They long for the feeling of striking out in the 10th
April Urban is barely five feet tall. But when she’s standing on the approach ready to roll her 15-pound bowling ball, she’s the biggest person on UNLV’s 15-member bowling team.
The sophomore from Henderson is also the Rebels’ lone female bowler. Yet her 196 average, which has been accrued against men and women, is the highest on the squad.
“I’ve been bowling my whole life,” said Urban, an accounting major from Coronado High School. “I’m used to bowling against guys. In fact, I prefer it to bowling against women because it forces me to concentrate. I know I have to be at my best if I want to win.”
UNLV has had a bowling team since 2000, and two former bowlers, Joey Shugart and Tad Kanae, coach the team. They help oversee the team’s annual $20,000 budget, and thanks to the Las Vegas bowling community, the team has been able to keep individual dues within reason (each bowler pays approximately $400 a year to participate).
“We’ve been very fortunate,” Shugart said of covering the team’s budget, which goes for travel and entry fees for competition in the West and Midwest. “People have been very supportive. The Orleans allows us to practice for free and that’s big.”
Bowling is an NCAA sanctioned sport but UNLV competes only at the club level.
The team, which has a local flavor with the majority of its roster from Southern Nevada, also has bowlers from as far away as New York. The top five bowlers on the roster carry averages of 189 and higher.
Had he not hurt his knee playing soccer as a child, Brandon Allred, a junior who bowled at Centennial High School and is second to Urban with a 194 average, probably never would have gotten into bowling.
“I hated sitting around the house doing nothing,” said Allred, who hopes to turn professional. “I was 10 years old when I started, and people said I had natural ability, so I stayed with it.”
In collegiate bowling, prize money is available in the form of scholarships for those who win tournaments.
“I probably made about $5,000 last year,” Allred said. “That paid for a couple of semesters.”
Allred said bowling has served his competitive urges well.
“The best feeling is when you’re in the 10th (frame), and you need a strike to win, and you do it,” he said.
UNLV’s season ended after finishing sixth in the Western Sectional of the Intercollegiate Team Championships on March 14 at the South Point’s bowling center. The top four teams advanced to the nationals and UNLV finished 43 pins behind fourth-place finisher Nebraska.