Franklin Regional Varsity Bowling Team after winning WPIBL Championship.
Pictured from l to r: Coach Adam Raebe, Coach Gwen Richards, Graham Klemstine, Zach Jackson,
Jack Strobe, Alex Smith, Matt Fitzmaurice, Mike Evans, Mike Zeyzus, and Coach Cruz Fink.
Hummel, Rich Nesbit and Ed Dufek,”
he says. “My dad is a good bowler, so
trying to compete with and beat him as
I’ve gotten older has driven me to be the
competitor I am today.”
Rich Nesbit and the Nesbit’s Lanes
Youth Bowling program have also
been important influences in Alex’s
success. “Due to Rich’s investment and
commitment to the sport, Nesbit’s
Lanes has created one of the premier
youth bowling programs in Western PA,”
explains Alex. Nesbit’s has been a staple
in the Plum community for 73 years.
Alex has been competing locally from a
very young age and has many top finishes
in various local tournaments at the
8U, 12U and 15U levels. Since moving
into the U20 division, he has been very
successful both locally and nationally. In
2018, he qualified to compete in an event
called Junior Gold in Dallas, Texas, where
he competed in a weeklong tournament
against approximately 1,500 U20 bowlers
from all over the world. That event
gave him the experience necessary to
compete at a high level and on a variety
of challenging lane conditions. While in
Texas, Alex was able to bowl in another
tournament where he finished with a
tournament average 229 and earned a
spot in the 2019 Junior Gold event in
Detroit, Michigan.
So far this year, Alex has finished first
overall in the competitive Pittsburgh
Jr. Shootout and earned first place
all-WPIBL team honors at the team
championships. He set the Western
PA youth three-game series record by
shooting 300, 300 and 279 for an 879
series, and took first place in an open
head-to-head tournament in February—
becoming the youngest to win the event
in its 10-year history. These tournaments
draw some of Western Pennsylvania’s best
bowlers, including a few who are or once
were in the PBA.
“Bowling is unlike any other sport
in the world,” says Alex. “The people
involved with the sport at all levels—
professionals down to the average league
bowler and everyone else in between—
make it one of my absolute favorite things
in the world.” ■
PLUM
❘
SUMMER 2019
9