Breaking Down His Game: Senior Christian Lahey has developed his mental and physical skills to become East’s top bowler

It smells like fried food and machine oil in Ward Parkway Lanes as senior Christian Lahey unzips his black-and-orange bowling bag. A few lanes down, children shovel onion rings into their mouths and first dates fumble through awkward small talk over the sound of crashing pins. 

But Lahey doesn’t buy snacks or chat with friends or even sit down. He’s here to bowl.

Gripping his 15-pound purple ball in his left hand and cupping it in his right, he rushes forward towards the foul line and plants his right leg as he spins the ball towards the pins, collecting all but one. He sags a little as he turns. Every little factor — speed, hook, ball reaction — must be perfected in bowling. A few boards separate a gutterball from a strike.

With the boys bowling season starting Dec. 8 and the first meet coming, Lahey is practicing at Ward Parkway as often as he can before his fourth and final season in a record-breaking career. Over the past four years at East, Lahey has overcome game anxiety and practiced intensely to set East scoring and competition records and earn athletic offers from four colleges. 

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As the only freshman to make varsity, Lahey didn’t know the upperclassmen in his first team at East. Head coach Frederick Elliott said that he seemed shy, and former varsity bowler Matt Martucci said that he seemed “mysterious” to the upperclassman roster.

Elliott saw his potential, but he also saw Lahey’s struggles. He needed to work on his technique. He missed most of the season due to grades and injuries. And he was a perfectionist. 

“He had to get over the mental game,” Elliott said. “He always thought he had to be the best.”

In sophomore year, Lahey was able to play the whole season, but he felt like his performance wasn’t good enough. He started going to practice at Ward Parkway several times a week whenever his dad was willing to pay for a couple games, training every aspect of his game — form, balance, timing and approach.

“My sophomore year, the first half of that season was pretty bad,” Lahey said. “I got a lot better from the beginning to the end. I just wasn’t really that good, to be honest. I needed to get better.”

Lahey watched professional bowlers like Jason Belmonte to learn from them — analyzing when they released the ball and how far they pulled back. Martucci remembers seeing Lahey at Ward Parkway every time he would go to practice.

“He takes it seriously, and he’s a competitor,” Martucci said. “He gets really fired up when he’s doing good. And I really like the kid, because he always motivated me to bowl better too.”

At regionals that year, Lahey bowled well above his average, scoring 665 points to secure the team’s place at state. At state, he placed fifth individually, breaking 700 points for the first time in his career.

When Lahey realized that he could break 700 in his third game at state, he started getting nervous. To help him relax, Elliott used humor to help him ease up.

“I make him laugh, because sometimes he takes it too seriously,” Elliott said. “When he’s bowling, he’s focused. So once in a while in state or regionals, I have to say, ‘Hey watch out for that gutterball!’”

Since starting his job at Ward Parkway behind the food counter two years ago, you can often find Lahey practicing there, using his free bowling perks upwards of five times a week. Sometimes he practices with senior Jack Trusty, and they exchange tips and advice.

“In his freshman and sophomore year, I would see him get a little more stressed out,” Trusty said. “But last year he kept his cool a little bit better, and he was more calm. I’ve seen him develop and just go with the game.”

Six frames into his current Ward Parkway game, Lahey’s already missed a spare and far too many strikes for this game to stack up against his two perfect 300s last summer. But he wipes off his ball again and lines up his approach without missing a beat.

“He’s mentally tough,” Elliott said. “Probably the most mentally tough kid I ever had for bowling. He doesn’t have any major letdowns. He just pops right back.”