It’s been in the works for a long time.

Steve Spinney had many lengthy discussions. Dedicated people like Bruce Tuttle and his family worked tirelessly to get petitions signed.

And after all that hard work, Auburn High School finally has boys and girls bowling teams.

“It has been a lot of work,” said Spinney, the coach of the boys’ team said. “We had a lot of help. Bruce Tuttle and his children, Ashley and Austin, did a lot of work getting petitions signed. I think we had thousands of signatures. We’ve had a lot of help from people in the community and we have a great group of kids.”

From the outset, Spinney said there seemed to be a strong interest in establishing a high school bowling program.

In the initial sign-up period, more than 40 boys and 30 girls expressed interest.

After three days of qualifying, there are now 21 boys and 12 girls on each team, with many coming from the junior bowling programs at Falcon Lanes and Starlite Lanes.

After attending league meetings in Syracuse, Spinney said these are strong numbers that make Auburn one of the bigger teams in the area.

“We’ve got some good numbers for our first year,” Spinney said. “Originally we had planned to cut to 16 on each team, but with some kids dropping out before the tryouts and everything we decided to keep 21 boys and we had 12 girls. We’re pleased with the numbers we have for our first year.”

With Spinney at the helm of the boys’ squad and professional bowler Michelle Feldman heading up the girls’ team, both squads have been hard at work preparing for the season, which kicked off Monday.

In preparation for the season, Spinney and Feldman have been working as a cohesive unit.

Spinney said that they’ve been fortunate to have a good number of players with natural talent that give both coaches a lot to work with.

“We work on stretching their backs and leg and arms, which no one really does, but is good to work on,” Spinney said. “We have a lot of talented bowlers. We just focus on proper techniques and different facets of the game. We just try to take the natural ability these kids have and show them how they can make it better.”

Heading up each team are two co-captains.

Jeff Tonzi and Steve Titus are captains for the boys’ and Stefanie Spinney and Sarah Wild head up the girls’ squad..

Spinney said these captains have a great deal of skill on the lanes and that over the past few weeks of practice he’s seen the talent start to bloom.

“A real thrill for me is seeing someone that is averaging 130 and seeing them go to averaging 160,” he said. “We’ve got kids that are shooting 500s. One player, Ed Gleason, has had three 600s already. He had one or two all last season and he has already had three. That is what is great to see, is the way all these kids are improving all the time.”

Feldman’s experience on the pro tour adds valuable knowledge about an ever-changing game, from techniques on the lanes to equipment.

Spinney and Feldman are also asking all the players to take an active role in the game.

During the course of the 21-match regular season, Spinney is asking the players to keep notebooks and log their progress, so they can find areas that need improvement.

With a great deal of talent and dedication, Spinney is hoping for a successful inaugural season.

“We are going to get a lot of time on the lanes,” Spinney said. “I think we’ll be in at least 10 different centers. I think it is a really good start. The kids are really excited and I think we are going to have a good first season.”