Bowler’s brush with perfection
For any 5-pin bowler, a 400 single is a benchmark achievement.
A perfect 450 is every 5-pinner’s dream, but most would be happy cracking the 400 plateau even once in their career.
Ryan Kulikowski got that one out of the way in a hurry. The 20-year-old Beamsville District Secondary School student recently put together the game of a lifetime.
Bowling in his Friday night Special Olympics league at Jeff’s Bowl-O-Rama Lanes, in he opened with a 15 count in his first frame and from then on threw 11 strikes in a row to end with a fantastic 420 single.
The lanky right-hander from Smithville is probably one of the youngest Niagara bowlers to ever hit that mark, hitting it one year after graduating from the Youth Bowling Canada (YBC), the premier organization for bowlers aged four to 20 throughout Canada.
“I have been coaching YBC for 35 years and Special Olympics for 20-plus years, and never had a 400 ever,” coach Tim Dixon said. “So to do this, it is so special, it may never happen again.”
Asked if he was nervous once he got into the middle of the game, Kulikowski replied: “After five in a row I usually get excited, so after the eighth strike, I started pacing around.”
That’s where Dixon came in handy as he took Kulikowski aside and just got him to relax.
Kulikowski acknowledged there was some luck involved as his strike in the seventh frame was the closest he came all game to breaking his streak.
“The pins all went down except the left corner pin,” he said. “The string took it down, it was a lucky strike.”
The only damper was the fact that neither of Kulikowski’s parents were at the lanes to witness his achievement.
“He called me at home and he was so excited he could barely talk,” Tom, his father, said. “I asked him what was wrong and he said, ‘I almost bowled a perfect game.’”
Mother Julie was at work at the time.
“If we were there, he probably wouldn’t have done that,” she said. “He would have been too excited.”
Kulikowski was given a specially designed ball and a jacket by the Special Olympics League to commemorate his achievement.
Being that young and a Special Olympian sets the bar high for 5-pinners of all stripes, but the brush with perfection is not a surprise to people who know Kulikowski. He began bowling when he was six and worked his way through the ranks of the
YBC program graduating at the end of last season.
Kulikowski now bowls in a men’s league at Mudcat Lanes in Dunnville, the Friday Night Special Olympics League and is also a teaching master in the Master Bowlers Association of Ontario.
He carries a 223 average, a 13-pin jump from the 210 he car-
ried in his final year competing in YBC. In his master bowlers tournaments Kulikowski has achieved three top 10 finishes this season and currently holds down seventh place in the men’s aggregate standings.
Dixon is not surprised that Ryan has elevated his game to such a level this quickly.
“His enthusiasm for sports is unbelievable,” the coach said. “You see somebody that’s got the ability to be that good in that sport.
“He wants to learn as much as
he possibly can.”
Julie Kulikowski points out one of her son’s proudest achievements.
“He is in a tournament where a pro bowls with a special needs bowler,” she said. “He’s always in it as a special needs bowler, but he is having such a great year that this year he will be a special needs bowler, bowling as a pro, with another special needs bowler.”
It’s not work as far as the young bowler is concerned.
“I just fell in love with the sport, it’s just a fun sport to play,” said Kulikowski, who also bowls 10-pin and is averaging nearly 200 per game.