LHS students set sights on professional bowling career

 Davin Jackson, senior, spent the last 14 years bowling, and the last four years with the LHS bowling team.
  His interest in bowling all started back at the age of 3. Growing up, he watched his older brother, Daven Jackson, bowl and decided in a short amount of time that he wanted to join a bowling league at the age of 4.
  As a teen, Jackson rose to the top of the LHS bowling team, dominating tournaments around the state of Idaho.  Most recently, he won three Idaho Junior Bowling Tour tournaments in a row and qualifying for state at the districts tournament Jan. 8 in Coeur d’Alene. State will take place in Burley Feb. 13 – 14.  Jackson has also made an example of himself for other bowlers by holding a 200 average for over 20 consecutive weeks.
  As Jackson started his last year with the high school team this fall, the thoughts for after high school started piling up. The Professional Bowling Association (PBA) was the first thought that crossed his mind.
  “My reason to want to join the PBA is to be able to beat the top bowlers on the professional bowling tour,” Jackson said. “After bowling has been my passion for so long, it would be freaking awesome to just be the youngest bowler to win the Chameleon Championship.”
After the Chameleon comes the World Series of Bowling event. The biggest tournament accomplishment for a professional bowler is to win the World Series of Bowling, which takes place at the beginning of December each year. Jackson hopes to win this event straight out of high school, thus becoming the youngest to win the World Series of Bowling.
  Along with becoming a professional bowler, Jackson plans on taking up real estate.
  “After seeing my dad do real estate, it seems like something that would interest me,” he said. “It also seems like a better option than breaking my back 40 hours a week” as a bowler.
  As it is with many athletes, strong family support has helped Jackson succeed.
  “My parents have really been the biggest supporters of what I do,” Jackson said. “They really have inspired me to continue towards the PBA.”
  Jackson has continued to push himself further to becoming the best. His highest game is a 299, narrowly missing a perfect game, a 300 score. After realizing he had watched others bowl for so long, trying to model them, Jackson cracked down and focused on his own skills.
  “After I started focusing on myself and not what others are doing, that’s when I saw major improvement,” Jackson said.
  Jackson plans on competing fiercely in the upcoming tournaments of the 2016-17 high school season. He says that due to the useful insight given by the coaches, he can see himself becoming a successful PBA bowler. “Davin constantly asks how he can improve his bowling,” said Randy Buttenhoff, coach of the LHS bowling team. “He has come so far since the last three years and it’s clearly paying off for him this year.”