SUMMARY

Nick began bowling at the age of 5 and became one of the most decorated youth bowlers ever in Kokomo.  Following graduation, he used his degree to enhance bowling ball knowledge and technology to advance the industry.

He rolled three 300 games within a one-year span while a member of the YABA with one of those leading to an 800 series – the first ever by a Kokomo youth bowler.  Following graduation at Purdue in 2003 with a degree in Chemical Engineering, Nick began making significant contributions to the bowling industry.  Nick began working for Columbia 300 following graduation.  He was a Research Engineer with the United States Bowling Congress and conducted research and published papers in their System of Bowling efforts aimed at better understanding the physics of bowling ball dynamics and their effects on scoring.  Later Nick joined 900 Global as a bowling ball designer and progressed up the management chain becoming the Director of Operations and Engineering.

Nick has always been a leader when it comes to school and work specifically.  He has dedicated himself to countless hours of studying, analyzing, and problem solving.  Nick has always pushed for what he believed was the “right way” and would not settle for anything less, backing his beliefs with factual evidence allowing for transparency as opposed to assumptions and guesses; after all he is a man of statistics and data.  He climbed his way up from an entry level engineer out of college all the way to the Director of Operations leaving only that of owning a bowling company to be desired.  Over his 17 year career working in the bowling industry, he remained humbled.  He never forgot his little hometown of Kokomo, Indiana regardless of how far he travelled or how big he “made it”.  His desire to keep to himself has aided in keeping him driven and focused on meeting his end goal.

Nick’s continued support for the local bowlers, youth and adult, was shown regularly by visits to the center, coaching, bowling ball donations, yearly national events; just to name a few.  The knowledge Nick has, not just in bowling, but in various sciences, is insurmountable.  It’s like he is speaking a different language!  It has been amazing as the younger sister to watch Nick become successful on both the physical sport and the business side of bowling.

CAREER HIGHS

Game – 300 (five times - four times in Kokomo)

Series – 822 (in San Antonio and 800 in Kokomo)

Average – 224 (youth summer league) and 208 in Kokomo Adult League

SERVICE

• Design Engineer for Columbia 300 from 2003 – 2006
• Research Engineer for USBC in 2007
• Senior Design Engineer - Bowling Ball Designer for 900 Global 2008 – 2015
• Director of Operations – Global Manufacturing 2015 – 2020
• Designed and introduced many high-tech bowling ball core designs for 900 Global
• Conducted 5-10 presentation/seminars at Cedar Crest / Kokomo Sport Bowl about bowling ball performance during his visits to Kokomo for the holidays (the last one was at Heritage Lanes
  • 2008 – Bowling Ball Design - Designing Innovative Motion
  • 2009 – Decoding Components of Ball Motion
  • 2010 – Mass Properties and Drill Pattern Influence on Bal l Motion
  • 2011 – Ball Performance and Resulting Ball Life
  • 2012 – Bowling Ball Color and Performance
  • 2013 – Lane Play and Oil Patterns
  • 2014 – The Big Picture – Ball Traits, Bowler Variables, and Ball Motion
  • 2016 – Surface Texture and Restoration
• Donation of several bowling balls and accessories for raffles to help support the youth program – still goes on to this day in even though Nick no longer works for 900 Global
• Youth Coach in youth leagues from 1995-2003 with additional coaching from 2003-2022 during holiday visits
• Bronze Level USBC Coach
• Lead Engineer and Co-Author of the important 2008 USBC Ball Motion Study
• Wrote and published 14 other technical articles and papers related to cover stocks, cores and surface texture and sanding techniques
• Presented at the International Bowl Expo, Turbo Tech Collegiate Expo, Trade Shows, Demo Days as well as technical seminars in China, Korea and Japan
• Co-holds patent – “System and Method for Analyzing Bowling Ball Motion” – granted 1/3/2012

BOWLING PERFORMANCE

• Averages
  • Highest average of 224 in the 2000 youth Junior-Major Summer league
  • Youth league averages of 216 in 1997 Summer Jr. – Major, 212 in 1997-98 Kokomo High School league,
  • Highest career Kokomo adult average of 208 in the 2000-01 season
  • Averaged 188 and 186 in two summer leagues during the 2001-02 season
  • Would often sub during his holiday visits not achieving enough games to get a recorded average
• High Series
  • Rolled an 800 series as a YABA member on May 30, 1998 at Don Lowry Lanes
  • His games were 210, 290 and 300 which included the last 23 strikes-in-a-row
  • Rolled about 10 series of 700 or more including series of 793, 780, 776, 775, 738
  • Rolled a 776 while visiting for the holidays in December 2007
  • Rolled 803 (268-266-269) on 8/25/2009 and 822 (257-266-299) on 1/9/2007 both in San Antonio
• High Games
  • Rolled four perfect 300 games in Kokomo (5/30/98, 2/20/99, 4/4/99 and 7/23/01) and several non-sanctioned 300 games
  • All four perfect games were rolled by the time Nick was 19 years old!
  • Rolled another 300 game in San Antonio on 1/13/2009
• State Tournament
  • 2003 Team Handicap Champion for Kokomo Lumber in Lafayette with 3518 (3275 actual was 3^rd place) with Wes Gamblin, Rick Bailey, Jim Mote and Bryan Ramberger)
• National Tournament
  • Has competed in 20 ABC/USBC Open Championships with a 189+ average

SCHOLARSHIPS / RECOGNITION

• 1999 Indiana Male Youth Bowler of the Year ($500)
• 1999 KWBA Kay Kelly Scholarship
• 1999 KBA Don Lowry Memorial Scholarship for Youth
• 1999 Indiana Bowling Association Evan S. “Red” Stuart Scholarship ($4000)
• 1999 Indiana Bowling Association District 6 Charles “Bud” Fridlin Scholarship ($250)
• 1999 YABA Bert Horner Scholarship ($1000)
• TKO Scholarship
• PBA Al Thompson Junior Bowler Scholarship
• Indiana-Kentucky All Start Scholarship
• Competed in Junior Olympic Gold and Teen Masters competitions
• Bowled part time for the Purdue bowling team and then competed in Midwest amateur adult tournaments

OTHER

• Bowled for Purdue University from 1999-2003