Thomas D’Aquila | Staff Writer
Aaron Meyer’s unassuming nature may lead people to overlook
him, but the bowling team knows this gentle giant to be a bowling wizard.
“I had bowling birthday parties at the old Elkhorn Lanes,”
Meyer, a junior, said of his early years of the sport. “My dad always took me
bowling and it was fun. I liked bowling, so he eventually bought me my first
bowling ball and I just sort of went from there.”
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| Junior Aaron Meyer preparing to throw a strike. ( Photo courtesy of Meyer family) |
Meyer’s passion for the game grew as he began to view
bowling in a more competitive light. “I started practicing the summer after
eighth grade,” Meyer said.
He does feel that sometimes this sport is overlooked by his
peers. “[Some people] don’t think it’s hard to do, or they see it as useless.
But they don’t realize how much skill and dedication it takes,” Meyer said.
“It’s not a basic sport, it kind of a unique thing.”
Meyer is not the only one in the family with the bowling
bug. Most of his family on his dad’s side have been on a competitive team at
some point, reaching back to his great-grandfather’s love of the game.
More notably, Meyer’s father is a part of the coaching staff
for Mount Michael’s team.
“He brings a lot of knowledge to the team, so I mostly look
at him as a coach,” Meyer said. “[The team] respects him as a coach as well,
but they also see him as my dad.”
Working so closely together Meyer and his father have
developed a shorthand way of communicating during a match.
“We have a connection. Sometimes my dad will give me a look
that says ‘What are you doing?’ But I will give him another look that says ‘I
got this,’” Meyer said.
For Meyer, being on the bowling team is not too different
from the casual bowling of his childhood.
“I guess it’s just kind of the attitude, which is more
focused on scoring,” Meyer said. “It’s more about trying to get a better score
and focus, not just goofing around. I clear my head and think about the
importance of the match I’m heading into,”
With a first place in the individual series at district and
a second place individually at state, Meyer seems to be doing just that.
