Gazette MVP: Highland's Gracie Dunne benefits from diverse support system

Highland doesn't have a girls bowling program, but Hornets sophomore Gracie Dunne has a lot of people on her team. The Gazette's MVP for girls bowling for the second straight year after finishing second at the Division I girls state tournament at HPL Bowling Center, the youngest of Mike and Kim Dunne's eight children spends her regular seasons bowling with the Highland boys team, where she has developed a rapport with coach Brian Esterle and fits right in with teammates like Thomas Nhok, Gabe Kasper, Tyler Oboy, Davis Slatkovsky, Lucas Less and Andrew Talpas. "She's very consistent," Less said of his fellow sophomore, a two-hander from the right side who led all Medina County girls with a 190.0 average. "She's very dedicated and has been doing it a long time. "She's nice, kind, trustworthy and caring. She competes with all of us and is better than a lot of us, too. She's one of the most consistent people on the team and definitely the most dedicated." Fifteen-year-old Gracie, who is home-schooled, has an even bigger team off the lanes. It starts with 60-year-old parents Mike and Kim and extends to brothers Chris, 42, Adam, 36, Jeromy, 30, Jayme, 27, and Kyle, 20, and sisters Briana, 34, and Karilyn, 24, all of whom also were home-schooled. When Gracie doesn't want to be the youngest, there are five nieces and nephews — they range in age from 10 to 2½ — to dote on, as all the Dunne children except Briana, whose family is in Myrtle Beach, S.C., still live in Northeast Ohio. "It's weird, but I kind of like it," Gracie said of her family dynamic. "I like going to my older sisters for questions I have. They're fun to be around." Mike has supported the family, which moved from North Royalton to Hinckley Township 23 years ago, as the owner of Dunne-Right Heating & Cooling, while Kim spent time working as a dental and nursing assistant in addition to being her children's primary home-school teacher. All the Dunne children are artistic and musically inclined. Gracie plays the piano, while Kyle, a two-time Gazette MVP and four-time All-Gazette bowling selection who finished 10th in the boys state tournament as a senior in 2023, opts for the guitar. Chris can play virtually any instrument and also sings, while Karilyn was a national level Irish dancer before injuries forced her to give up that pursuit after 10 years, when she was 16. "Oh, my gosh, it was worse than bowling," Kim said with a laugh when asked how much time and money the family invested in Karilyn's dancing. "It's hard to estimate, but the dresses, the shoes, the costumes, she took us around the country competing. There were no scholarships involved, but the payback we got was the enjoyment." Gracie, who was 7 when her sister gave up Irish dancing, remembers going to her competitions and Kyle's bowling tournaments and wouldn't have had it any other way. "The dancing was fun," she said. "I never really dreaded it. It was fun to watch her. (Kyle's tournaments) were fun as well. They also were kind of boring because I wasn't bowling, but he really sparked my interest. I'm thankful he made me love bowling." Following in the footsteps of Kyle, who already owned 18 bowling balls as a Highland junior, the 5-foot-8 Gracie grew up with the sport and took to it instantly. In addition to leading county girls in average by a whopping 20.5 pins this season — she improved by 22.4 pins from her freshman season — Gracie also was first in the area in high game (259) and high three-game series (676) and second in high two-game series (430). The 259 game and 676 series came at the state tournament, where she might have won the individual title were it not for an unfortunate pocket 7-10 split in the 10th frame of her second game. "I'm really happy with second," she said. "I wanted to be first, but I'm OK with second because it's way better than last year (when she was 40th with a 514 series). My goals are to get way better and hopefully get first at states. I can't control that, but I need to bowl my best." Asked how often she has thought about the 7-10 split, which came with her on a three-bagger and turned a potential 239 game into a 203, Gracie laughed and said, "A lot. Everybody keeps talking about it. I'm like, 'Can we stop talking about that?'" Having already bowled in two more events since the state tournament, which was Friday, Gracie will continue to work on her game until the next high school season starts. The irony is that Mike and Kim, though they love to watch their daughter compete, aren't big-time bowlers. Both averaged around 150 when they bowled in mixed leagues with Gracie and Kyle, but Kim estimates it's been six years since she picked up a ball. "Mike is more of a bowling coach," she added with a laugh. "He's not real good on the lanes. He's more like Fred Flintstone." For as long as Gracie remains interested in bowling, and there are no signs of that letting up, Fred and Wilma, er, Mike and Kim will continue to provide entrance fees for tournaments and transportation to them. At the same time, they will make sure their daughter has time to be a kid and let her know how proud they are of her. "I'm heart-bursting proud," Kim said. "I don't know if there is any better way to put it." That would be the case whether Gracie finished first, second or 32nd at a bowling tournament, because Kim already has watched her youngest child overcome so much. Until she was 5, Gracie rarely spoke. When she did, it was in short, choppy sentences with words missing. Eventually diagnosed with apraxia, a neurological disorder that makes it difficult to produce speech sounds correctly, Gracie spent several years working with a therapist and now communicates very well. "It was frustrating, but I got some speech lessons and it was fine," she said. "You hear me now. I'm talking." Though her quiet nature makes it unlikely she'll ever be a social butterfly, bowling has helped Gracie's confidence tremendously. So has her family, especially 34-year-old sister Briana, with whom she is particularly close. "Briana was like the second mom with the little siblings," Kim said. "She and Gracie were close from the very beginning. It was a tough thing when her family moved, but we see them often." It is Gracie who now gets to serve as a second mom to her nieces and nephews, who call her CiCi instead of using the word aunt. Chris' oldest child, Zayda, is now 10, and Briana's oldest, Jerry, is about to turn 10, meaning Gracie was 7 when they were 2. "I was a mom to them," Gracie said. "I took care of them and changed diapers and fed them all the time. I felt like they were my little sister and brother. It was nice." Equally nice for Mike and Kim has been watching their daughter grow into a talented and caring young woman. "There are times when I internally swell up with pride," Kim said. "I love seeing all the kids compete and enjoy it. I always tell them, 'When you don't reach a goal, there's always the next shot, the next tournament, the next competition. If I'm looking disappointed, it's not because I'm disappointed in you. It's because I'm disappointed for you.'" Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.