Dan SIMMONS

Dan SIMMONS

Champion Bowling

Whether he’s on his own staring at 10 pins from 60 feet away, or surrounded by over 1,000 spectators — like he was at the state championships — Dan Simmons has learned to channel everything out and focus on what’s in front of him.

“Every time I’m looking at the lane I’m thinking 300,” the sophomore from Champion said.

His career best is 14 off of that coveted mark, but the 16-year old has something that no other high school bowler has — a 2012 state championship medal.

His 702 series (games of 233, 212 and 257) in Columbus on March 2 was the top boys score and he claimed the individual crown by three points, holding off Mentor senior Kevin Oravecz. Already being appointed one of the top-15 bowlers in Ohio, Simmons still had to work to be No. 1 at the end of the state tournament.

“I wasn’t too sure how it would go after the first two games, but after the third I thought it was possible,” he said.

But when the meet was over, “it was incredible,” Simmons said. “The best day of my life.”

His family influenced his desires to start bowling around the time he was four years old. His grandfather has passed on some of his bowling balls to Simmons, which he still uses in competition.

“It was something that he did his entire life and he was pretty good at it,” Simmons said. “He wanted to see someone in the family do what he did.”

He also plays football and runs track for the Golden Flashes, but down the road Simmons says he’ll always use bowling as a pastime.

“I can see myself bowling for the rest of my life,” he said. “It’s kind of an easy thing to do for me and it’s fun.”

With two years remaining in his high school career, Simmons aims to repeat as state champ and go on to bowl at the collegiate level.

He’d like to major in either engineering or architectural design.