Tyler Brown likes to stay busy, and he made a conscious effort to put more time into bowling in the offseason.
He thought he was improving, but slowly. Then the season began.
Brown, one of two seniors along with Ryan Wood in Bordentown Regional High School boys’ starting lineup, has made an enormous leap. Through the Scotties’ first five matches, his average was 201.0.
That eye-opening figure is nearly 30 pins better than his 173.45 average of a year ago.
“Seeing my scores from the end of last season to my practice scores the first week, seeing that difference is kind of like, ‘Whoa,’” Brown said. “It wasn’t like a drop down then you have to get back up. It was just a big jump of improvement. So that’s what made me feel like it paid off.
“And then as the season’s progressed, my average is only just rising and same with my teammates.”
Brown’s emergence is one reason for confidence from the proud program that they can again be top competitors for the Burlington County Scholastic League Patriot Division and the Central Jersey, Group 2 sectional.
“The two seniors that I have this year were probably two and three last year, and my other junior is new,” said Bordentown coach Ron Jones. “I’m having a hard time figuring out how these kids all came together. Everything about them is good. They’re having fun together. They’re working together. They’re helping each other out. Nobody is left out in the cold.”
Bordentown opened with wins in four of their five matches, with only Ewing defeating them. Peter Sukola, a junior, has the high average of 205.2 after bowling a 295 early.
Another junior who moved to Bordentown, Gavin Hughes, has been an incredible addition with a 204.86 average. Then it’s Brown right behind followed by fellow classmate Wood, who is averaging 190.57. Kenny Teague and Joey Nyzio are neck and neck at 171.92 and 170.67. Their team-first attitude has manifested itself quickly this winter. They’ve been pushing and pulling each other.
“It looks like just words of encouragement, we always high-five each other no matter the shot, no matter what’s left on the lanes,” Brown said. “You leave a pin on the lane, you leave a pin on the lane. You strike, you strike. We all will cheer for you. We’ll make sure that you’re performing, you’re doing what you need to do.
“And say someone has a bad game, our team is very self-aware of that. So if we need to pull in a substitute that’s performing better, we’re not really afraid to do that. We’re very, like, it’s for the team. It’s not necessarily for ourselves.”
The Scotties went into a holiday break against a good Pennsauken team and will come out at the start of January against a strong Maple Shade returning group. Bordentown has just enough firepower to get by.
It’s not as big a team as they sometimes have, but they have a dedicated group that has worked to remain competitive in the league.
“We just knew that our team would be smaller with bowlers we can grab for substitutes, and it really relied on our game as the starting five,” Brown said. “Last year, we had three substitutes that we could pull from if we needed to and that was a big reliever to say, two guys aren’t doing good, we can just pull two subs on and not have to really worry.
“Yet this year we have a six-man team, our pickings are a little more slim this year so I would say a little more pressure on us to really perform at our game, make sure we’re hitting at least that 170 benchmark or stuff like that.”
Brown put himself in position to be a bigger factor for the Scotties with his increased offseason commitment. He is busy year-round during school. He performs with the school’s marching band in the fall, and in the spring he’s competed for the track and field team as a javelin and then a discus thrower.
“I’ve always had that love of throwing,” he said.
When he was younger, that showed up in some of his athletic pursuits baseball, and he also played basketball and soccer. He pivoted from those sports in high school, pursuing his enjoyment of music with the marching band and finding success throwing in track and field. As a sophomore, he picked up bowling just for fun, or so he thought.
“I didn’t care if I would be ever good at or ever make an impact,” Brown said. “But after the first week, I kind of saw how the varsity was performing compared to me. It was my first time actually holding a real bowling ball. And it kind of just gave me this competitive edge to push myself. And by the second match, I already had one varsity game on my docket so I was just kind of chasing that feeling, chasing that competitive urge.”
His 147.11 average in 36 games as a sophomore was a starting point. Last year, it climbed more than 25 pins as a more experienced, more comfortable bowler. Then came the summer and a chance to develop further.
“I definitely saw that for the people who went out over the summer, their scores and their consistency was definitely improving and that was something that kind of made me feel like a sense of regret,” Brown said. “Like, ’Oh, I wasted my time with this.’ So I decided to go out this summer, work on my fundamentals, work on my basics to not only benefit me, but the team as a whole because it’s a whole new aspect this year.”
He went a couple times per week. He worked on every aspect of his game. He went to different bowling alleys to measure the differences between each.
He has returned mentally stronger, more able to handle the pressures of being high in the varsity lineup. He has been encouraged by his development, and he’s not done with it.
“It’s definitely rewarding,” he said, “but yet if I do have a mistake or get in my head about something, it just shows me that I need to work on something or it’s something I can just work through next week at practice.”
The work continues for the Scotties. They have a supportive group that is trying to grow as a team to be hitting their stride by the start of sectionals.
“The main thing going forward for the boys right now is spares,” Jones said. “It’s nice to run six and eight strikes in a row, but if you follow it up with two missed spares, you’re losing 100 pins if you do everything else but you can’t get that single 10-pin over there in the corner or the 5-pin – it doesn’t matter which one is left.”
There’s a cohesive effort to develop. It’s led to a good start to the season, something that’s encouraging Bordentown to keep expectations high. The formula seems to be paying off.
“These guys are helping each other,” Jones said. “They’re just all clicking together. They’re having fun. That’s another big thing. They’re having fun. Nobody’s working at it right now. They’re just helping each other out, having fun.”
Brown has poured his energy into this season to make the most of it. He is interested in possibly throwing discus in college or finding a bowling club.
“I don’t like sitting around and just doing nothing,” he said. “So I just want to be able to do something year-round at school.”
He’s making the most of his final season with the Scotties bowling team before he turns his attention to track and field. His offseason work already has shown up early with a big improvement in his bowling average. That’s helped him to set the tone for the program.
“I’m just trying to live out the last moments and honestly leave a mark of where I was on this team,” Brown said. “I’m also trying to help set them up for next year because there’s only two seniors this year. So we’re trying to make sure that we have this momentum that we can keep going throughout not only this year but years to go.”