A former four-time All-American at Central Missouri and a winner on the Professional Women’s Bowling Association tour, Canyon del Oro graduate Bryanna Coté returns home this week for the PWBA Tucson Open.
The tournament, which takes place Friday and Saturday at Golden Pin Lanes, features up to 120 of the best female bowlers in the country. It will serve as a going-out party for the bowling center, which will be shutting down after 60 years.
Coté spoke with the Star this week about her connection to Tucson and life as a professional bowler.
Here’s what she said, in her own words:
“When I grew up my whole family bowled. I guess it was something I was just born into. My grandfather bought me my first ball. It was a red Mickey Mouse ball. I remember it like it was yesterday. He would go to every tournament he possibly could to watch me bowl and try to help me. He still is someone who supports me every single week. He’s always been the one behind me.
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“I realized I could actually get scholarships to go to school for bowling. I would just send out demo tapes and say, ‘I’m looking at going to college; would you be interested?’ Central Missouri, Nebraska and Wichita State were the three most dominant schools. I ended up falling in love with Central Missouri and stayed there all four years.
“When you’re from a town like Tucson, you feel like a big fish in a small pond. As you bowl more nationally, you get the realization of where you would rank among your peers. As I went through college and I started having success, I realized that I’m pretty good at this.
“It really sunk in when I made junior team USA in 2006. I was one of the best juniors and could compete internationally. It wasn’t as overwhelming as I would probably say thinking about it now, because I was just so excited about getting the opportunity to bowl. Being that young, you’re not blinded by the risks of going to a foreign country and competing at something. None of that really crossed my mind. I just wanted to go bowl and win.
“There was a women’s pro tour up until about 2002, and then it folded. I was in high school, and after that I was not sure I would ever get the chance to compete professionally. Then, 2015 came along and they introduced that the tour was coming back. I went all in and said all right, ‘I am going to be a professional bowler.’ And I’ve been doing it ever since.
“The tour life is a constant go, go, go, and there is really no down time. Our tour runs from the end of April to the middle of September. It’s a quick turnaround between tournaments, and we usually head home on Sundays. Some of us work, some of us don’t. We’re working between stops, and I can practice a day or two when I’m home. Then, it’s on to the next stop. Outside the tour, I try to practice a couple of days a week, and I bowl league once a week with my husband and my family and friends. So I’m not constantly competing, but I pretty much bowl all year around.
“Most of us on tour travel with 12 different team bowling balls. The easiest way to explain bowling balls is that it’s kind of like golf, and there are different golf clubs for what you’re trying to achieve. The putter is like our spare ball. The driver is like the ball that we use to throw the most strikes. They’re obviously not as easy to carry as golf clubs. So we have a PWBA semi-truck that transports bowling balls for us from stop to stop, and we can put up to nine balls on that truck. Then, most of us bring three additional ones with us in our suitcase from stop to stop.
“I’ve bowled a lot at Golden Pin Lanes. It’s a place I’ll always hold near and dear to my heart. It’s the largest bowling center we have here in Tucson, and I’ve had a lot of good memories there. I had my first job working there. I worked as a nursery attendant and a customer service agent when I was 14 or 15, whenever the minimum age that I could start working. It’s kind of bittersweet that the very last event there is a professional women’s event, and I get to compete in it.”
