THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, January 8, 2016

Pop quiz, bowling fans.

On a Thursday night last March 26 at River City Lanes in Post Falls, guess what five locals had in common?

They all teamed up to break their own 5-man team state record for a series set in 2014 with 3,717. This past March, they raised the bar to 3,801, during league play at River City Lanes in Post Falls.

Mike Durk, a 55-year-old owner of his own company, Durk Wholesale Lumber in Hayden Lake, picked up the sport somewhat late, around the age of 35. His score of 258 actually set the team’s new record, set in front of a crowd of less than 100 that steadily grew as fellow bowlers recognized what was going on. They also set a new five-man team game record of 1,335 set in the third combined team game, with the old record set at 1,332.

“The atmosphere gets exciting as you go through game one through game two,” Durk said. “The bowlers start to notice, so you slow down your pace. You really don’t know you’re about to set a record until game three. No wants to really falter.”

Jack Smetana, 62 and the leader of the group, is a bowling veteran of 45 years. Bub Lawson, 57, has bowled the longest at 50 years since his bantam youth days and he racked up a three-game score of 779. He’s a minister at Candelight Christian Fellowship in Hayden. Dave Behmer, the ‘newbie’ of the group at 46, is a plumber but has bowled for 20 years and knocked down 750 pins. Behmer stepped in this year for Tom Davenport, who helped set the original record last March. And Jimmie Boyce, a systems engineer at URM in Spokane who lives in Coeur d’Alene, brings even more bowling experience, 32 years at age 53. Boyce rolled a 725.

THE TEAM has bowled together, with different members here and there, since 2000.

“In February we’d get together and work,” Smetana said. “We were preparing to go to nationals each year. I don’t think it’s a coincidence both records were set in March.”

In a nice bonus for this year, the five-man team went to the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships in El Paso, which ran from March 1 to July 11. They finished between 150 and 180 and when they left, they were 10th in the country out of 10,000 teams.

“We talked about nationals and this possibility happened,” Smetana said.

On May 7-8, the five are planning to go to Reno, Nev., to compete in this year’s USBC Open Championship.

THE IDAHO State Bowling Association met in September to verify the state record, hence the delay in time it took to note the accomplishment.

Smetana, whose Frame and Smetana Engineers company sponsored the team, bowled a perfect game of 300 in the second game last March and was a strike short of another perfect game with a 276, bowled the highest three-game score of 803.

“It was the magic of everything,” Smetana said. “At one time, I’d bowled 21 strikes in a row. It was exciting.”

Like a lot of bowlers, each of the five had to read the oil of the lanes and how they might affect each ball or throw.

“It was pretty amazing,” Boyce said. “We had a lot of communication, we learned how the lanes were breaking down. They bowled all night. I capitalized on their information.”

As the new guy in the bunch, Behmer had what some would consider the most difficult job, stepping in.

“I just showed up and asked if they wanted me to bowl,” Behmer said. “These guys bring you along. You don’t want to be the low bowler, you try and match what everyone did.”

Lawson said the men are all about that team, regardless of how each individual bowls.

“Individual achievements are fun,” Lawson said. “We are all concentrating on what the team is doing. What can we build on, everyone getting to the 10th frame.”

Which sets things up, so to speak, for Smetana, to knock ’em down.

“We’ve put five people together who individually have these great resumes,” Smetana said. “Not everyone can bowl together. But these guys have committed to each other and focused on the team, not ourselves. That’s where these scores come in. As a team, you’re only limited by how you approach it mentally.”

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at [email protected] or via Twitter @bourq25