Winter bowling is coming

By LILLIAN PALMER

Staff Writer

With September fast approaching, so is a national and local staple winter sport. Bowling leagues will start back up soon in Green River, with the first league bowling night at 7 p.m., in September at the Fish Bowl.

Many members of the bowling leagues in Green River have been bowling in the leagues for years and years. Rodger Lundgren Jr. is one of those bowlers. He's been bowling since he was very young, around eight or nine years old, as he recalls. He enjoys being a part of the winter bowling league because it's something fun to do in the winter to get out of the house and hang out with the guys.

Bowling is a sport that can be dated back to the Roman Empire and Ancient Egypt. Bowling leagues are organized team sports that can be dated back to the early 1900s. Bowling leagues have been hosted at the bowling center in Green River for many years now. Until this year, there was the staple winter bowling league in Green River. In 2014, there were a couple editions to the bowling leagues hosted in Green River. The Fish Bowl bowling manager Shane Johnson started the summer bowling league and a kids bowling league.

Johnson is very invested in the bowling center. He started working at the Green River bowling center when he was 18 years old, as a pin chaser. He's 29 now and has been bowling manager for six of the 11 years he's worked there. The pride and care he has for the bowling center shows through his work efforts. Last year, he started the summer bowling league and kids bowling league. The summer league is just finishing up in August. The fall kids league starts up again in November.

When Johnson isn't starting new leagues or managing them, he is bowling himself. He bowls on the summer league he created.

"It's a competitive sport and I have a great time doing it," Johnson said. "I'm not worried about scores or numbers."

The success of his kids bowling league he attributes to the sport just becoming more mainstream, he said, more popular and televised in recent years, as well as to the parents.

"The adults tend to enjoy it and pass it on to their kids, and it becomes a tradition," Johnson said.

Want to join a league?

Call the Fish bowl, 307-875-2695, or stop by and talk to the manager Shane Johnson, 1410 Uinta Drive. A league membership is $16, then $10 per week.