By BILL SNIER
NORTH CANTON — Of all the competitors in the 30-player field during Sunday’s Stark County USBC Youth Singles Fall Tournament, 16-year-old Gavin Ritter may be the only one without a future in high school bowling.
“A little of it is my grades,” the GlenOak High School junior said. “But I also talked to someone who told me it was better to go pro when you are younger than to wait.
“That’s the goal … to eventually do that.”
Ritter, the son of Park Centre Lanes co-owners Angela and Charles Smith, also didn’t bowl in a league a year ago, so he had to enter the event with a 210 average, giving him zero handicap in the event at Park Centre.
No matter.
The two-handed right-hander had games of 247, 264, 228 and 258 for a 997 series — averaging 249.25 with only three open frames all day — to turn in the day’s top performance. His only clean game came during his 228, missing a pair of 10-pin spares and leaving an 8-10 split for his lone open frames.
“I probably moved about five boards overall,” said Ritter, who received coaching in his younger years from Jim Aufderheide and Gary Rebillot before going two-handed at age 10. “I really don’t practice at all. I do some bowling, but not competitively … just with a buddy or somebody who wants to bowl against me. I think that last time I bowled a tournament was about three months ago.”
Ritter topped the 18U boys division, finishing 31 pins ahead of Wadsworth High School junior Ian Daveduk, who had 73 pins of handicap added to his 893 scratch series for 966. Daveduk shot 258 his final game.
“It really wasn’t that bad for me, being with two righties on the pair, so I had the side to myself,” said Daveduk, a left-hander who was making his first appearance at Park Centre.
“Around the third game, my mechanics started to fall apart bit, but I was able to bring it back to save it.”
The 180 he shot in Game 3 put him short of Ritter after Daveduk, one of a few players in the field who has received lessons from famed international coach Jeri Edwards, shot 258 in Game 4.
“She changed a lot with me. I’m a lot more consistent staying under the ball and not on the side of it,” said Daveduk, who returns with a strong lineup for the defending Suburban League champion Grizzlies this season.
“Just overall, I’ve bowled better. I averaged 223 today and I would rarely throw around that a year ago. Now, I throw 230s regularly. As a team, winning the conference and getting to state are the goals.”
OTHER BOYS WINNERS
North Canton Hoover sophomore William Rice III, a two-handed righty who has been bowling for about 10 months, finished with 886 to top the 15U boys division with a 253 his final game and winning by just 20 pins over Akron’s Steven Villagomez (866).
“I feel like I bowled pretty badly at the start because my nerves got ahold of me,” said Rice, who bowled on the Vikings’ junior varsity a year ago. “But in the end, I start making good shots consistently and stated hitting my mark.
“It just took a minute. I hadn’t bowled in a few days and I wasn’t prepared and not warmed up that well.”
Marvin Shipley III took honors in the 12U boys division with 835.
GIRLS LEADERS
Massillon sophomore Faith Wisen, who also is home-schooled but bowls for the Tigers, and Carrollton incoming freshman Lilly Kruprzak went 1-2 overall in the girls division. But they also share a common coach — Dennis Gordon. In fact, Wisen also works with Edwards.
“They work a lot on my hand and the way the rotation on my ball is,” said Wisen, who admitted she averaged only in the 70s and 80s a year ago as a freshman before finishing the season with a 205.
“When I first went to them, I was really lofting the ball a lot and they got it to stop. They also worked on my foot placement a lot … something I really didn’t know how to do myself. They taught me where to stand, how to move myself and where to move.”
It paid off Sunday for Wisen who finished with 977 overall — high in the girls division — in topping the 18U division.
Wisen, who received 275 handicap with her 702 actual, admitted she got a little frustrated the final game but was able to get over it with the help of her father.
“It was great having my family there to support me … I was comfortable,” added Wisen, whose younger sister, Grace, will be a freshman at Massillon this season after finishing second Sunday with 894 in the 15U division. “After I got over the frustration, I bowled pretty consistent.”
Kruprzak, a Salineville right-hander who will bowl for the Warriors, felt a better last game, when she shot 154, could have have helped her cause. She was the lone girl to shoot a pair of 200 games (209-210) en route to topping the 15U girls division with 934.
“I had my head in the game the whole time and I didn’t get discouraged,” Kruprzak said. “My coach (Gordon) worked with me on getting more lift on the ball and getting it further down the lane. The last game, if I could have gotten in the zone and got my wrist working … I would have changed that.”
Louisville’s Ellen Cross finished first in the 12U with 782.
Ritter is left to remember what could have been — finishing three pins short of 1,000.
“Doing that,” Ritter added, “would have been a really good feeling. I was thinking about it the last game, but it just wasn’t enough.”
NOTEBOOK: After posts about a possible cancellation due to limited entries earlier in the week, the event had 30 players Sunday with nine scholarships being awarded — including three in the girls 18U division and two in the boys 18U. … GlenOak sophomore Ryley Abbuhl turned in the high individual game overall with 266 in Game 4, with Ritter posting 264 on the boys side. Abbuhl finished second overall in the girls 18U division (884). … Players bowled all four games on the same pair of lanes, with Park Centre’s house oil pattern being used in the event. … There were some changes in the standings following checking of averages and entries following the event by tournament officials. Official standings appear below.