The team boards the bus outside their senior community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wearing game-day T-shirts that feature an American flag with white pins and a red bowling ball. They are the UV Okies, a local sensation.
Just half a mile up the road await the losers, the Burgundy Place Strikers, looking to end the team's 8-0 streak.
At this Tulsa senior league, athletes have traded in the hardwood floors and smooth gutters for the digital lanes of the Nintendo Wii Sports bowling alley.
The Okies, residents of the University Village senior housing community, have finished five seasons with a clean win and are on another winning streak. Would they win this away game against the Strikers and then their final game the following week, to complete a sixth replay?
On this recent Thursday in June, your hopes are pinned on Phyllis Wimer, known as Phyllis Killer or Phyllis the GOAT for the many strikes she throws; Charlene “the Grasshopper” Giles, whose jump gives her extra oomph when throwing the ball; The “wonderful” Marcia Ness, who describes herself as a “tough old lady,” ready to bowl after recovering from a broken wrist and back; and “Rollin'” Ron Demaree, who grabs the lower left handlebar of his motorized wheelchair to propel himself up and forward for more power in his spin.
If the Okies are nervous about a possible upset, they don't show it.
“Let's go in and smoke them,” says “Dandy” Don Alcorn, 73, another teammate.
Seniors and video games may seem as natural a combination as Generation Z and paper phone books. But by introducing Wii bowling to their residents nearly 20 years ago, staff members at senior living communities in Tulsa saw an opportunity to create a league that would bring people together.
When the Okies first joined the city league more than a decade ago, they didn't win a single game, said Cecelia Basarich, 83, a former University Village resident and player. They began studying the techniques of more successful teams and practiced on dusty Wii consoles resurrected from some of their children's garages. Residents organized an internal league that competed for 100 Grand chocolate bars.
Now, the team has 40 players some seasons, who compete internally for eight spots for each week's league game.
And while the Okies have become fierce competitors, they also play for other reasons.
“There are some things I do where I feel young,” Giles, 75, said. She added: “It's like I'm 13 years old standing up there. It's fun to have those things.”
Wii bowling helps them socialize and form friendships, cope with the pain, grief and loss of aging, and encourages them to try new things. “That's how old people survive,” said 87-year-old Pat Winkle, known as “Nana Pat.”
Some players also said their bowling triumphs made their children and grandchildren proud.
At Burgundy Place, for the penultimate league game, the home team wore gray jerseys and signs reading “Love Love Bowling” were plastered on the doors and walls of a recreation room that would serve as the game's electronic track.
Alcorn lined up his shot in the Okies' virtual lane. His classmates waved blue and red pompoms and shouted, “Show them where you're from!”
He extended his right arm, his hand around a Wii remote, and leaned slightly to the right. He moved his right arm back and then forward, and his left arm rose into the sky with him.
The synthesized noise of bowling against wood filled the room and the word “Strike” appeared on the television screen.
When he started playing, Mr. Alcorn had to unlearn the techniques and stances he knew from real-life bowling.
“That won't work,” he said. “You have to get up and out to get the strike.”
Facing a second television screen, Mrs. Wimer dropped the ball. Eight pins scattered across the digital lane, leaving two next to each other in the corner.
“As soon as I dropped the ball I knew it wasn't going to do what I wanted,” Wimer, 95, said before smashing the last two pins for his only spare of the game.
Although they can be dominant on screen, the Okies are also good sports. Throughout the match, they offered advice to their Burgundy Place rivals and each team applauded the other's goals.
Still, the Okies were ahead and needed to maintain their lead throughout the final round of play to remain undefeated.
In one lane, Ron Pogue, 82, held up the remote control with both hands in front of him to steady his shot. He took a deep breath before bending his knees and moving his right arm back, propelling it forward forcefully.
“Good ball!” His teammates applauded when he scored a strike.
The Okies had achieved another victory.
The players congratulated each other, and then Phyllis Killer and Charlene the Grasshopper and Marvelous Marcia and Rollin' Ron and the rest of the Okies boarded the bus back to University Village.
On Thursday afternoon, the Okies won their final game of the season and finished with a 10-0 record.
Next year, the old Wii consoles will be retired and the league will switch to another video game system. For now, the UV Okies will bask in the glory and pride of another season as the invincible Tulsa Wii Seniors.
