By Reid Forgrave
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Everyone cheers as the pins fall during a Seton-Mercy match-up at Stumps Lanes. The Cincinnati Enquirer/CRAIG RUTTLE

BRIDGETOWN - Amy Corbin creeps five steps toward the right side of the lane, dips low near the foul line, drives through with her legs and whips her bowling ball down the lane.

Her Seton High School teammates watch in a loose huddle. Nearly 100 spectators cheer her on at the cramped Stumps Lanes.

Strike!

Then she rolls another strike. Then another.

"Corbin! Stop it!" an opponent from Mercy High School yells, smiling. "You're making us sick!"

Bowling, a long-time west side favorite pastime, is enjoying a boost from high school teams. Worried that a new generation wasn't taking to bowling, bowling proprietors throughout Ohio launched a special effort five years ago to get high schoolers on the lanes.

For the first three years, bowling lane owners gave the high school teams free lane time, free uniforms, even offered transportation. The alleys still give youth bowlers free lane time.

"We're seeing a rebirth of young people coming bowling, and we attribute that to these high school bowling programs," says Jimmy Lilze, marketing director at Western Bowl on Glenway Avenue. "It's phenomenal. Now all of the sudden, bowling is cool again."

"You think bowling, you think big fat husky guys drinking beer; but Amy beats them all," says Seton coach Jim Robb, a school resource officer for Cincinnati police at Seton, Elder, Western Hills and Dater high schools. "A lot of these girls beat all the guys who've been bowling their whole lives. This has gotten so big that Dater and West High want me to start bowling teams over there."

The vast majority of high school bowlers do not participate in other high school sports, according to industry figures. More than 70 teams have sprung up at high schools in the Cincinnati area, although bowling isn't a sanctioned prep sport in Ohio.

"It's one sport just about anyone can do," says Corbin, 17, who averages 215 in league play and will bowl next year on scholarship for Morehead State University's team. "It's not physical like football; it's all about consistency, the biggest mind game out there." "We believe bowling is the fastest-growing high school sport in Ohio, ever," said Greg Coulles, commissioner of the Ohio High School Bowling program. Bowling alley owners say the resurgence is most evident among teenage girls - possibly because it can be a social game that's not as intense as other sports. In the middle of the Mercy-Seton game, a Mercy girl brings in a box of sprinkled cupcakes. The teams share the treats.

"Look at them, sitting there eating cupcakes right during the game," says Ann Hott, waving a blue-and-white Mercy pom-pom. Her daughter, Jennifer, bowls for Mercy. "What other sport will you see that?"

E-mail rforgrave@enquirer.com