Zac Thompson gives some credit for a recent strong bowling outing to country music singer Travis Tritt.
Competing in a mixed team tournament last month in Bloomington, the 22-year-old Freetown man accomplished a first: Posting two 300 games in the same day.
With a bowling ball in his right hand, he approaches the lane on the final frame with X’s all across the screen hoping to post one more strike. As all 10 pins fall down, his teammates go from silence as he attempts perfection to excitement for achieving it.
Like any bowler, Thompson can’t predict when he’s going to bowl a 300. But when he knows he’s on a roll and begins his final frame, he focuses on the right frame of mind.
“I try to remember what I threw before,” he said.
These two 300 games gave him 13 for his career.
“But the biggest thing that helps me, I always take a big, deep breath, try to block everything out and I always sing a little song in my head right before I go up there because it keeps me calm and relaxed,” he said. “It’s always a Travis Tritt song.”
Thompson said it’s never a particular Tritt song, but on this day, “It’s a Great Day to be Alive” would have been appropriate.
“He has always been my favorite country artist because of his voice,” Thompson said.
During that mid-January tournament, bowlers competed in three different shifts with three games each shift.
His first 300 came in the final game of the second shift.
“I was bowling against a guy that I’ve always tried to beat,” Thompson said. “It meant a little more because I did it beating him.”
His other 300 was in his final game of the day.
“I felt really good the whole day. I just felt really comfortable,” he said. “It was definitely very awesome shooting over there because I’ve always tried so hard to shoot one there because I like that center, so it was just really awesome to finally be able to do one there. Any day I can start or end it with a 300 is always, always awesome.”
Thompson said his other game scores ranged from 180 to 250, but he almost had another 300 earlier in the day.
In the past three-and-a-half years, Thompson said he has had 300 games nine times in Columbus, twice in Scottsburg and now twice in Bloomington.
He said he never thought he would have two in one day.
“I have definitely tried several times,” he said. “I’ve been close several times, but I’ve never done two.”
Now, he hopes to do it again.
“At some point, I would hope,” he said, smiling. “Hopefully.”
Thompson said he started bowling about nine-and-a-half years ago in the youth leagues in Seymour, influenced by his father and grandfather.
“It’s just kind of a generation thing,” he said.
He bowled in Seymour until the alley closed. Then he bowled in Scottsburg for a year before moving up to the adult leagues.
His two main bowling alleys are in Columbus and Scottsburg.
“I do mainly winter leagues,” Thompson said. “I normally bowl three nights a week from October to April. Tuesday, I’ve bowled with the same people for like three years now. Wednesday, I’ve played with a different team every year. And then Friday, I just joined a new team this year.”
His first 300 game was in 2018 at Columbus Bowling Center.
“There was a buddy of mine’s bowling ball I was throwing,” he said. “He let me use it and I ended up just throwing it really good and just stayed locked in. I was nervous as heck the first one, but I got to shoot around a bunch of friends, so that was always the best part of it.”
Thompson considered that a big accomplishment.
“That’s what I looked forward to forever was shooting the 300 because that’s what everybody wants to do,” Thompson said. “It was basically just a sigh of relief that all of my practice and everything finally paid off.”
His next 300 came a year later. Three of his perfect games came last season, and he’s already up to five this winter.
To achieve perfection, he said, takes a lot of dedication and focus.
“It takes a lot of mental, just making sure all of your fundamentals are together,” he said. “It’s mainly mental.”
Since each bowling alley is different, from the setup to the lanes, that makes the sport challenging.
“Some, I have to stand in different places because some areas hook harder,” Thompson said. “Scottsburg, the approaches are different, so I have to stand back farther because the approaches are shorter. And then Bloomington and (Columbus) are pretty much identical.”
Thompson is among the Jackson County residents who travel to Columbus each week during the winter season since Seymour’s bowling alley closed in July 2016.
He likes it there because family, including his dad, Kent Thompson, and friends, bowl there, too.
“I bowl Tuesday night with my dad, and then I get to bowl with my best friend on Wednesday night,” he said. “It just means a lot more because I can bowl with a lot of close family and friends.”
When he’s not bowling, he’s working at Rightway Fasteners in Walesboro or participating in his other two sports — fishing and dirt track racing.