U.V. Okies win again, head to national senior Wii bowling league

What began as a low-tech pastime at University Village in Tulsa became a six-season streak of senior competition, with the UV Okies winning the Tulsa city-wide league for five straight years and saying they had gone undefeated for the past three. The run sent the retirement-community team on to the National Senior Wii Bowling League, a circuit KJRH said included 24 states, 44 retirement communities and 140 teams.

At the center of the group was Cecelia Basarich, the team leader known as Coach Salty, who said the roster had grown from 8 bowlers when she moved in nine years earlier to close to 40. University Village Life Enrichment Coordinator Wayne Wall said the team gathered a few times a week, turning regular play into a social fixture as much as a competition. That routine, and the pressure of staying unbeaten, helped make the group one of Tulsa’s most durable senior teams.

The lineup carried its own milestones. Dorothy Salen, one of the founding members and one of two 100-year-olds on the team, said her best Wii bowling score was 298. Davis Joyce, nicknamed Auto, said he had never played Wii bowling before moving in, but the game gave him something to look forward to and a way to make new friends. The team also played for charity, adding another layer of purpose to a competition that was about more than bragging rights.

The UV Okies had also proven they could beat more than one kind of opposition. Along the way, they defeated University Village staff and a team from Oral Roberts University, extending a reputation that reached beyond their own community. Their advance to the national league showed how organized play, ritual and friendly competition can become a steady part of daily life in senior communities, giving older adults a place to compete, reconnect and keep showing up together.