Connor Dorion is getting ready for the national five-pin bowling championships and he’s looking for strikes across the board.
The Midland man is representing Ontario at the championships, where he’ll go up against one bowler from each of the other provinces.
The two time junior champ now plays with the big boys in the men’s ranks. And he’s heading to Winnipeg as one of the favourites to win it all.
“Expectations are high,” he says. “Last year was my first year in the men’s category and it was a little challenging to move out of the junior division and into the men’s.”
Dan McGinnis at Springwater Lanes says Dorion is “the best bowler we've ever produced here in Midland for sure.”
Dorion won almost every tournament at every level, including his first taste of nationals competition eight years ago in Sudbury.
“We were there but we left because he was losing and didn’t think he had a chance,” says his grandfather Pat Dorion. “And when he came back on the Monday night and he had won it.”
Although it skipped a few generations, apparently five-pin runs in the family.
“My great grandfather, they tell me, was a great five-pin bowler so that’s where I get my skill from,” Connor Dorion says.
In 2013, he was named rookie of the year. Now, the 22-year-old is the newly-crowned men’s bowler of the year.
And he's finding his stride quicker than most on the tour.
“He can read the house like nobody I've ever seen. He can adjust to the conditions and the competition and if he sees something he can make it happen,” says McGinnis.
Dorion's true strength is in quickly figuring out what works and what doesn’t. When he misses a pin, it's automatic: He'll get it next time.
“If he leaves a corner pin, there’s no doubt he's going to pick it off,” McGinnis says. “His spare conversion rate is massive.”
Dorion is expecting big things in Winnipeg, having already been to nationals three different times and bringing home two gold and one silver. He’s making some room on that trophy case for another gold.
