Jacob Shephard might become a professional bowler some day, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

He has to graduate from high school first.

Shephard, 13, a seventh-grader at Northwood Junior High, took up bowling about seven years ago and he has become very good at his craft.

“I never really started bowling using bumpers,” Shephard said. “I bowled for fun when I was a little younger. At 7, I got into league bowling and I had maybe a 90 average. I was really hooked right away. I knew if I kept on practicing, I would get better and better.”

On Jan. 22, Shephard competed at Forest View Lanes in Temperance, Mich., during Greater Toledo Bowling Proprietors Association (GTBPA) Junior All-Stars Travel League play. The GTBPA is comprised of 14 area teams that compete from August through April. Shephard rolled a 796 series that included games of 279, 277 and 240.

Jacob Shephard

The Toledo City high series all-time record for ages 20 and under is 817, held by Chad Rieger of Sylvania. Shephard’s 279 game included 11 strikes, but he came up short of his first 300 game when he settled for a spare in the middle of the game. He regrouped and finished the game with four strikes.

“That is a really big goal,” Shephard said of bowling a perfect game. “When I started in this travel league – this is my first year – it was kind of a goal for me, to get a 300 or an 800 series.”

Shephard said he got interested in bowling after watching his buddy, Zach Elliott, 12, bowl several years ago. Shephard now bowls three days a week – in the travel league, on Saturdays at Eastern Lanes on Woodville Road and in the Northwood Junior High after-school league, which has about 30 bowlers.

“I enjoy bowling with my friends,” Shephard said. “Zach bowled before me and that inspired me to bowl a little bit. He’s two months younger than me. Just watching him bowl, it really made me enjoy it. I enjoyed watching it, so I wanted to try it.”

Penny Keeler, the proprietor of Eastern Lanes, is Shephard’s coach. Keeler said her young student is dedicated to bowling.

“Being young, he’s starting to realize bowling is a very big part of his life,” she said. “He needs to practice more and commit more, but he is only 13 and he plays football, too. He wants to get better. He sees the older kids and what they have accomplished and that makes him strive to be a better bowler.

“The Junior Travel League is comprised of the best kids in the city. They’re 17, 18 years old. He beat out an 18-year-old for the high series in the Junior All-Stars League. The City record is 817 and he could have broken that record, but he left a split. I told him most people would have been upset, but he wasn’t. He always has a smile on his face.”

Keeler also coaches Elliott, who also hails from Northwood, and said Elliott has as much potential as any of her youth bowlers.

“He could come in here and bowl 50 games,” Keeler said. “He and Jacob will bowl all night. To come in and bowl six games is nothing to those kids. His average is a little higher than Jacob in all of the leagues and he loves bowling. That’s his sport. He’s got the drive for it.”

Shephard said he appreciates Keeler’s instruction and enthusiasm.

“Over the years she’s always telling me to keep on trying,” he said. “She’s never a down person. She’s never put me down or anything. Throughout the years I’ve been improving and I want to thank her for helping me with that. She’s a good bowler and she just tells me where to stand - all the way to the left or right – and it’s paid off a lot.”

Shephard, the son of Brian and Michelle Shephard, said he plans to bowl competitively until he is too old to compete in the area youth leagues.

“After that, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “I might join other leagues. I was thinking about going pro, but I don’t know yet. I’ll see when that time comes.”

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