Four championship appearances, three championship wins, countless awards and hours of practice are all just everyday accomplishments for the 14 year old championship bowler, Mabel Cummins.
Cummins grew up in Alaska, which stays dark for most of the year, so there was not much for her to do. When she was around the age of four, Cummins father started to take her out bowling before he went to work on Sunday nights.
“Sunday night before my dad would go to work he would take me bowling because that’s really the only thing you can do in the winter in Alaska,” Cummins said.
When Cummins first began to bowl in Alaska, she didn’t think she could become good at it. However, when Cummins started taking it more seriously, she realized that she was actually good at bowling.
“One of the local pros at the bowling center in Alaska, Ron Moore, encouraged me to take bowling more seriously,” Cummins said.
From there, Cummins’ bowling career took off. She appeared in newspapers and on CBS News for her 2016 Junior Gold U15 Masters.
“There’s this bowling streaming website called Xtra Frame and a few of the tournaments that I bowled in have been streamed on there, there also was some Facebook livestreams along with the CBS Sports Network for Junior Gold,” Cummins said.
Along with the CBS Sports Network, Cummins has appeared in national magazines like Bowlers Journal and local newspapers like the Elburn Herald and Kane County Chronicle.
“I’ve been in Bowlers Journal and that’s a national bowling magazine. I’ve been in that twice, once for Junior Gold and once before Junior Gold as a Star of Tomorrow,” Cummins said.
Cummins thinks it’s cool how she’s been featured in newspapers. She likes how people she doesn’t know come up to her and congratulate her.
Before Cummins even has a chance to be in a newspaper or magazine, she has to sign up for a tournament. The signup process for the tournaments Cummins participates in are varied.
“Most of the tournaments I bowl in are first come first serve, but the end of the year stuff you would have had to bowl in a certain number of tournaments,” Cummins said
Whenever Cummins gets lucky and meets the qualifications, she then begins the process of her practicing routine.
“I practice on the lanes four to five days a week and the other few days are strength training and cardio and exercise,” Cummins said.
Cummins has to train long and hard for her tournaments if she ever has a chance of making the qualifying rounds. Cummins, who wants to pursue bowling as long as she can, plans to pursue it all the way through college.
“My goal is to get a four year full scholarship of a college of my choice,” Cummins said.
When she is through with college, Cummins wants to become a coach so she has a chance to teach other bowlers like her.
“After college I’ll probably go to coaching so I can give back to the sport,” Cummins said
With all the awards and trophies she’s won there’s no doubt that she is good at what she does.
“If you focus on results you will never get change but if you focus on how you change your strategy you will get results,” Cummins said.