Treasure Coast USBC Association, Inc.

Treasure Coast USBC Association

Treasure Coast USBC

Association, Inc.

Bowling News

She's right. Mitchell Malinowski and Peter DeRosa accomplished the feat within the past 18 months at St. Lucie Lanes, but both were 14. Twelve-year-old Ryan Lane also rolled a 300 in the summer of 2008 at Stuart Lanes.

Higgins travels south from his Vero Beach home on Sunday nights to bowl in St. Lucie Lanes' Vacation Getaway League (on the mixed adult/youth Strike Force team with his mom ), and on Tuesday nights for Scholarship League bowling. His three leagues, and travel schedule, take up too much time for him to practice.

"The only time I can really get in any practice is before league games," Higgins said.

Even though his perfect game shattered a previous high of 278, Higgins appeared to take it in stride. At least outwardly.

"He was so calm after the game that I figured he must've been in shock," said Higgins' coach Terry Moore, the junior bowling coordinator at St. Lucie Lanes. "It wasn't until the next night that he seemed to realize what he'd done."

"I was actually pretty nervous during that game," Higgins said. "And I got more nervous with each strike from the eighth frame on."

Despite the 300, his three-game total of 646 didn't even approach a high series of 736, set last year in the Scholarship League.

An eighth-grader at Glendale Christian School in Vero Beach, Higgins cites jujitsu and youth group as hobbies. Science is his favorite school subject, and with more than 10 years of bowling experience already, he appears to have the game down to a science. He's never competed in any other sport.

"I started bowling around the same time as I started walking," said the Stuart-born teenager.

He comes by the game naturally. His father, Philip Higgins, bowls recreationally, and Elisa carries a 173 average in the Vacation Getaway League. Philip works construction in the Vero Beach area; Elisa works for eBay, and Justin is their only child, so bowling practically became a sibling for him.

There's yet another time-honored bowling tradition that also exists among his grandmother Caroll Green, and great-grandparents, Rose and Charles Pannell.

"They were all on the TV show Bowling For Dollars," Higgins said.

On Feb. 6, 13-year-old bowler Justin Higgins literally put his own spin on Super Bowl weekend. Competing in the Stars of Tomorrow League on that Saturday morning with his team, The Kingpins, at St. Lucie Lanes, Higgins rolled his first-ever 300 game.

While it didn't allow him to hoist the Lombardi Trophy with Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints, Higgins' own super bowl was indeed a rare accomplishment.

"He has to be one of the youngest in the area ever to do that," said his mother, Elisa Higgins. "I've bowled in Vero Beach and Port St. Lucie for a long time, and I don't remember many kids that young rolling perfect games."

Justin Higgins

13 Year old Bowl a perfect 300

Although the event raised some money for the Relay for Life, it "was more about reaching out to cancer survivors," said Odaly Victorio, chairwoman of St. Lucie Relay for Life.

The aim is to inform people about the Relay for Life and the services the American Cancer Society provides for people with cancer, she said.

The St. Lucie Relay for Life will be held April 30 at Tradition Stadium.

Diana Enriquez, marketing director, said she works with a lot of nonprofits, but had a personal reason for getting the bowling alley involved.

"My mom is a survivor," she said. "That's really why I wanted to be involved."

During Relay for Life, survivors will be honored at the beginning of the ceremony, said Jen Avellino, chairwoman of the luminaria event at the relay.

A candlelight ceremony is also held in memory of those who didn't survive, she said.

But to be involved, there's no requirement that a person be a cancer survivor or closely related to one.

Annamarie Lamamee, a junior at Treasure Coast High School, said a friend of her mother encouraged her to be involved.

A member of the band at Treasure Coast, she said the entire band has decided to get involved with the relay.

It was only her third time to bowl when she participated in the Love Bowl.

A more experienced bowler, Ms. Berchtold, said she was first diagnosed in 2004, but it didn't come as a complete surprise.

"There's been a lot of cancer in my family," she said. "I was the caregiver for everyone else."

Only, that time, she was the one who needed the care.

Bowling event supports fight for cancer cure

By Jay Meisel

ST. LUCIE COUNTY - When Port St. Lucie resident Bonnie Berchtold bowled last Saturday, she supported the effort to find a cure for cancer.

She heard about the "Love Bowl" while bowling in her league, and decided to participate, partly because she's a survivor of both breast and thyroid cancer.

St. Lucie Relay for Life organizers held the event to attract people like Ms. Berchtold, who previously had not been involved.

St. Lucie Lanes donated the bowling time for the two-hour event.

Lucille Esposito