanish III student, Kyle says he’s happy with Chaney’s record, but doesn’t want the Cowboys to lose sight of the bowlers’ match-by-match challenges.

“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” said Staton, who has not only benefited from his Wedgewood background, but also his exposure to Chaney’s home alleys — West Side Lanes — and the former A-Plus, now Mahoning Valley Lanes, where his brother bowled.

Mauro was reared a little differently than his bowling brethren.

“I didn’t participate in the juniors, but I’ve been bowling since the fourth grade,” Mauro said of Camelot’s after-school outlet, for which he is grateful.

“I didn’t have much to do after school and my sister watched me, so I asked my parents if I could go,” said Mauro, who turns 16 on Feb. 8. “I got used to it and started doing it well.”

Although the program wasn’t designed to provide heavy doses of instruction, it did fill another need for only $6 a session.

“We got six games, a free slice of pizza and pop and cookies,” said Mauro, whose brother, Chris, now belongs to the after-school family.

One of his after-school buddies, Alan Podolsky, now bowls for Canfield.

Mauro said he also owes much of his knowledge about basics, such as balance, body mechanics, equipment and lane conditions, to Mshar and assistant coach Don Styka.

“I used to play the corner and throw a straight ball, but now I’m putting a hook on it and learning quickly,” said Mauro.

His high game so far this season is 263, with several other single scores over the 247 high he achieved as a freshman.

Mauro, too, believes the Cowboys are improved.

“We definitely stepped up this year. We weren’t very good last year, but something just happened and we picked it up, record-wise. We’d like to get to state, but we’d have to have everybody contribute.”

bassetti@vindy.com