Seneca bowling standout headed for Indiana Tech
Jacob Boris enjoys bowling. A lot.
He helped the Seneca High School bowling team capture the South Jersey Group 2 Sectional Championship, the first in school history. His road to becoming an avid bowler began at a young age. At 5 years old, he had the chance to go to a bowling alley.
“When I was 5, I had a friend from school that invited me to a bowling birthday party, which I really enjoyed,” Boris explained. “Later, he asked me if I wanted to join a youth league with him, so of course I said yes. As the years went on, he got more into music but I stayed with bowling.”
During his early years, his bowling score was in the low 70s. Being a bigger kid at the time, he was able to throw it harder at that age than most of the other children. When he learned how to hook the ball when he was 10 years old, things took off. He bowled a 296 at the Snowball Classic tournament in January.
Boris’ success at Seneca did not go unnoticed. The combination of his bowling abilities and success in the classroom with a 4.3 GPA drew the attention of a lot of people. He received offers from eight schools to bowl for them at the collegiate level, including Florida State and Ohio State. However, Boris had certain criteria he was looking for, primarily a school with a good engineering program.
“I had interest from Florida State, Ohio State, St. John’s, William Patterson, Wright State, NJIT, TCNJ and the Indiana Institute of Technology (Indiana Tech),” Boris said. “Originally I had not applied to Indiana Tech, but after talking to Mo Pinel, who is the part owner of the Radical Bowling Company and a mentor of mine about my college options, (he) recommended that I check out Indiana Tech.”
“The hard thing for me was finding a school that had a good bowling team and, more importantly, a good engineering program,” Boris added. “After visiting there, it felt like home. I loved the team and I really loved the engineering department. After applying and talking to the coaches some more, I was able to get a very nice academic and athletic scholarship offer. It was a no-brainer at that point, because due to the NCAA’ s Title IX rule, they have to have an even amount of men’s and women’s sports. Women’s bowling offers great athletic scholarship opportunities, but men’s bowling is more of a club sport. However, Indiana Tech is a NAIA school, which can give men athletic scholarships.”
Boris is enjoying the fact that he is getting closer to his dreams and headed to the next level.
“The feeling is absolutely incredible,” Boris said. “Besides becoming a professional bowler, I have always had dreams and aspirations to bowl at the collegiate level. It is honestly just a good feeling to look back at all the hours I have spent in bowling centers and see that it has all paid off by bringing me to the level of bowler I am today. I am extremely thankful. The feeling of reaching this point in my bowling career and educational career is unbelievable, and it helps motivate me to achieve my future goals.”
The four-time All-Olympic Conference bowler and Eagle Scout is appreciative of the help he has had getting to this point, in and out of the bowling alley.
“I would just like to thank all the people who have supported me over the years because I could not have done it without them,” he said.
