Craig Justice: Tenpin Prodigy

One shot after another, the clatter of pins fills the air, the only sounds that cut through The Masters golf tournament playing loudly on the TV in the background.

It is here, in the dimly lit bowling alley, where the smell of cigarette smoke mixes with the stuff they spray in the shoes, where pins clatter and fall, that Craig Justice bowls.

This is the guy, right here at Warsaw Bowl, who, like parents Marty and Cindi Justice, talks openly of the goal: competing in the Professional Bowlers Association Tour.

Craig's bowled four 300 games and two 299 games.

He's 17.

He is easy to spot, because he is the only person bowling. He is 5-foot-7 and weighs 130 pounds. He wears a blue shirt that reads Zone with a big orange Z. He wears white pants and gold shoes. He bowls right-handed and uses two lanes, going from one to the other.

"He's going to shoot 300 right here," dad Marty says. The score flashes across the overhead monitors. Nine frames, nine strikes. If Craig can throw strikes in the 10th, he will bowl a perfect game.

He opens the 10th with a strike. He throws the second ball in the final frame. He leaves one pin standing.

"Aww," Marty says. "The six pin didn't come up and get the 10 pin. Pick it up, shoot 289."

Craig does. The 17-year-old Warsaw Community High School junior settles - settles - for his 289.

"Your legs start to go out a little bit because you're nervous," he says. "You start to feel it after the eighth."

Since Nov. 15, 1997, Craig has bowled 300 four times and 299 twice. Two 300s came in practice, two in league action. The first came in league play. The Young American Bowling Alliance rewarded him with a silver ring with an emerald stone, like they do for everyone's first 300.

His second 300 came two weeks after his first.

"One thing about 300s," he says. "Once you get your first one, they come easier."

Craig is confident. Or as mom Cindi says, "It's like, this is what he wants, and he's going to get it."

He's an only child, so Marty and Cindi have thrown their efforts into helping their only child reach his goal. They leave their Leesburg home to drive Craig to state tournaments from South Bend to Richmond nearly every weekend year round. The prestigious tournament is The Kegler Open. Craig won his first TKO on March 15 in Kokomo.

To get in division one of this open, a bowler must bowl a 180 scratch average, which Craig does. He led 53 other bowlers in Kokomo from start to finish and shot a 1,411 scratch score over six games to win.

Then there is the Indiana State YABA Masters and Queens Tournament, which he competed in last summer.

Craig qualified. He finished fourth. He calls this fourth-place finish his best achievement. Here's why: 756 bowlers tried to qualify.

His league average is 206. His average at tournaments in South Bend is 227. His TKO average is 202.

At home Marty and Cindi drag awards out of boxes and lay them on a medium-sized table. Medals and plaques stacked four rows high, countless patches and supposedly a real gold medallion (Craig and his dad argue about this) from the first Indiana/Kentucky Bowling Tournament in 1997 cover the table top. A white bowling pin stands in the middle, autographed by the pros when the tour hit Indianapolis.

It is because of a fourth-place finish in the Masters Tournament, because of averages above 200, because of four 300s at age 17, because of plaques piled four rows high on the table, that Craig and his parents see a future in bowling.

Before that, though, is college. Craig talks of Notre Dame and Nebraska, among others. Schools like Nebraska, Notre Dame and Wichita State are to college bowling what Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke are to college basketball.

Powerhouses.

"He wants to go pro," Marty says. "He wants to have a coach who makes him even more dedicated to the sport than I do."

Scholarships are available for bowling. Craig and his parents are holding out to see which school can come up with an offer.

He's already left a lasting impression on Notre Dame coach Ray Szjako.

"Notre Dame bowls at Beacon Bowl in South Bend at 9 o'clock on Wednesdays," Marty says. "We went up there. Craig got to meet the players. At the end of the night, the coach said to Craig, 'This is my starting five. Bowl with them.'

"He puts three guys on this side and three guys on that side. Craig shoots 279 and 248."

Nebraska coach Bill Straubs has expressed interest as well. He told Marty to video tape 12 of Craig's shots from the front, 12 from the side and 12 from the back.

"Form," Craig says. "He's looking at form. If you have it, he wants you. If you don't, he doesn't."

Singing for quarters

Craig's interest began as a small child, back when he sang for quarters on Friday nights.

"Dad's friend Gary Thornsbury said if we'd sing a verse from this one song, 'Oceanfront Property,' he'd give us a quarter," he says. [[In-content Ad]]