Don Petersen | Special to The Roanoke Times

Nellie Coleman, 94, cheers on her team.

The smell of popcorn drifted from the conservatory at Our Lady of the Valley retirement home in Roanoke on Friday afternoon.

Curious residents trickled in to watch the Valley Rollers, members of the home's Wii Olympics bowling team, start a game on the new flat screen TV.

The team's competition? Natasha Ryan, reporter and anchor for WDBJ (Channel 7) News.

Helen Walton, 83, was up first. She got in a practice round before the competition began and bowled a 180.

"She's very good," remarked teammate Warren Rocke.

Walton has experience on her side, however. She grew up playing tenpins at Luck Lanes on Luck Avenue in Roanoke. She even won a trophy once.

"I'd rather just play. I don't care about winning," she said.

A month ago, the team members had never heard of Wii, but their interest was piqued after watching an in-house demonstration. Wii is a popular active video game console from Nintendo, released in 2006. Players control their on-screen movements by acting them out while holding a wireless controller, such as swinging a tennis racket or rolling a bowling ball.

The residents found it fun and easy to use, and picked it up quickly, even with no video game experience. When the retirement home announced it would be competing in a Wii bowling Olympics tournament against other retirement communities in the state, Walton and three others volunteered to join the team.

Wii Olympics was the idea of Coordinated Services Management, a Roanoke-based company that manages Our Lady of the Valley and several other homes in Virginia and the Washington, D.C., area. The company decided to coordinate the competition with the real Olympic games, hoping to generate more interest among the residents.

On Aug. 8, Our Lady held opening ceremonies to introduce the Valley Rollers and explain the tournament. Since then, Sherry Reynolds, activities director at Our Lady of the Valley, has been keeping track of the participants' scores and will submit the highest ones both as a team and individually to the management company on Tuesday. The scores will be compared with more than a dozen other retirement communities, and the winners will be announced Tuesday during closing ceremonies at Our Lady.

If she keeps bowling close to 200, Walton will be a serious contender for a medal.

Walton and Rocke have played nearly every afternoon since the team was formed. Normally the duo plays in the TV room. But Friday was a special event, and they were playing against a local celebrity.

The competition was moved to the conservatory. Ryan faced some stiff competition, but the tone was lighthearted as both sides laughed and joked while bowling several spares and strikes.

Combined with Wii's graphics and interactive nature, "you feel like you're really at the bowling alley," said team member Janice Owen, 83.

As the four team members each took a turn against Ryan, the conservatory began filling up. Residents watched in anticipation of the next strike.

"That was robbery! A hidden pin!" Owen remarked as Rocke bowled what should have been a spare.

Unlike her teammates, who all have varying degrees of experience under their belt, Owen was never a bowler.

"Golf was my game," she said. "I didn't like the bowling alley, but I like this. There's no changing of shoes and whatnot; it's much easier."

She claimed she was no good, but Owen's performance spoke otherwise. She edged out Ryan with a score of 130 to Ryan's 129. In the last frame, she got the spare, earning her another roll in which she got a strike, sealing her victory.

Ryan was a worthy opponent. She lost to Walton and Owen but prevailed against Rocke and Janice Humphries, 73.

Even though he lost, Rocke posted a new personal high score earlier Friday morning.

"I enjoy it. It's entertaining. And it gets me out of my room," said Rocke, who turns 92 next month.

Reynolds thinks the Wii Olympics are a success.

"It's a feeling of being part of something big," she said.