Senior leads unsung bowling team


By Evan Appell
EastGators staff writer

He is the second best player in the nation.

He is the captain of his team.

He was offered a contract to play professionally.

However, no one but his closest friends, his family and his teammates know he even plays a sport.

UF senior Thomas Dusch is the second-ranked bowler in all of college bowling, but because of the anonymity of the sport at UF, he fails to get recognized for his accomplishments.

"It comes with the territory," he said. "It's not football or basketball, so there's not much else I can expect."

Dusch, who is from Plantation, Fla., has been bowling since he was 4 years old.

As a freshman at UF, he barely made the team, and the coach only let him bowl in a few competitions.

"Eventually, when I beat the best player in the country in singles, he realized that I should be bowling more often," he said.

After his freshman season, Dusch ascended through the ranks on the team, becoming the captain by his junior year. That same season, he also bowled his first, and only, perfect game.

Now, in his fourth season on the team, Dusch said that that most of his teammates have struggled a great deal this season.

Part of the team's lack of success, he said, has to do with the little support and funding it receives from UF.

The team is currently ranked 43rd in the country.

"A lot of the smaller schools are ranked higher because they get a lot more attention," he said. "We are just kind of looked at as irrelevant, so we don't get enough money to travel and train properly."

Dusch, who averages 220 and has won three singles titles, said that while others might not view bowling as a sport, it is very physically demanding.

He works out and runs three times a week to stay in shape because a lot of stamina is needed to bowl 15 games per day at a tournament, he said.

"People can't really put it down until they actually experience it," Dusch said. "It really can take a lot out of you."

Dusch recently finished second at the Regional-6 Tournament in Lexington, Ky., and qualified for the National Collegiate Bowling Singles Championship in Reno, Nev., where he finished in second place last year.

"This year I'm really out to win it all," he said. "It's my last chance."

Dusch said that he hopes to continue training and working hard on his game, but he does not know if bowling is in his future. He was offered a professional sponsorship contract from Ebonite last year, but he decided to stay in school and complete his degree in criminology.

He plans to start law school next year, and he will be going to several Olympic team tryouts. Though not yet an official Olympic sport, many are pushing for entry into the 2008 summer games in Beijing, China.

"That would be a dream come true," he said. "Everyone wants to be in the Olympics. If bowling actually gets accepted, it would just push me that much harder to improve my game."