The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Dombrowski’s bowling career is rolling along
MIDDLETOWN — When the conversation comes around to bowling, Alexandra Dombrowski’s eyes light up, her voice speeds up and one can just picture a collision of 10 pins in her head.
The sport for her has been an avenue to achievement — overcoming shyness, creating a strong bond with her dad, being part of a team, testing her game against national competition and setting longterm goals.
Dombrowski, a Middletown High senior from East Hampton who studies vocational agriculture at the school, won the state girls singles championship earlier this winter. It was just one milestone for her in 2019.
Another? Receiving a combined academic-athlete scholarship to Upper Iowa University, a small, private school surrounded by farmland in a town of fewer than 1,500. The school’s NCAA Division II bowling program will start from scratch this summer.
It is a storybook combination of academics, bowling and animals in a rural setting for this unabashed country girl. After everything came together, Dombrowski celebrated by getting a tattoo that reflects two loves, bowling and nature — a rose on a winding stem set against a pin — just above her ankle.
“I knew I wanted something I would never want to regret,” she said. “This year has been such a big year, from being accepted to college, to winning singles, to signing a national letter of intent. It’s been such a big bowling year and academic year for me, I wanted something to show that. (The artist) drew it up and I fell in love with it.”
Dombrowski got hooked on bowling in grade school. She got a taste of state competition when she turned 12. Kickback n Bowl, a cozy, 10-lane establishment just off Route 66 in her hometown, is her home house and, really, a second home, a place where everyone knows her name.
At 15, Dombrowski joined the Junior Bowlers Sports Challenge, a tour that offers tournament play in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey. She carries a 190 average on increasingly difficult oil patterns.
As a tour member, she also bowls in Junior Gold qualifiers and has rolled in the national showcase the last few summers. After competing in
Cleveland, Indianapolis and, last summer, Dallas, Detroit will be her next stop in July.
“Bowling for me is all year round,” said Dombrowski, a right-hander who has a career-best 288 game. “The competition has helped me grow as a person by setting goals, making friends and developing mental skills — patience, perseverance and focus.”
These strengths, honed over time and from long hours of practice, came into play in January at Nutmeg Bowl in Fairfield. Bowling is a club sport in high school and not recognized by the CIAC, yet it has run the singles tournament for girls and boys the last three years and also organizes a team tournament.
Middletown does not have a team — only a few dozen schools or so do — so Dombrowski has been on her own. Through the years, she has made friendships with bowlers in her area and throughout the state.
“It is definitely challenging bowling with good friends,” she said. “I am competitive, but I want to have fun. In tournament play that kind of subsides and you’re just focused on the goal.”
Dombrowski reached the three-bowler stepladder finals after posting a 755 series over four games of qualifying (181-170-180-224), earning her the top seed. In the championship match opposite Sydney Reardon of New Milford, Dombrowski left the 4-6-7-10 in the first frame — a split with a conversion rate of one percent.
The open could have crushed her spirit, but she looked at her circumstance as something to overcome. She rolled three straight strikes, and although Reardon started with four in a row, Dombrowski was still in the match.
“It was pretty cutthroat and nerve-wracking,” she said.
In fact, from the first frame onward, Dombrowski did not have another open. After the three strikes, she went spare, strike, spare, spare, spare, spare, and an 8-count on her final throw. As her string of marks grew, Reardon opened in the “seventh or eighth” frame. Game-changer.
“I’m not going to lie to you, when bowling that match, I was not looking at the scoreboard,” she said. “When I finished the 10th frame, there was a steady clap, and I turned to my best friend (Rebecca Walker of Killingly High, who finished third) and whispered, ‘Did I win?’ ” She did, 199-195.
“I was in game mode and not worrying about what (Reardon) was doing. I was taught that by my dad, that you’re most likely to get influenced by your opponent and they can get into your own head, and you will perform progressively worse. When I won, I literally had no idea I won,” she said. “I’m definitely proud of myself. I may not have struck a lot, but I’ve always been taught it’s not strikes that make the game, it’s spares that make the game.
“And I’ve learned you can come back from an open. If you make three strikes after an open, it basically makes up for that open frame. I told myself, ‘OK, you can make three strikes, then clean the rest of the game.’ It was my proudest moment. As soon as I (left) the 4-6-7-10, I did not give up on myself. I took a deep breath and that was it. I ended up coming back and fighting for it.”
Dombrowski will be part of an NCAA Division II program, with same-season women’s and men’s teams, that coach Nichole DePaulMiller gets to run after teaching chemistry for 14 years in high school and at major universities. She also is a member of the Professional Women’s Bowling Association.
The two first met at an open house for colleges and prospective recruits held in conjunction with last summer’s Junior Gold event in Dallas. That day, Dombrowski ran the gamut of booths. Coach after coach, intro after intro. The process was exhausting. By early evening, she wanted nothing more than to return to her hotel.
Her father, Peter, convinced his daughter to meet one last coach that day. Guess who?
Dombrowski and DePaulMiller hit it off immediately, and she eventually became her first recruit to sign.
“One of the things I saw in Alex was her ability to be not only a motivated student, but also someone who put goals in place to be successful,” DePaul-Miller said. “She approached things in a concrete way and was not afraid to communicate and to be respectful of everyone’s opinion. When I started to get to know her, she opened up to me and we had real conversations. I gave her expectations to push herself and she’s constantly pushing herself — those kinds of things to make her successful at the NCAA Division II level. The beauty of Alex is she’s able to ask me hard questions for her team and herself.”
DePaul-Miller said Upper Iowa has about 900 students on campus. That’s less than Middletown High’s student body, but just the right fit for Dombrowski.
“When I do my recruiting, those that come from a small town will do whatever (work) it takes to be successful,” the coach said of her experience. “I know Alex values and appreciates the people who have been involved with her and put in time to make her successful. The program is going to be family and she knows that idea of family — Connecticut to Iowa. I think it’s awesome to have.”
After two months of practice, Upper Iowa will bowl upwards of 20 tournaments against Division I, II and II competition beginning in October.
“The majority of the competition averages between 190 and 200 on some of the toughest (oil) conditions we come across at that level,” DePaul-Miller said. “Once Alex gets here, we will work on all of her strengths and weaknesses. I know one of her goals is to bowl in a professional event. I’m glad she’s averaging 190, but to me it’s a number. It’s more about her competitive spirit, about handling pressure, and can she pick up a spare in a competitive environment.”
Dombrowski is thinking about majoring in public administration with a focus on emergency disaster management. She can one day see herself having a career with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She also instructs bowlers between the ages of 4 and 17 as a USBC Certified Level 1 coach and mentors East Hampton youth through the town’s youth and family services program.
She believes her bowling story has “Cinderella” qualities.
“When I am on the PWBA Tour, I will still go by my little 10-lane house that has had my back from the beginning. I want to make people more aware that you do not need to come from a big bowling alley like Silver Lanes in East Hartford or Nutmeg Lanes in Fairfield to be just as good as others.”