Bowling helped heal a community
Given J.J. Watt’s stature, his enormous social media following and his platform in America’s most popular sport, it was no surprise that his gracious offer to pay the funeral costs for victims of the Santa Fe High School shooting made national news.
Lesser known, because professional bowling occupies a tiny niche in our sporting culture, is the gesture made by Australian two-handed star Jason Belmonte, the reigning PBA player of the year, to reach out to a family and community reeling in the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. It’s a story that needs to be told. Belmonte, who has won 17 PBA Tour events (including the 2013 Lucas Oil PBA Bear Open in Milwaukee), learned from a friend that Hannah Carbocci, a 17-year-old member of the Douglas High girls’ bowling team, was inside the school during the shootings. Hannah was not injured but two students in her classroom were among the 17 killed by the teen gunman.
In subsequent weeks, the Carbocci family spearheaded a fundraising effort that included bowling ball raffles, Tshirt sales and a bowling tournament, raising more than $30,000.
Would Belmonte be willing to call Hannah just to say hi and wish her well?
“I said, ‘Yeah, I’d be more than happy to do that,’” he said from his home in Australia, where he is taking a break from the PBA Tour. “I made the call and within the first two minutes talking with the family and with Hannah, I just had to meet these people. I thought they were genuinely amazing people.
“Not only to deal with such a tragedy but to find the motivation to help others using bowling was such a beautiful thing.”
After the PBA League competition in Portland, Maine, Belmonte flew to Florida to meet the Carboccis. He gave them bowling balls and equipment and offered coaching tips. AMF Margate in Margate, Fla., opened its doors for two hours of free bowling; fans could chat with Belmonte and have their photo taken with him.
“Those that raise the money and make the events happen, they get a lot of pats on the back but sometimes it’s nice if those people were actually given something like a reward because they’re not looking for it,” Belmonte said. “I got them all brand new bowling balls and equipment and one of my friends drilled their balls for free. I said, ‘This is my gift for you.’
“Amongst all of the political noise and what we should and shouldn’t do (about gun control) there was this family that just wanted to help people. What a remarkable young lady Hannah is to want to do this. And the core group, her family and friends, that helped make that happen.”
The Stoneman Douglas tragedy hit home for Belmonte, who splits his time between America, where mass shootings have become all too familiar, and his native Australia, which passed stiff gun control laws in 1996, just weeks after a man killed 35 people in a shooting spree in Tasmania.
The Australian government banned semi-automatic and other militarystyle weapons and prohibited their import, and lawmakers passed a mandatory gun buyback program which took more than 660,000 long guns out of private citizens’ hands. Although there are different ways to interpret statistics, mass shootings and total firearm deaths in the country have since declined.
“It was not publicly favored but it was something our government thought was more important than people’s ownership of a weapon,” Belmonte said. “Since then we’ve been very fortunate that it seems to have really declined the amount of murders and suicides.
“Sooner or later there is going to have to be some kind of reform (in America). It doesn’t have to be as strict as what the Australian government did, but there has to be some movement toward reform that makes people feel safer.”
Belmonte is not a crusader. His job is to knock down bowling pins and he’s very good at it.
Like Watt and many other professional athletes, he just wanted to pitch in and help in some small way.
“Belmo” has a lot of fans but also has his share of critics, including some fellow professionals who have accused him of intentionally distracting them during matches. In my few dealings with him, going back to 2013, when I wrote about his rivalry with Sean Rash, he’s been among the most gracious and approachable athletes I’ve encountered.
You might find fault with his style on the lanes, but of greater import is his substance off them.