NORTH CANTON — When we asked J.C. Heighway why, after a two-year break, he was returning to be commissioner of the Stark County High School Bowling Conference, his answer was two-fold.
“I kept asking myself the same thing,” the 37-year-old North Canton resident said after his initial term as the third commissioner of the 22-year-old SCHSBC lasted 10 years.
“It’s kind of in my blood and I can’t seem to get away from it.”
But it also came down to two realizations: it was time to walk away from his coaching duties at Walsh University, his alma mater, and his children were getting more involved in the sport.
“Now that my kids (Paisley 9, Jett 5 and Finley 1) are starting to do tournaments themselves, I wanted to be around for that. They really wanted to bowl,” said Heighway, who also operates Heighway Awards inside Park Centre Lanes with his father, James, and works full-time as a territory manager for Commercial Group Lifting Products, which is headquartered in Michigan while he works out of Cleveland.
“I just thought it was time to step back in. I figure with my third child being one, I’ll be around for a while this time. But it’s something that I did for so long that I know the things that need to be done and when.
“It was difficult the last two years. They (previous commissioners) had to kind of come in and struggle through in unfamiliar territory.”
Heighway, who served as Walsh’s head bowling coach for six seasons, stepped away from the Cavaliers in April. He has been replaced by former assistant Nicole Stiteler.
College bowling for NCAA Division II — including the Cavaliers — has a season running from Oct. 1 through April 9.
“It’s a long season, and while the kids get a break around the holidays, I’m still out there recruiting,” Heighway said. “We practice three to four days a week and we’re traveling almost every weekend. The closest trip, outside of our own event, was two hours.
“Then I’m also the one driving the van to get us there. I’m wiped on Monday, but I have to go to work. My doctor told me I had to cut something out.”
Heighway succeeded Bob Kolarik as commissioner, but was forced to resign due to NCAA rules governing coaching after also serving as Walsh coach for his first three seasons.
“I was trying to avoid any recruiting violations. But with the NIL (name, image, likeness), the NCAA updated their policies and they were a little stricter,” Heighway said. “So I asked to step down.”
Three coaches — McKinley’s Kim Heaton, Lake’s Patrick King and Hoover’s Jeff Sabella — agreed to co-shoulder the responsibilities during the 2021-22 COVID season. T.J.. Owens then took over for the 2022-23 season, but resigned due to changes in work responsibilities and a full-time college schedule.
Heighway said one of the keys for his decision to return was King agreeing to remain as the conference’s statistician, a duty he performed the last two seasons.
“Having Pat back was big for me doing this,” Heighway said. “I didn’t want to spend weekends doing statistics. I was really on the bubble until that. If he can do that, I can do the rest.”
snieronbowling.com sat down with Heighway recently at Heighway Awards to talk about the upcoming season and what he sees ahead.
A second story will deal with tournaments involving conference players this season.
Here is a transcript of that interview, edited for brevity in some cases:
Q: With the loss of five teams, is the conference looking to expand again?
Heighway: “We were as high as 26 teams when I was still involved. We’re always looking if there is a school our there on the bubble of deciding what it wants to do. We have one school (Lake Center Christian) in two conferences. As long as the travel distance is good for us and it’s economically possible for our schools, we’d look to add. But we don’t want to get so big where a school’s doesn’t see another member for two or three years.”
Q: What will be the division format?
H: “We will be back to a three-division schedule, with the Federal League teams remaining together in one seven-team division, to go with six- and five-team divisions (American, National). The schedule format will be the same with round-robin home-and-away matches against all division teams and four addition conference matches.”
Q: The website had some problems last season. Are those being addressed?
H: “We are going up with the new www.schsbc.org after the governing board is able to look it over. It’s been a work-in-progress the last two months, but the main goal is to make it more user friendly. Getting the individual scores was not difficult, but finding Baker System high games, high series and other things was tedious. Everything, from the constitution, to history, to records, to school information will be updated. All match results will be on the site, with a PDF of each sheet. We won’t be using coaching log-ins, but we’re trying, with T.J.’s suggestion, to find a way to use QR codes to get them to me quicker after matches. We’re also going to work on getting complete information on each school, plus photos of head coaches and assistant coaches. We play on making this so easy that people who have not used websites before will be able to use it. The feel will be the same even though it looks a little different. We hope to go over all of it with coaches when we hold our preseason meeting.”
Q: How has high school bowling changed in the two years you’ve away?
H: “I kind of paid attention, but really didn’t because my time was restricted. I know there was some confusion on rules changes, and it didn’t help that people were stepping into this for the first time. It caused a lot of confusion and stress, and I saw how hard it was to figure out. But I’m also used to a few things so, hopefully, it will be a lot easier this time around. But I also know Kim, Pat and T.J. are all within reach if I have questions.”
Q: What about the schedule for 2022-23?
H: Matches will still start at 4 p.m. and there still will be time limits so a Baker System came cannot start after 5:20, but coaches will have to confirm that with center ownership in August. Most of the matches are Monday through Wednesday with a couple on Thursdays and Fridays based on center availability. (Since this interview, the conference has schedule matches at Apollo 3 Lanes — the former Turkeyfoot — this season). I haven’t talked to either East Canton or Conotton Valley since they left, but as we get closer, I will reach out to see what their plans are. We are still limited to 24 matches by OHSAA rules, and an official match is two regular games and two Baker games. We tried to limit teams to no more than two matches per week, and only do three under special circumstances with no back-to-backs. It should be easier with 18 teams than it was before. When we had 23 or 26 that was difficult. (A complete conference schedule appears at the end of this story).”
Q: Where does the rest of the board stand at this point?
H: We are still looking for a new president, although we have reached out to several people and they are thinking about it. Only a non-coach can hold the president or vice president position to remain neutral on conference issues. But the coaches vote on everything. Bill Snier will be vice president, and we have had several coaching changes to this point.”
Q: What about this year’s postseason banquet?
H: “We really haven’t made a decision on where to go at this point. It kind of depends on our numbers. With losing five teams this season, out total might be back around 200. We will still invite first- and second-team players to the banquet and give certificates to the honorable-mention players. That’s something I started and financed a few years ago. That’s one of the perks of being first or second team … being invited to the banquet. There’s always going to be someone on the bubble.”
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Heighway made it clear the conference is going nowhere.
“The commissioners did a great job the last two years of keeping it going through some trying times,” Heighway said. “That’s why I stepped back in. With my kids coming up soon, I wanted to ensure that.
“I know I put a lot of time in already, but I want to keep it going another 22 years. Hopefully, I will.”