As Johnny Bassett roams the halls of Bordentown Regional High School standing all of 6-foot-3, he is often asked why he is not on the basketball team.
His answer is simple.
“I would never do basketball because I’m not very good at it,” he said matter-of-factly before quickly adding, “And I do have fun bowling.”
Which is good news for coach Ron Jones and the Scotties bowling team, considering basketball and bowling are both winter sports. Were Bassett to opt for hoops, he would be depriving Bordentown of its top kegler this season.
Through the Scotties 13-2 start, Johnny was averaging 185, with a high set of 647 and a high game of 278. He has rolled 200 or better 11 times after doing it just twice last year, when he averaged 160.
“It’s been my mental game, being in the mind of how to get better as it goes,” Bassett said of his sharp improvement. “I’ve been doing a lot of bowling as of late. I actually work at Hamilton Lanes, so that kind of gives me some ways of how to be better and be stronger. I’ve been watching a lot of bowling lately. I’ve just been doing my thing.”
His “thing” has made him the Scotties most consistent performer this season.
“He’s the only one of the boys that I’ve been counting on all year to have a clean game,” Jones said. “Even in practice he’ll roll a clean game. He makes spares. That’s the big thing, making spares. You get six strikes and no spares and you’re gonna have a 160. He’s always been pretty good at picking up spares. As he gets a little older he gets a little wiser, a little more calm, he’s learning more about himself and about the game.”
Bassett, who also plays baseball, was introduced to bowling by his dad, John, at age 9. He would spend ample time at the now-defunct Papp’s lanes in Bordentown.
“I loved that place very much; it was a very good bowling center for me,” Bassett recalled. “The owners knew me well, all kinds of stuff like that. I was like ‘Yeah, I gotta get in more bowling from now on.’”
And so he did, getting into league play when he was 15 and staying there ever since. Bassett currently bowls in a singles league and a doubles league (with his dad as his partner) at Hamilton. He got his job at the Scotties home lanes in September working the register, cleaning, getting balls out of the gutter and glamorous things like that.
Just being in that bowling environment seems to rub off on him.
“It’s really been helping me be more happy in bowling and getting to know more people very well,” he said. “And I get to compete every single week. Everybody likes me there, and they like my bowling game also.”
When he gets the chance to throw some practice games, with no pressure on having to produce a high score, Bassett likes to tinker on his game.
“I want to work on some tips to make sure that my ball is reacting to what it should do,” he said. “It doesn’t matter my score. I throw 50 miles an hour, a lot of the other kids throw 60 miles an hour. I’m like ‘Why that fast?’ I throw 50 miles an hour and I get 10 straight back.”
Jones likes the fact that Bassett is an old-school bowler who goes against the norm of the modern game.
“He’s just a different type of bowler,” Jones said. “He’s the old style, one-handed bowler; whereas 90 percent of the rest of the team is all bowling two handed. He’s much more able to control his ball when you get later into matches; when the oil patterns are starting to get pushed all over the place. He’s still able to hold a steady line, whereas the other guys bowling two-handed, it gets to the end and they don’t know where the ball is going. They roll it and hope.”
Bassett has always been anxious to better himself, and was never afraid to ask for help. As a freshman, he would go to his father and other team parents for advice. He also tapped into sophomore Sean Horner, one of the team’s better performers, for advice.
“Sean’s actually one of my best friends,” Bassett said. “He taught me a few things about how to be yourself, stay in control of your game. A lot of the parents I talked to gave me pointers. It helped.”
Bassett bowled just 13 games in ninth grade and averaged 153.
“He definitely had potential,” Jones said. “He was willing to listen. He would listen to anybody that came along. He’s a willing listener and willing to do what somebody suggests to see how it works.”
Johnny became a regular as a sophomore and, after a disastrous 74 in his first game of the season, went on to average 149 with a high game of 195 to close out the campaign.
He hoisted his average by 11 pins last year, and has exploded this season thanks to working with Dave Klein, who runs the Hamilton Lanes pro shop.
“He’s been my mentor. I’m getting better and better with him and he really is a nice guy,” Bassett said. “He wants me to bowl more so I get into that higher average level. His work is unbelievable. I like him, he likes me. That is one of the reasons why my average is better today. It’s mostly Dave and just how focused I am to be with my teammates.”
His focus is not just on getting high scores to support his team, but also on helping the guys around him improve; much like the older bowlers helped him while coming up.
“He’s working with a lot of the kids,” Jones said. “Between him and (senior) John Murphy they’re keeping the younger kids up and helping them as best they can.”
One thing that can’t be taught, but is imperative to have, is a steady demeanor. Much like golf, a bowler has to ignore a bad ball and look to the next one. Once the mind takes over, the body can under-perform.
Bassett doesn’t let that happen.
“He’s one of the most easy going kids in the world, that’s part and parcel of what keeps him going,” Jones said. “I’ve had some other hot heads that are long gone, they start missing and they just start changing things. You leave a 10 pin, you change your ball; you leave your nine pin, you change your ball again. You leave a seven pin, you change your approach angle, or you go faster, you go slower. Johnny stays with it. Steady, easy going. When he misses he knows he missed, and he knows why he missed and he makes adjustments.”
Bassett credits his father for that mindset.
“That’s something I’ve always done,” he said. “My dad actually told me that ‘If you have a bad frame, don’t worry about it, just move on.’ It’s gonna happen to a lot of bowlers and I know that. Even if I throw the ball too fast and I’m missing the pocket, as long as Your hand and footwork are in good position, it’s OK. No matter what, you’ll still have bad shots in three or four frames. It’s still all good.”
Good enough to keep Bassett off the basketball court and in the bowling lanes.
Johnny Bassett has rolled 11 games of 200 or better for Bordentown Regional High School this bowling season.,
