Repeat champs: Seabreeze wins second straight state boys bowling championship

After three days of bowling, the Sandcrabs’ five-man team hoisted the trophy again.

  • By Michele Meyers
  • | 12:45 p.m. November 1, 2025
  • Ormond Beach Observer
  • Sports
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The Seabreeze boys bowling team (from left) Logan Compton, Jonathan King, Dalton Boice, Xavier Subia, Braydon Russell and coach Paul Shuler,  hold the FHSAA State Championship trophy at the Boardwalk Bowl Entertainment Center on Thursday, Oct. 30. Photo by Michele Meyers

“We are the champions … again.”

It was déjà vu for the Seabreeze boys bowling team. The Sandcrabs collected their state championship medals and posed for photos with the trophy at the Boardwalk Bowl Entertainment Center in Orlando, just as they had done a year ago.

The Sandcrabs won the title in 2024. They clinched it again on Thursday, Oct. 30, with a 199-191 final Baker game victory against the Astronaut High School of Titusville.

With a team of five bowlers and no substitutes, Paul Shuler coached his team through four games of qualifying, four rounds of Baker matches and a two-match final. 

“We were all kind of worried since we didn’t have any substitutes to go in like most other teams coming into the state (tournament),” Shuler said. “But they persevered and pushed and they never, ever gave up. Even when they were down a little bit or they [had] a bad game, they’d come right back with something. I’m just so wicked proud of these boys.”

Seabreeze won 3-0 against St. Petersburg Northeast in round one, then went on to win 3-2 in consecutive rounds against Windermere, Sports Leadership and Management of Tampa and Somerset which included a two-pin win in the last Baker game.

The Sandcrabs were undefeated in the double-elimination team bracket going into the final against Astronaut, which came out of the consolation bracket. The War Eagles won the first match 3-1. Seabreeze then won the second match 3-2 to clinch the championship.

“The boys were pretty motivated to do their very best to win. They really wanted to win this state again — to make it two times,” Shuler said.

Mainland, the district runner-up to Seabreeze, joined the Sandcrabs at the three-day tournament. Following the qualification rounds, Seabreeze was seeded No. 6 and Mainland seeded No. 12.


...They persevered and pushed and they never, ever gave up. Even when they were down a little bit or they have a bad game, they’d come right back with something. I’m just so wicked proud of these boys.
PAUL SHULER, Seabreeze bowling coach

Senior Jonathan King joined the four returning Sandcrabs from last year's championship team —Dalton Boice, Logan Compton, Braydon Russell and Xavier Suba — this year. He said his dad got him interested and his friend Ryan Barnes sent him a video about how to hold the ball. Shuler said King started learning then became more consistent and filled in perfectly for the team.

“My dad used to bowl 20 years ago,” King said. “He got his stuff out [of] the shed. I tried it. Loved it. Started bowling practice and played so many games every day. It’s paid off.”

Boice said without King, going to the state championship would not have been possible.

“Just amazing,” Boice said. “There’s no way else to put it. We have a five-man team. If it wasn't for [King], we wouldn’t even have had a chance to do this. He not only bowls, but he just bowls at such a high level, not even for how long he’s been bowling. If it wasn’t for him, none of this would have been possible.”

After the War Eagles won the final round's first Baker match, Boice, the Sandcrabs' anchor bowler, gathered his teammates in a circle, pointed to the 2024 State Championship banner with Seabreeze listed as the winner and repeatedly questioned if they wanted it. The “pep talk” helped the Sandcrabs win the final match to repeat as state champs.

Boice said he had to get his team fired up. 

“It looked like we were just losing morale, especially after losing 3-2 — we’re not used to that,” Boice said. “Last year, that didn’t even happen in the finals. We just won without needing a second life. But, this time, we needed a second life. We came down to one and we just gave it every single thing that we had.”

Boice said being older, more experienced and having the “best coach and best teammates in the entire world” contributed to his success in the 10th frame.

“They support me if I make a bad shot in the 10th frame ... they’re not yelling at me," he said. “They’re not wanting to sub out and put someone else in. They trust me. And that just goes to having a great coach and great teammates who just believe, and that’s why we won two years in a row.”

This was Mainland’s first appearance at the state championships with Joe Giddens, who has been coaching the team for three years. The Bucs were eliminated in the first round after losing 3-1 to the Melbourne Bulldogs. 

“I’m just so super happy for these guys — I have a great group of kids,” Giddens said. “There were some really good bowlers here. But I’ve got a young team, so I plan on being back.”

Giddens, who is also Mainland's boys basketball coach, said building rapport with his athletes carries over to performance.

“What I love, more importantly, is not just winning,” he said. “A little bit of motivation that I give on a basketball court and in bowling can help them in life. I’m not really a coach, a basketball coach or a bowling coach, I’m more of a life coach because if I can coach the life, sports just becomes easier. That’s just what I do.”

 

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