When Jordan Loewen was an infant, his grandmother Judy Burge used to prop him up on a nearby bench while she and her husband Rod tossed a few down the pipe at Cochrane Lanes.
Now, 10 years later, all that rubbernecking must have rubbed off, since that baby is now one of the most impressive young bowlers on the Canadian circuit and will represent the province at the upcoming national five-pin championships in Quebec.
“We’d bring him as a baby and he’d sit there, just watching intently. He’d watch the whole three games – didn’t fuss or anything,” Burge recently recalled. “Then he started with the ball between his legs, and at six years old he was bowling one-handed. It’s amazing.”
Currently, Loewen averages a score of about 185 a game, with his highest logged in at 340 – just 110 shy of a perfect game. The RancheView School student bowls between 12 and 18 games a week, including with his grandparents, and he boasts of a particularly great day in which he finished 27 games in one shot.
He also has his own set of different coloured balls and a strip of banners on the bowling alley wall. When Loewen’s longtime coach Dwayne LaMontagne gave him an actual 10 pin as a gift, dad Travis said his son “slept with it.”
“He just loves it,” said LaMontagne, one of the owners of the Cochrane sports centre. “Ever since he was three years old, he just fell in love with it and he just goes.”
Last month, the just-turned-10-year-old brought home the boys bantam Youth Bowl Alberta provincial championship (he was nine when he won) – earning him a trip to the Youth Bowl Canada national competition in May. He bowled a 314 to clinch the title.
“He’s a little superstar, I tell you,” said fellow Cochrane pinhead Trevor Desormeaux, who played at nationals four times as a youth and has recently struck up a mentorship with Loewen. “He’s driven. All he wants to do is bowl.”
Desormeaux said he is excited for the young bowler not only to showcase his talents across the country, but to also meet other kids who are as passionate about the sport as he is.
“He’s going to make a lot of friendships along the way,” he said. “I still talk to people I met 25 years ago.”
When Loewen makes the trip next month, he’ll bring his own cheering section: along with grandma and grandpa, Loewen’s parents and his seven-year-old brother, the four co-owners of Cochrane Lanes – LaMontagne, his wife, Sherri, and Barry and Kathy Ogden – have also decided to make the cross-country trip to support their youngest star.
“We’ve had some pretty good bowlers come through here,” said a proud LaMontagne, “but Jordan’s something special.”
