Houma teenager takes home gold medal in bowling for Louisiana, competes again Friday
Houma's Brian Bass Jr. took home Louisiana's sole gold medal from one of the largest youth bowling tournaments in the nation.
Opening with nine strikes, Bass started with a score of 278 in his first of five games in the Long Pattern. The tournament had three divisions: Short, Medium, and Long Pattern. Each of the divisions were further divided by age. The person who tallied up the highest score in all of them won the overall tournament, but each age group could also win medals in their own divisions. Bass was competing against 67 other 16 to 18-year-olds and won the Long Pattern division, taking home gold for that event.
The Storm Youth Championship bowling took place March 18 and 19 in Baton Rouge. It is one of the top youth bowling events in the nation, and sold out within minutes of entries opening in January.
"It felt amazing," said Bass.
He competes again Friday in the Louisiana High School Athletic Association's individuals bowling tournament in Baton Rouge. Terrebonne High School was knocked out of the tournament by East Ascension on March 21, but individual bowlers with an average higher than a 177 get to compete in next week's tournament, he explained.
Bass is ranked 28th in the league with an average of 195.
The different patterns refer to the oil layout on the lane. What the oil does is essentially allow the bowling ball to hydroplane down the lane, gripping and rolling once it passes the oil slick. Each pattern is named for the length of the lane that is covered in oil.
Bass said the Long Pattern forced him to slow down his throws to adjust for the extra oil. He averaged a score of 231 across five games.
While he triumphed in his competition, he said his performance wasn't as good in the preceding events. In both the short and medium patterns, Bass said he got in his own head too much and was trying to imitate other people's styles instead of just bowling.
"It was bad. It was horrible. I was nervous, I was just overthinking," he said. "I saw other people doing things that were working out for them and I was trying to do what they were doing."
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Having not performed as well as he would have liked, when Bass showed up the next day for the last event, the long pattern, he was extra calm - he had nothing to lose. It was the biggest tournament he had ever played.
After the first few strikes, he said he fell into a rhythm, played his own game, took his time, and ultimately won.
"I had went in there with a positive mindset, I just wanted to relax, roll frame by frame," he said. "I just got in my comfort zone and I felt like I could conquer it all."
Bass said he started bowling at around six years-old because his father got him into it. He attended a bowling camp at Creole Lanes, but didn't have the passion for it he has today until around age 11, when he won his first youth bowling tournament.
Once he had the taste of victory, he was hooked.
"I was like 'Hmm this may not be so bad,'" he said with a chuckle. "I just fell in love with it."
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Houma teenager wins gold medal for Louisiana in youth bowling tourney
