A northeast Nebraska high school bowler has signed to continue her bowling career at the college ranks and has only been fully in the sport since the week before the season started her freshman year.
Joined by family, friends and coaches earlier this Wednesday, senior Lindsay Niemann from Wayne announced her next step in the bowling journey is to be a Peru State College Bobcat.
The coach at Peru State College, Dwyane Da Moude, is the Operator in the pro shop at Sun Valley Lanes & Games in Lincoln where the state tournament is held. Niemann talked about her choice.
“I’ve done a couple camps down there and me and him just kind of clicked,” said Niemann. “I didn’t really put into perspective of collegiate bowling and how big it’s gotten and really the skills that you can learn with going on and playing collegiate sports.”
Niemann, who plans to pursue a degree in Natural Resources and Law Enforcement or Wildlife Ecology at Peru State College, has made friends with girls and boys signees from Humphrey who will also be a Bobcat.
“I’m getting introduced to people all the time that I should probably know and realizing I do know from other schools that have also signed to commit and go play with me next year,” Niemann added. “But having friends down there has also made it a little easier to say yes to such a big decision in my life.”
Niemann would like to be a Game Warden for the State of Nebraska.
During her freshman year, Niemann did not start districts but was subbed in towards the end of the first game. She threw three strikes in a row (Turkey) and has never looked back. So far, Lindsay has been a district medalist (highlighted by district champion last year) and state medalist (seventh place last year) and has been a starter for all three state championship teams (Class B in 2024/Class B in 2023/Class A in 2022). Wayne also won the first-ever NSAA State Bowling title for Class A in 2021.
Niemann has bowled numerous 200 games and currently has a high game of 243. She shares the school record for wins in a season with 25 and has improved each year with her average going from 142 her freshman year to a 182 so far this season.
Moving into the fifth year of NSAA sanctioned bowling, the Wayne High girls have been a powerhouse in the state but it’s been some new names taking over the 2024-25 season for the Blue Devils.
“New faces bringing a lot, new skills and strengths to our team,” Niemann mentioned. “It has opened our eyes and seeing what other teams are bringing made us stronger as a program and as a team itself of having to step up and everything.”
After starting bowling the week before the season began her freshman season, Niemann has learned discipline and how to hunker down and work on shooting spares, hitting marks more consistently and overall improving her game. She also bowls two-handed which is not common in most female bowlers.
Niemann appreciates all who pushed her to be the best she could be including head coach Josh Johnson.
“I’ve been with (coach) Johnson for two seasons every single year of high school, I also golf with him,” Niemann highlighted. “He’s honestly like another dad to me…He always is trying to help me out learning more to help me and my other teammates out.”
Peru State College began their season in early October and continues to bowl through early February for the NAIA West Regions.
Niemann is proud of the team and how hard they push each other in practice and matches to get up to high competitive caliber of throwing some big games.
“We push ourselves pretty hard in baker games and we like to see stacking strikes and racking up pins,” said Niemann. “Just basically having a lot of shutout games is what we really like. But I think just the family dynamic that we kind of have and the friendship that we build is what’s more important to us than any state title ever could be.”
The Wayne High girls and boys bowling teams will be hosting Thurston-Cuming on Friday, Dec. 19 at 4:30 p.m. and also welcome Plainview on Saturday, Dec. 20 at 10 a.m. from Wildcat Lanes in Wayne. Niemann expects to continue to see the ‘wild’ crowd continue to show up and looks forward to all of the support the community provides.
