State’s, Midwest’s top bowlers compete at Jackson Open

JACKSON, Mich. (WILX) - It’s not too often you get to see the state’s best youth bowlers in action.

The stars shone bright at Jax 60 Lanes for the Michigan Junior Masters Association’s stop down south.

Some of the best high schoolers from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and of course Michigan converged for the Jackson Open Saturday afternoon.

Executive director Jerry Tarabek tells News 10 it’s the second-highest turnout (150) he’s seen since he took over the lead role 19 years ago, and a lot of these kids are grinding over some tough conditions.

“That was the promise: to make it almost like a junior PBA circuit,” Tarabek said. “And we’ve had a lot of kids go on to very successful collegiate careers, national titles, Junior Gold, Junior Team USA, Team USA. And you know, we’ve got a number of our former Michigan Junior Masters players on the Pro Tour right now.”

“The kids understand it’s gonna be a tough [oil] pattern but they come out to challenge themselves as well and, you know, try to try to show that they can beat me in what I do.”

When you talk about top talent, look no further than holt’s Alissa Van Horn; the senior sits second overall in MJMA points heading into Saturday.

And she signed Saturday to continue her bowling career at Trine University.

Though fresh off a state title, she says she’s still learning about the quirks of advanced bowling.

“A lot of people don’t think about everything that goes into it,” said Van Horn. “They think you just go up there and throw the ball, but it’s not really how it is...Learning the oil patterns is pretty hard because like you definitely have to learn how to play the right part and like what your ball is doing you have to read it. So I’m still not that good at it, but I’m moving forward to learn more about it.”

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