John Dallas: Becoming a Pro Bowler | Teen Ink

John Dallas: Becoming a Pro Bowler

May 18, 2017
By McNasty BRONZE, Boulder , Colorado
McNasty BRONZE, Boulder , Colorado
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

John Dallas was sitting on the couch one day channel surfing. He was very bored so he flipped to ESPN. On ESPN t  the PBA championships on. If you didn’t know the PBA is the Professional Bowling Association . The winner of that tournament gets 1.5 million dollars. When John saw the amount of cash the winner got, he had his eyes set on one thing. Winning the PBA championship and becoming a millionaire.
The first thing John did was start researching what it would take to make it in the PBA. While researching he  learned that the best bowler in the league averages about 227 points per game. John can barely bowl 100 and John knew that it was time to start the grind. He started to call all the local bowling alleys to see if they had a spot for him in a league. It just so happened that they did have a spot open because a guy had just quit. The bowling alley employee told John that they had a game tonight. The game was against the defending league champions. They all average around 180 per game. When John got to his lane he realized why the other guy quit. This team was the bowling version of the Bad News Bears. The Bad News Bears was about a group of kids and they were just terrible about baseball.   There were 3 other people on the team. There names were Tyrell, Tony, and Charles. They all averaged 110-120 which is just terrible for league play. Tyrell is a car detailer. He has loved cars since day one. Tony is a cashier at a local gas station. Charles is a lawyer, but has a deep love for bowling. 
To make it to the PBA championship you need to win a regional tourney. If it’s a team tourney you need to be the leading scorer on the team. This is going to be tough for John because to make it to the regional tourney you have to win your league. With this team John doesn’t know how to win the league.
John stepped up for his first bowl in his league debut. John closed his eyes and breathed. Then he opened him and just focused on hitting in between the the 1 and the 3 pin. It felt perfect right out of his hand. That was until he looked up and saw it was in the gutter. John had a rocky game throughout finishing with a 95. He had the worst score on his team which is downright sad. John went to the bowling alley for the next two weeks because the league tournament is the next weekend. John had been working so hard that he was averaging around a 190 by the end of the week. It was just in time for the tournament. John didn’t think that it would be enough to win. There were a total of 16 teams in the tournament. John carried his team through the first 3 games averaging 205 points per game. That was around the bad bowlers in the PBA. Now they were in the championship facing the same team that slaughtered John’s team in his first game. John told his team that they didn’t come this far just to lose. John was up first. He took his 15 pound ball and put right where he had wanted to. John got a strike. The next turn he did the same exact thing. John got another strike on the 3rd frame. Before anybody had realized John was bowling a perfect game through 6. He kept it up. The whole alley was in disbelief as he entered the 10th frame. All needed was three more strikes to do the impossible. 300. He has already broken the league record, but now he has a chance at a perfect game. John threw the ball and hit in between the 1 and the 3. Strike! John was hyped after that one.  The second bowl got the same result. John was only one strike away from doing it. The whole bowling alley went silent as John picked up the ball off the rack. John thought to himself just do what you have been doing all game. John released the ball and it felt perfect like the one he threw earlier in the year. He thought to himself oh no I got a gutter ball. He turned around looking at the ground dissapointed. All of a sudden the whole alley started yelling perfect game! Perfect game! John just did the impossible and now he was heading to the PBA championships.
John breezed through the competition at the PBA tourney. That was until he got to the final four. The game was tied going into the last frame. They both got two straight strikes. John went second so he had the chance to win it. He needed 9 to win. Next thing you know he done got 9. In the championship match it was a very similar situation. They were neck and neck going into the 10th. They both got strikes on their first attempt. EJ Tackett was the name of John's opponent. EJ got a total of 9 on his final two attempts. John at least needed a spare to win. His first bowl he got 8. The two pins he had missed were the 7 and the 10. It was the impossible to hit this shot. When John picked his ball up he thought of his favorite move. Happy Gilmore. John was going to try a way to do it like him. John grabbed a 6 pound ball. He took it and held it like it was a dodge ball. He lined up like a pitcher would in baseball. He strided and through the ball as hard as he could at the gutter on the right side of the lane. It hit the land just like he had wanted it to. It hit the very far right of the 10 pin. The 10 pin flew through the air and hit the 7 pin. It happened just like he drew it up. John had just one himself a fat check of 1.5 million dollars. He was famous with everyone. He brought new fans to the sport. During the tourney John averaged a whopping 234 points per game. That was one pin off of the record. He decided to retire from bowling right after he won which shocked everyone. 10 years later John was inducted into the bowling hall of fame. This was shocking because he had only played one year in the PBA. John was one of the best bowlers there ever was. Just imagine if he played more than one year. He would’ve been the Peyton Manning of the bowling world.



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