Monday, March 21, 2011
Staff report
HUBBARD
Ryan Ciminelli came to the PBA Central/East Region Hubbard Open with a sore finger and optimism for the future.
Although he expected to do well in the Hubbard community’s first PBA event when it concluded Sunday, the 25-year-old Ciminelli spoke about this past season on the national tour, which finished recently with the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour-Dick Weber in Indianapolis earlier this month.
“The second half [of the season] was really good for me,” said Ciminelli. “I struggled big-time at the World Series, then came out at the Tournament of Champions [in Las Vegas in January] and finished 14th. The biggest check I ever got was $18,000. We went to Dublin [Calif.] the week after that and I ended up winning for $20,000. That got me snowballing in the right direction and I kept finishing great.”
Ciminelli then returned to his hometown of Buffalo and ended up making the TV show with a plastic ball.
“I lost to Parker Bohn, but, that’s OK because a lot of things went right and ball companies are starting to look at me now and they liked the way I handled myself losing. That may have been the best loss of my life, so we’ll see how that goes.”
Bohn lost to Jason Couch in the finals in Buffalo.
The use of plastic in the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship wasn’t so much experimental as it was retrospective.
“They gave us all the same plastic ball to level the playing field,” Ciminelli said. “We had two to throw all week and we all drilled the same two.”
The tournament used plastic for a third time.
“It’s kind of a retro thing: bowling the way it used to be,” said Ciminelli, who just concluded his fourth year as a touring pro.
He enters as many regionals as he can, but he also does masonry work on the side.
“My dad’s a retired bricklayer and he knows a lot of people in Buffalo, so whenever some work opens up, I like to get in there and keep in shape and stay active,” Ciminelli said, with a slight Canadian dialect in his words.
“I actually crushed my finger once, but I try to wear the real thick gloves, no matter how hot it is outside, to protect my hands. You’ve got to still get some money somewhere and we’re not getting paid quite enough to take six months off. You’ve got to get some sort of income.”
He said the format of the Tour, which started in late October, keeps changing.
“The World Series was over in 10 days and, this coming year, they’re talking about doing two different World Series. So we might only be bowling for a total of two months, but there might be more tournaments next year than there was this year. They’re kind of condensing the time frame, allowing bowlers to go out and get different jobs, if need be.”
Ciminelli, an Erie Community College graduate whose PBA rookie season was 2007-2008, hopes his back-to-back performances in Las Vegas and Dublin are stepping-stones.
“Those two weeks were huge for me — confidence-wise and ball-company wise because I got a couple different ball companies that are interested in me. I wasn’t signed this year when I thought I was going to be, with Storm, but it didn’t work out, so now, hopefully, something is going to come of it.”
Ciminelli found Hubbard to his liking, geographically.
“It’s the closest regional to my house, even though I usually bowl East Region events. This is a combined Central and East, but it’s only 21/2 hours away. The next-closest is five hours. I had to come. It was too close not to.”
Actually, Ciminelli cut short a vacation that began after the Lumber Liquidators event.
“I had a week off to recuperate. I messed my finger up pretty good, especially with the plastic balls, trying to tear the cover off of them. My finger needed some time to get better, but I haven’t given it that time yet, so I had to be careful. But, you’ve got to sacrifice sometimes because it’s just too close not to.”