Logan Fling of Parkersburg (left) was named West Virginia USBC 18U Youth Bowler of the Year last Sunday at Fincastle Country Club. Pictured at right is Fling’s father, Gary. (Photo provided)
BLUEFIELD, Va. – Former Parkersburg South Patriot and current Parkersburg High Big Red Logan Fling was honored with the West Virginia USBC 18U Youth Bowler of the Year award on Sunday at Fincastle Country Club.
Fling, who has a career-high score of 299 and is a member of the Parkersburg Technical Honor Society in carpentry, was more than happy to accept the $1,000 scholarship he will receive through a SMART account upon graduation.
“I actually didn’t want to write the 500-word essay, but I thought, ‘OK, I’ll do it’ and then I wrote it,” said Fling, who will continue to compete for PHS in golf, bowling and baseball.
“I read it through a couple of times and thought, ‘This is pretty good. I think my English teacher would be proud.'”
Fling said his mother, Tracy, only told him about winning the award after she received a message from Amber Hill.
“It really surprised me,” Fling admitted the honor. “She didn’t get to the point, so I sat there thinking, ‘What is going on here?’ but I was very excited and very grateful.”
Fling, who was infected with the bowling bug by his father Gary at the age of five, will not have his father available as a coach this year.
The Big Red said he started bowling in the Saturday morning youth league at Pike Street Lanes and fell in love with the sport.
“It was mainly about the fact that I started bowling at a young age about 12 years ago,” Fling said of his essay: “My dad was a huge bowling fan and he was the one who talked me into joining in on Saturday mornings.
“I did Saturday mornings for the last 12 years of my life. Then I bowled in the Junior Gold League and got interested in it, and then high school bowling came along and we bowled in the OVAC and West Virginia states.”
Although Fling is right-handed, he has recently revised his throwing style.
“Right-handed but ambidextrous. I’m ambidextrous with a right-handed base.” Fling said of his conversion, which allowed him to hit a career-high 196.
When asked if the transition had been smooth, the now Big Red said, “No. No. Not at all. I only started about a year and a half ago, about halfway through my second season. My dad said I had to switch because you can get so much more out of it than with one hand.”
“I started switching about halfway through my sophomore year. It wasn’t very good. I would say it was definitely subpar at first and after probably two or three months I got back on my feet. I didn’t really reach my one-handed fighting skills until probably seven or eight months later.”
Fling added to the conversion, “The older bowlers in the league definitely don’t like it, but I would definitely recommend it. You can just get so much more out of it.”
He’s obviously on to something, considering he got his 299 back at an open tournament at Pike Street Lanes in late April.
“To be honest, I thought it was good,” Fling said of his final ball in the 10th frame: “My mum filmed everything and posted it on Facebook. You could see that I thought it was going to be good.”
“I was waiting for the pin to fall. It was a resounding 10. There’s nothing you can do with that. I was hoping something would hit the 10 pin.”
Fling, who hopes he gets a chance to compete somewhere at the next level, said before throwing 11 strikes in a row, his previous record was throwing eight strikes in a row at the start of a game.
Contact Jay Bennett at [email protected]
