He was comfortable bowling with two hands, the way he’d done it since he was big enough to pick up a bowling ball.
When Ryan Dobie and twins Dustin and Drew Snyder needed a fourth member for their youth league team at Northridge Lanes, Via got back into bowling — and has since blossomed into one of the top prep bowlers in the state.
“I’m (at Northridge Lanes) all day working on my game,” Via said.
The Kenton Ridge High School senior averages 230 per game this season for the defending state-champion Cougars with an unorthodox two-handed delivery that’s catching fire all over the world.
During the season, Via said he bowls close to 25 or 30 games a week. In the summer, he’ll bowl 150 games a week and travel to tournaments across the country.
“I love it,” Via said. “I try to bowl seven days a week, but that doesn’t always happen.”
He’d never move
Chris’ father, Craig, started bowling at a young age and never stopped.
Craig used to take Chris to the bowling alley as a child, where he soaked in as much knowledge as possible watching his father bowl.
“I’d give him money to go play games, but he’d never move,” Craig said. “He just got hooked on it.”
He started bowling with two hands and never stopped. When he got to Kenton Ridge, he averaged nearly 200 as a freshman.
He started going to tournaments that summer, raising his average by seven pins. The next summer, his average jumped another 17 pins.
As a junior, Via and his teammates — which included the same three who bowled at Northridge Lanes all those years back, Dobie, Dustin and Drew Snyder — won the OHSAA boys bowling state title, Kenton Ridge’s first team state championship.
“It was awesome,” Via said. “We’ve been bowling together for so long. A lot of people said we should’ve done it sooner, but we got experience those two years and did it (last year). It’s almost like you don’t have a feeling in your body. It’s amazing.”
Carrying over
This year, Via and his teammates are ready to defend that state title. He spent the summer bowling in tournaments, winning a $15,000 college scholarship as first prize at the BTAA North Pointe Insurance Group High School Singles Championship in Indianapolis. He also won the Teen Masters doubles event in Las Vegas with Dobie.
His success has carried over into this season. At the Ohio High School Invitational Kickoff Tournament, Via shot a 680 to make the all-tournament team.
He said made a few tweaks to his approach. He worked to slow down his pace to the line, with the idea to focus on precision instead of power. He’s throwing the ball about 20 miles per hour, down 2 to 3 miles per hour from last year.
On Dec. 15, Via rolled a two-game series of 513, but missed two spares, which he couldn’t stop thinking about.
“I lost 24 pins just because of those two open frames I had,” Via said. “A lot of people worry about strikes, but my teammates and I are really focusing on picking up the spares.”
The future
Via’s average has nearly every major bowling school recruiting him, but he’s focused on finishing the season before he makes any decisions. He also one day hopes to bowl on the PBA Tour.
“(College) is a long way away,” Via said. “I’m just kind of seeing what’s out there.”
Via carries 11 balls in his bag, and got a new one for Christmas. He said the balls are essential for all the different sport shots he’ll see at different lanes.
“You walk into our kitchen and one whole wall is his bowling balls,” Craig said.
Craig said he’s impressed by the strides his son has made over the years. He used to bring his son with him to bowling alley, but now it’s the other way around.
He’s also happy he doesn’t have to bowl against him.
“I’m glad I’m not in high school,” Craig said. “I don’t want to face him. When we go open bowling, I always tell him I’m working on something different, that way I have an excuse when he beats me.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0365 or mcooper@coxohio.com.
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