As a first-year senior bowler, Ben Hendrickson is already a zone and provincial champion.
Next, he'll take aim at a national title.
Hendrickson is a 15-year-old who plays out of Prince George's Nechako Lanes. When he won the B.C. senior boys singles crown earlier this month in Kamloops, he qualified for the Youth Bowl Canada national tournament, May 7-9 in Calgary. There - as was the case in the zone and provincial playdowns - he'll be up against bowlers as old as 19. Hendrickson said he's still setting his goals for nationals but, at the same time, he considers gold a possibility.
"There is a good chance," he said. "I've been bowling really well this year. Just to make podium would be nice."
More on nationals later.
At provincials, Hendrickson and the other five bowlers played five games. By the time they were done, he had won convincingly. His total of 1,176 put him 108 pins ahead of the second-place finisher, Vernon's Kevyn Hoggard (1,068).
Hendrickson's individual scores were 207, 230, 277, 199 and 263. Going into the last game, he had an 87-pin advantage on Trail's Jacob Plett, who eventually finished third with a total of 1,012.
Hendrickson, a Grade 10 student at Duchess Park secondary school, didn't allow himself to relax a bit until the late stages of the final game.
"In the fifth game, when I saw that I was up already by 80, I was like, 'Oh my God, I won,'" said Hendrickson, who went into provincials with a YBC average of 234 and ended up one higher than that in the tournament. "I can't even describe the feeling because I never thought I would ever go to nationals, so winning (provincials), I felt pretty excited and nervous at the same time.
"I was pretty excited knowing I was a first-year senior," he added. "I think I was the youngest player there."
Hendrickson had been to provincials twice before, but as a member of Nechako Lanes teams. This was his first time qualifying for the provincial singles competition.
As a developing player, Hendrickson saw his average take a big jump last season and it has risen another 30 points this season.
"I'm older and I've gotten more into the game," he said by way of explanation. "I bowl in a lot more leagues now so that probably did help."
As well as YBC sessions on Saturdays, Hendrickson throws in a Thursday adult league and sees duty as a spare in a Friday league.
When he arrives in Calgary for nationals, Hendrickson will have to prepare himself for a 24-game, match-play tournament. He'll go head-to-head against the other qualifiers, and the player with the most victories at the end of the three days will be declared the winner. Hendrickson's Thursday league uses a match-play format so he said he'll be ready when national bragging rights are on the line.
"(The Thursday league) gives me the experience to go down there," he said.
Sherri Florell, a Nechako player and YBC coordinator who has seen Hendrickson grow his game over the past five years, said the teen "has a ton of natural talent." Florell traveled to Kamloops to watch him play at provincials and said he didn't let the ups and downs of the day distract him from his objective.
"I'm not surprised that he won," Florell said. "He's a very good bowler. As long as he stays in the right head space he's got the potential to win at nationals too."
Hendrickson won't be the only Prince George bowler in Calgary for the national championship tournament. A Black Diamond Lanes senior girls team consisting of Kassidy Johnson, Lezzyl Aquino, Paige Meise and Shae-lyn Rafferty will also be rolling for gold. The Black Diamond girls advanced to nationals thanks to a 109-pin victory over a Scottsdale Lanes team at provincials. Black Diamond finished with a four-game total of 3,298 while the Scottsdale foursome, from Surrey, scored 3,189.
In 2013, a Black Diamond team featuring Johnson, Aquino, Meise and Megan Reimer claimed the Canadian junior championship.
Two other Black Diamond teams - the bantam girls and junior girls - won medals at this year's provincials. The bantam duo of Emma Ridley and Kyra Thurston, with a four-game total of 1,120, came home with silver. Ridley and Thurston finished 48 pins off the winning pace of Lincoln Lanes (Vernon). Meanwhile, the Black Diamond junior girls squad of Jadyn Arnett, Traci Rafferty, Holly Thurston and Jesslyn Arnett was on target for bronze. Together, they threw a four-game score of 2,782, 48 pins back of silver-medalist Galaxy Bowl of Abbotsford and 219 behind gold-medal winner Port Coquitlam Bowl.
