While Cohen Zruna hasn’t bowled a perfect game yet, the young bowler thinks five-pin bowling is his perfect game.
“It’s super competitive but it’s not a contact sport and that’s my style. I’ve met so many good friends doing it,” Zruna tells the Journal.
A student at Sir John Moore Community School in Corunna, he’s been bowling since he was six years old, thanks in part to his dad, Matt Langis, who got him interested in the sport.
“[Langis] told me about when he was younger he bowled, and he asked me if I wanted to do it, so I tried it out and really liked it,” explains Zruna.
Langis agrees with Zruna that it’s the mental aspect that he enjoys about the sport, one that he got back into when Zruna started to play.
“I like how challenging it can be at times, usually when you are bowling it’s you against another person. You have to mentally prepare yourself,” says Langis. “You throw one bad ball, and you can get thrown off, so you need to get back up there and reset yourself…bowling is mentally challenging, and I like that about the game.”
Zruna has challenged himself this season. The 13 year old recently competed at the Ontario Winter Games in Thunder Bay, which happens to be the province’s largest multi-sport amateur event. Both Zruna and dad are still riding the high after his team took home silver.
“It was stressful. It was really stressful and so much fun. It’s the biggest tournament I ever bowled in. It was a lot of nerves going into it, but honestly I loved it. It was so much fun. I probably had the most fun there I’ve had ever,” says Zruna.
To qualify for the Ontario Winter Games Langis says his son had to bowl against 18 year olds at a Youth Challenge Tournament, his first year attending it. “As a parent, I was like, ‘my first-year kid qualified against all of these 18 year olds, take that,” jokes Langis.
Training at the Bowlerama in Chatham, Zruna and Langis teamed up and bowled in the Ontario Twosomes Provincials tournament in Brantford this past April, winning silver with only 10 points between them and the first-place team.
“It was amazing, but it was a little disappointing at the same time. We were in first going into the last game. It was so nice getting second and medalling of course, but it was a mix of emotions,” says Zruna.
As for if the father-son duo will continue to bowl together in tournaments, that ball, Langis jokes, is in Zruna’s court. But the dad couldn’t be prouder of how far his son has come.
“I’m very proud to watch him bowl, and constantly every year he’s getting better and better. I enjoy going out and helping him coach, but I’m almost at the point now where I don’t know how much more I can teach him…he’s close to giving me a run for my money and he’s only 13,” laughs Langis.