Tiffin Columbian bowlers remind me of myself – only different

Plaza Lanes in Fremont was my destination last Friday. I wanted to check in on Tiffin Columbian's bowling team. A couple of thoughts dominated my thinking as I entered the establishment. First, I wanted to compare today's keglers with my own distinguished (my terminology) bowling career. The second was to catch up with Atreyu Sturgill. I had written about his love of the sport a decade ago and wanted to see how he was now faring on the lanes.The Tornadoes were taking on Lakota on this afternoon. I considered waiting until the following day and traveling to Sandusky to watch the SBC tournament, but Fremont was closer and the time slot (4:00 P.M. v. 9 A.M.) was more reasonable. After reading in the A-T how the tournament went, maybe I made the wrong choice. More on the tourney later.The lanes were crowded and finding a seat was going to be difficult. I was not prepared to stand for the whole event, and TC coach Brian King came to my rescue. He provided a folding chair and I settled in to watch the action.As for any comparisons with my game, I came to the conclusion that it would have to be from the end of my career not the beginning. When I was first asked to bowl in a league some 50 years ago, I had no clue what I was getting into. I had never bowled before so I did not have a bowling ball.When choosing a house ball, I decided one that had a thumb hole three times bigger than my thumb would be adequate. It felt right and if I could keep it on my hand until I released it, things would be all right. As for my style, it was simple. Throw the ball straight down the lane aiming at the head pin. I knew that hitting directly on the head pin could cause a split, but what were the odds of doing that? I figured I would be off slightly – one side or the other – and that would put me in the "pocket" – New York or Brooklyn. I bowled for a few years doing that and averaged around 170.Eventually I got my own ball, had it drilled, learned to lift and hook the ball and got my average into the 190's. To compare today's "kids" with my early years would not be fair. Turns out that trying to compare them with my later "glory" years wouldn't be fair either.As I watched the bowling it occurred to me that these kids are so much more knowledgeable than I ever was, thus the "only different" reference in my title. Several of them use two hands to throw the ball, a style used by many professional bowlers today. They can generate so many revolutions and the impact on the pins is noticeable.The ball explodes into the pocket and the pins fly. These kids throw the ball with much more speed than I could ever generate. It was fun to watch. They also have the ability to decipher oil patterns. I knew if my ball came back greasy that there was oil on the lanes!So after determining that there was no reason to compare our games, I just sat back and enjoyed the day. One of TC's bowlers threw the first four strikes in game one. It was not Atreyu, but Blake Melick the lead off bowler. He cooled slightly and even opened in the tenth frame, but bowled a solid 223 game.As for Atreyu, in game two he had a turkey (three straight strikes) and later a hambone (four in a row) on his way to 235. He's doing just fine thank you. He did not have the high game for Columbian on this day though as Hayden Wagner threw the first six and had a double in the 10th to post a 242 effort in his second game.One of the more interesting aspects of high school bowling for me is the Baker game format. The teams will bowl several Baker games to complete the team scoring. In this game each of the five team members will bowl two frames. The lead bowler will get the first and sixth frame, the second frames 2 and 7, down to the anchor who gets the fifth and often pivotal tenth frame.In any given Baker game a bowler has just two chances to contribute. Throw an open frame or two and you feel like you haven't helped your team at all. Of course, your opponents are in the same boat and by the final game it was apparent Columbian was going to win the match. Still I'm guessing that Lakota was a little embarrassed to not break 100 in their last Baker effort. I left Plaza Lanes thinking Columbian had a pretty strong team. Coach Casey Weidner thought the same and told me he liked their chances the next day. He was prophetic as the Tornadoes took the Sandusky Bay Conference title.Once again Hayden Wagner led the way. In the tournament each bowler threw three games and his series was a tournament best 704. He rolled games of 224, 224 and 256. I had often hoped to bowl a triplicate, but never did so. I wonder if Hayden had thoughts of this feat after his first two games. A 224 triplicate would be outstanding.I guess if you are not going to get the triplicate patch, "messing up" by besting 224 is the way to go about it.Atreyu Sturgill had games of 213, 216, 216 for a fine 645 series – third highest for the tourney. Blake Melick shot 526 to aid the Tornado effort. Columbian's Baker games included games of 212, 161, 190, 184, 173 and 184. Their total of 3,993 handily edged runner up Sandusky by 106 pins.Two thoughts struck me as I left Plaza Lanes. I wished I could have watched more of the girls games, but logistics (and old age) made that impossible. The other was whether I would make a good bowling coach. That answer was a resounding NO!Congrats to the Tornadoes. It will be interesting to see how their OHSAA tournament goes.