There are three things that can always be found in a bowling alley: bowling balls, bowling pins, and sophomore Conner Pitts. Pitts can be found in the Santa Fe Bowling Alley several days of the week diligently practicing his incredible bowling skills.

“I originally got into bowling around a year and a half ago, but I never got serious until around freshman year. I thought it would be a fun little sport,” Pitts shares. “Watching the ball hook, hearing the pins fall, and collecting as many bowling balls as possible. I like all these things because for some odd reason they are just so satisfying.”

Pitts has his own bowling shoes, and has built up a growing collection of currently 13 bowling balls that fit to his hand. 

“I started taking bowling lessons around the beginning of freshman year to try and get on the school bowling team,” Pitts explains.

His hard work and effort paid off as Pitts not only made the Shadow Ridge Bowling Team his freshman year, but also increased his scores. Since the beginning of Pitts’ bowling career,  he has bowled in various tournaments where he has made friends from many other states, and has won awards and scholarship money for his success.

“I average a 179 in all the tournaments I have been to. My highest score was a 279 which is all strikes except 1 frame in the middle,” Pitts remarks. “I won the Sportsmanship Award for the Shadow team freshman year, I also won a JBT (Junior Bowler’s Tour) tournament in St. George, Utah, the summer after my freshman year.”

A perfect 10 frame score in bowling is a 300, which requires 12 strikes in a row, or in other words, hitting every single pin on the first try. Pitts’ high score came extremely close to that, only one strike away. Pitts has also been able to improve things other than his scores.

Pitt’s older brother, former Shadow Ridge student, Cooper Pitts recalls, “[Conner’s] scoliosis stances are crazy.”

Pitts responds that his stance used to be bad, but he has since then improved his stance to bowl to his very best ability.

According to Pitts, he has won around $2,000 in scholarship money so far. Pitts loves to bowl as much as possible with the “best legit team ever,” Shadow Ridge’s JV and Varsity Bowling Teams. Pitts plans to continue on his bowling path and hopes to finish his high school years bowling for scholarships.