THE FRONT ROW with Bruce Bourquin, March 21, 2014

Five friends who work in various industries came together on a magical Thursday night on March 6 to set an Idaho state five-man scratch team record of 3,717 total pins. It was done during the Thursday night 16-team Empire League, in front of a small crowd at River City Lanes in Post Falls.

THE OLD RECORD stood for about seven years. On April 30, 2007, a team from Boise by the name of Pro-Am Sports bowled a combined five-man scratch team score of 3,671.

Five local men - Jack Smetana, Mike Durk, Tom Davenport, Bub Lawson and Jimmie Boyce - who have been together as bowling teammates since 2004, set the record. Four of them, everyone except Boyce, who was in Aruba this past week, sat down and spoke with The Press. Boyce is an Information and Technology employee at Coldwater Creek.

The team is not done yet. On April 4-5 in Reno, the team plans to drive to compete in the USBC Open Championships at the National Bowling Stadium. Smetana has been there for 26 years, Durk for 13 and members of the team have bowled in national competitions in Syracuse, N.Y. and Knoxville, Tenn.

SMETANA, THE president of the Idaho State Bowling Association, competed as a bowler and finished with a three-game combined score of 749. He is in his 60s and works as the owner of Frame and Smetana, a private engineering consulting firm. Smetana, the sponsor and captain of the team titled Frame and Smetana, is married, has four adult children and three grandchildren. Smetana is the one who invited Lawson and Durk to join his team in 1998, Davenport in 2004 and Boyce as well. The team actually consists of two five-member teams and Frame and Smetana has been around for nearly 25 years. The other bowlers, who were not part of the record-setting night, include Vince Blanchette, Corey Still, Gary Schenkenberger, Ron Jacobson and John Prescott.

"We're all different sizes, different ages, we're in different stages in our careers," Smetana said. "We're in different stages with raising families. There's a lot of things that are different among us. But the few things that are common among us is this team concept is a 10-person concept. That's been our goal, is to have a 10-person team group. The most common thread that we all have is we view team bowling as a competitive sport, more so than a recreation sport. That doesn't mean to say we don't have fun. But the things we do is promote bowling as a sport and to that end, we have a lot of respect for the sport. We try to demonstrate that, we bring a lot of class. That we're not the loud, showy types you see in the PBA (Professional Bowlers Association). We're not the ones you see on Sunday mornings (on television)."

DURK, A 53-year-old married man from Coeur d'Alene with a daughter who owns Durk Wholesale Lumber in Hayden Lake, bowled a three-game score of 702. Lawson, 55, is an associate pastor at Candlelight Christian Fellowship in Coeur d'Alene, and bowled a score of 773, the highest in the group. Davenport, a 44-year-old "young buck" of the team, father of three kids and an aircraft maintenance inspector for Empire Aerospace at the Coeur d'Alene Airport and is from Rathdrum, scored a 735. Boyce bowled a 758, second-highest in the group.

Toward the end of their accomplishment, Lawson said the team knew they had the record, although Smetana and the other bowlers did not know exactly who knocked over the 3,672nd pin which officially set the record. But they knew that Durk was the bowler who knocked over the 3,700th pin, which Smetana said was "a milestone."

"We had it in the bag when Mike just blew the rack (bowled a strike with force)," Lawson said.

Smeltana added it does not necessarily matter who actually surpassed the team from Boise or which one bowled over the 3,672nd pin, that it was done as a team and that every frame, every bowl, every little accomplishment toward the team goal counted.

"We bowled 150 frames and every one counted," Smeltana said. "That's how we approached the game. Everything was processed. One shot at a time."

THE TEAM MEMBERS revere Smetana as a true leader among bowlers. Durk was a high school football All-American center who played at Mira Loma High School in Sacramento, Calif. in 1978, spoke highly of Smetana.

"I look at Jack as the godfather of north Idaho bowling," Durk said. "I've been thankful he invited me to be on his team. It's awesome and it's been an honor, it's been very meaningful to me. It's given me years of massive enjoyment. This is part of my thrill, being on a team sport, how you prepare and practice for it. We're one of only a few five-team leagues within the area."

Davenport got a little misty-eyed when talking about being a part of the whole team camaraderie thing.

"I've bowled competitively since I was 23 years old," Davenport said. "I bowled with a friend from work, his name was Roy Lefevre, he took me under his wing. These guys made me what I am (as a bowler)."

LAWSON, WHO has been bowling in leagues since he was a 6-year-old bowling against bantam-level boys and girls, enjoys the fact the PBA recently brought back professional team bowling into play. In October of 2012, the PBA introduced an eight-team pro bowling league.

"In 1958, the PBA had its first meeting and its first event was in 1959," Lawson said. "What we're trying to do is mimic what came before. We play as a team. What some (bowling alleys) do is they break the oil down, so you can manipulate the lane (with your bowling ball), to play it the way we want to play it."

And that's just the way Frame and Smetana prefers it - as a band of bowling brothers, setting a state record and knocking those pins down, one white at a time.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, or via email at bbourquin@cdapress.com Follow him on Twitter @bourq25