ust weeks after MacKenzie Janssen threw a perfect game for the Lady Cats varsity bowling team, another Wildcat bowler joined her in the upper echelon by bowling a 300 game.
This time it was the boy’s varsity senior Co-Captain Luke DeLong.
‘It felt amazing. It was about time. I’ve had many times where I could have gotten a 300, but ended up choking,? DeLong said. ‘That day, I guess I felt like I deserved it and I got it. It was awesome.?
Oxford Head Coach J.R. Lafnear agreed it was ‘only a matter of time.?
‘There are kids who like to bowl and then there are kids who are bowlers,? Lafnear said. ‘Luke is bowler. This is his game and his thing.?
DeLong’s perfect game was on Feb. 1 against Royal Oak and it came in a pressure situation, where Oxford was trailing and it was up to him as the anchor bowler to bring home the win.
?(Because) we were down in the match, I really didn’t care about the 300 at all,? he said. ‘I just wanted to beat my man and get my point to win that match.?
DeLong’s perfect game helped keep the team undefeated at 9-0.
‘As much as that 300 game was cool and nice to have, it was under pressure. That match was undecided at that point and we were down,? Lafnear said. ‘We needed a spark plug and he did a great job sparking the team (for) a nice come-from-behind victory.?
The thing that sticks out in Lafnear’s mind is how composed DeLong remained.
‘Sometimes, kids get excited, they rush and everything else, but Luke really stayed calm and stayed in the moment. He was just steady as a rock,? Lafnear said. ‘Out of 12 shots, there was only one weak one, everything else was just blown back. At one time, he had 20 out 21 strikes over a stretch of two games. He just bowled outstanding for the entire game.?
DeLong started bowling when he was at the ripe old age of 6 and definitely has a style of his own.
‘They drilled my ball wrong, so I couldn’t fit my thumb into the hole to bring it back and bowl one-handed, so I just started to bowl two-handed. My grandpa taught me how to bowl that way and I picked it up fast,? he explained. ‘I like it. I think it’s unique and fun.?
‘His grandfather taught him well,? Lafnear added.
DeLong said he took a break from bowling in seventh and eighth grades, but decided to pick up again his freshman year after some encouragement from his older brother, Jake.
‘My brother, who is a year older than me, told me to come bowl with him sometime and right before bowling started in ninth grade, I shot like 254. He said I was an idiot if I didn’t bowl. I was like, ‘All right, I’ll bowl.??
Luke averaged a score of 197 his freshman year, 210 as a sophomore, 215 as a junior and is now working his way up to 220. His favorite thing about bowling is throwing strikes and ‘the feeling of the competition.?
‘I like the competition, I like the team side. I don’t really care about the individual as much as helping out the team,? he said. ‘But when it comes down to it, for states and regionals, that’s when I try and focus on my (individual) game more.?
Luke says he hopes to bowl in college and has had a few coaches e-mail his dad.
‘I’m just basically trying to keep my grades up and focus on bowling more than anything,? he said.
His brother currently competes for Rochester College, but he’s still trying to figure out where he wants to go. He plans on either studying criminal justice or marketing.
Coach’s pride
Having one let alone two bowlers at the high school level on the same team throw a perfect 300 is quite an accomplishment Lafnear said, noting that Janssen is the only high school girl in the state to throw a 300 this year and Luke is maybe the second or third high school boy in the state to bowl a perfect game.
‘This is our 12th year as a team and when we started this thing out like we did so many years ago, you never thought about kids bowling perfect games,? Lafnear explained. ‘You think, ‘Wow, it would be so cool to be a good team and be competitive.??