Ferguson’s Marcela Del Rosario and Jorge Leon are Dade bowling coach of the year

Both of Ferguson’s bowling teams had breakout 2022 seasons with their head coaches, Marcela Del Rosario and Jorge Leon, leading the way.

After guiding both of her teams to district championships and the highest team finishes among Dade schools at state, Del Rosario and Leon are the Miami Herald’s 2022 Bowling Coach of the Year. Del Rosario is the head coach of Ferguson’s girls’ team, while Leon is the head coach of the boys’ team.

Ferguson emerged as the top team to advance out of District 17 this season, finishing ahead of runners-up Columbus in the boys’ tournament and Braddock in the girls’ tournament, with junior Natalia Findeisen winning the individual district title on the girls’ side.

It marked the first time ever that both the Ferguson boys’ and girls’ bowling teams won the district title in the same year. It was the fourth overall district title for the boys, who also won in 2018, 2014 and 2007. It was the third for the girls, who won back-to-back district titles in 2016 and 2017.

They kept the performance up at state, finishing the highest among all Dade teams that qualified.

The boys finished 25th out of 30 teams. Columbus the next closest team from the county in 27th place, 61 pins behind Ferguson at the end of the four-game qualifying round. Isaiah Lacayo (728) and Joshua Munoz (679) paced the Falcons at state.

The girls, meanwhile, finished in 26th place out of 32 teams, 25 pins ahead of 27th-place Krop. Samantha Abreu (633), Findeisen (558) and Madison Rivero (530) were Ferguson’s top performers at state.