Civic Memorial's Devin DavisBETHALTO – Civic Memorial senior bowler Devin Davis took up bowling when he was a child, thanks to two-handed Australian bowler Jason Belmonte.

Davis has become a key part of CM's boys bowling team and recently achieved the dream of most every bowler: a perfect 300 game that he rolled in the opening game of a match against Waterloo at Columbia's West Park Bowl.

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The perfecto was the third he's bowled since he took up the sport, but his first in a Southern Illinois High School Bowling Conference match.

“That was my third one,” Davis said, “but my first one that I've thrown in a match. The other two were great, but they were in practice; the third one was in a match with the team and that was a great time.”

The reaction to Davis' 300 was very supportive. “Everyone was excited,” Davis said. “I was getting high-fives from the crowd, my team, the other team – everyone.

“The bowling community is a great community. It's great to see that, even if you're playing another team, if they throw a perfect game, it's great. Everyone get excited about it.”

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The fact that a perfecto doesn't happen often makes it that much more special. “In my four years (of bowling for the Eagles), I haven't seen very many,” Davis said.

Davis took up bowling as a little kid, inspired by what he saw Belmonte – who has won six major Professional Bowlers Association championships – accomplish with a style he took up when he started bowling in the Australian state of New South Wales. “I started bowling as a little kid,” Davis said, “just like Jason Belmonte; I was always watching him growing up throwing two-handed and used it as an inspiration.

“It always interested me watching Belmonte; I watched a lot of people bowl and back when I was first growing up, a lot of people were throwing it completely straight, which was kind of boring. Out of nowhere, I started watching Jason, who was throwing it two-handed across the lanes.”

Davis hopes to continue bowling after his graduation from CM next spring. “I'm trying to decide if I'm going to go to Lindenwood-Belleville or to McKendree (in Lebanon); I'm hoping I can get a scholarship from one of the two for bowling. I hope it really works out because bowling's been a really good time. I just hope I can end up going to college and finding really good friends like I have here in bowling.”

Davis hopes to major in sports management in college; Davis actually convinced two of his friends from CM to join him on the bowling team. “I actually convinced two of my friends to come bowl with me, Issac Vancil and Gage Jennings,” Davis said. “Gage is still bowling and Issac is on the hockey team this year; they were really excited about it because we're all really into bowling.

“We've all been bowling for a long time; we all started in seventh grade doing Saturday morning leagues and now we're all seniors in high school and still going at it.”

Davis is very appreciative of the support to bowling from the area's bowling community. “I want to thank our bowling alley (Airport Bowl in Bethalto) and all the bowling alleys for making this sport happen and letting us come up and practice every day,” Davis said. “I'm really appreciative of bowling centers throwing tournaments like (Thursday's Alton Invitational) where everyone gets to come together. You always make a lot of new friends and it's always a great time.”

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