MONROE - This weekend, approximately 50 high school bowling teams will descend on Weston Lanes in Wausau, with roughly 250 bowlers occupying 60 lanes while their families take seats in bleachers erected all around the competition area. It's a big stage for any bowler to compete on, and in just two years the Monroe High School club bowling team has proven itself worthy.

The Cheesemakers, in just the second year of the program's existence, will compete Saturday after going 10-1-1 in the regular season en route to being named District 3B Conference co-champions with Janesville Parker High School.

Their coach is Brittany Svendsen, co-manager of Leisure Lanes in Monroe, and a former member of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women's bowling team, which has won three Wisconsin Collegiate Bowling Conference team championships.

Svendsen came to Monroe to co-manage Leisure Lanes in August 2010 and decided to start a program to give Monroe students a chance at competitive bowling: something she had when she was their age.

Svendsen is originally from Menomonie Falls, where she competed on her high school bowling team before graduating and going on to compete at UW-Whitewater.

"That was a very good experience for me when I was in high school," Svendsen said. "I wanted to create something here for the kids."

Svendsen is now in her second year at the helm of the Monroe High School program, assisted by coaches Dennis Wilde and Randy Rood, with a total of 14 students under their tutelage.

The team members vary in age - the high school bowling club in Wisconsin allows seventh- and eighth-graders to compete on the JV team - and even the most senior members have only been together for two years, but Svendsen said the camaraderie grew quickly.

"It took a little while to get used to each other, because they didn't know each other very well, but they are doing such a good job right now," Svendsen said. "They've all come together as a team. All the older kids take the (younger bowlers) under their wing and help them learn. It's really fun to watch them ... and that's how we grow our team."

The Monroe High School club team is different from the Junior League held at Leisure Lanes on Saturday mornings, though most of the Cheesemakers participate in both.

In addition to traveling to different towns for competition, the format of the Cheesemakers' matches are different. Instead of each team member bowling a three-game series, the Cheesemakers compete in best-of-seven dual matches using the Baker system, which emphasizes team effort.

In a Baker game, a five-person team bowls one regular ten-frame game, but each member of the team only bowls two of the frames. For instance, the first person would bowl frames one and six, the next would bowl frames two and seven, and so on.

Monroe's matches are mostly on the road, with the Cheesemakers having hosted one home match this season. Monroe's team is the furthest west in District 3B, with the closest opponent being Beloit. There is a Madison district, but the district's boundaries do not include Monroe.

All that said, in just the second year of the program, facing several road matches, the Cheesemakers powered their way to a 10-1-1 record, earning the trip to state. Svendsen is pleased with how things are going with the program.

"We had more participate this year," she said. "I foresee it getting bigger in the future. There's more kids that want to get involved with it, as they start to hear stories from friends (on the team)."

While the program has seen some growth and, as evidenced by the trip to state, success, Svendsen hopes to have the team officially recognized by the Monroe High School as a varsity sport. She said she is currently working with Monroe High School Athletic Director Dave Hirsbrunner on preparing something to bring before the Monroe school board, who will make the final decision.

"In Illinois, it's a part of their schools," Svendsen said.

Were the same true in Wisconsin, bowling would be recognized by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, but that is not the case.

"In Wisconsin, it's run by the proprietors and the bowling centers," Svendsen said.

In Monroe's case, Leisure Lanes runs the team.

"The school has the option to consider it as a varsity sport, if they want to," Svendsen said.

Even if the Monroe High School were to recognize bowling as a varsity sport, Svendsen says the team would continue to be self-funded through various fundraising efforts and would continue to handle their own transportation like they do now. The team just wants to be formally recognized by their school.

"We pretty much take care of everything on our own. They just wanted recognition through the school," Svendsen said. "The kids want to get recognition in the yearbook, they want to get their (varsity) letters. They want it in the school, so that the other kids can see that they bowl, they can see their sport, they can see what it's all about."

The Cheesemakers are passionate about their sport. On average, the Cheesemakers hone their skills three days a week during the winter, including dual matches. Team members have their own shoes and high-end bowling balls, and if you watch a match you'll see them communicate like teammates in any other sport.

"They communicate just like in any other sport, but they're communicating on the conditions of the lane," Svendsen said, "so that they can help their teammates line up better."

There will be plenty of lanes to discuss on Saturday, given the format of the state tournament, which will have each team bowling 15 Baker games across 30 lanes, with the teams switching lanes after every game. Each team's scores for the 15-game series will then be totaled, and the top five teams will move on to the finals.

The Cheesemakers typically bowl seven Baker games in dual matches, so the first round of the tournament will be equivalent to two matches played back to back, with each team member bowling 30 frames. Svendsen says the format, while somewhat familiar, will require her team to adapt.

"It's definitely something they're not used to," she said, of the pacing. "They're only bowling three games throughout that whole time, but it's a lot of standing around, a lot of walking because you have to move your bowling balls from one lane to the next after every game."

Even though they'll be on a learning curve, having never competed at such a big event, the Cheesemakers are raring to go.

"They're very excited," Svendsen said, "and I'm excited for them. From last year to this year, they've become a lot more competitive. It's very exciting to be able to take them to the state competition. It's really a good experience for them."

The Cheesemakers will also have one member competing in the individual portion of the tournament on Friday. Junior Mark Jenson qualified for the individual event with an 80.7 percent fill percentage, meaning of the frames he bowls during Baker games, Jenson marks (strike or spare) in 8 out of every 10. Jenson's fill percentage was the sixth-best in the district.

With the varsity team comprised mostly of juniors like Jenson and underclassmen, the Cheesemakers will return much of their experienced squad next year. The one exception is senior Lucas Koch, who plans to graduate and go to college at UW-Stevens Point, which does not have a bowling team.

But, as Koch's coach has already proven, why not start one?

"He is actually trying to create a bowling team," Svendsen said. "He's going around and he's trying to figure out what he has to do to create a club sport and how he can get funding, and he's trying to find people who would like to bowl with him. He's already all over that."