Palmerton father, son team win Special Olympics bowling
Special Olympics athletes Matt Anthony, left, and Delina Rodrigues celebrate their recent wins. Anthony won on the national level, while Rodrigues won on the world level. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS
Performance under pressure is never a sure thing.
Ask Chris Anthony of Palmerton.
“It was me who didn’t step up to the plate,” he said when describing his game when he and his son, Matt, won the Special Olympics National Bowling Championships earlier this month. The event was held at the South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas.
“The pressure never got to my son Matt,” Anthony said. “He bowled 60 pins over his average with four strikes in a row in our first game, 30 pins over average in the second game and 20 better in the third.”
The Anthonys qualified to compete for the national title back in December when they knocked down a total of 1,066 pins in six games at the Fritz Lanes in Lehighton.
“We had the best scores in Carbon County,” he said. “Then they were submitted to the state to see if we could qualify for the nationals.”
They were notified in January that he and Matt would be one of two representatives who qualified from Pennsylvania, the other being a four-man team from Cambria County.
The Anthonys competition of unified doubles teams came from 30 states and from Ontario, Canada.
“We bowled three games scratch, meaning that there were no handicap points added to our actual scores,” Anthony said.
To be fair, the teams were placed into groupings based upon the bowler’s averages. Anthony carried a 135 average and Matt was at 115. Three game totals would determine the winners.
“We knew we had a chance to win the gold medal,” Anthony said, “but a team from Texas was very close, and it came down to their last game, their last frame, and their last bowler.”
Chris’s mother, Ruth Ann, was watching all the scores and also helped out in coaching her team.
She figured that the Texans had to strike or spare in the tenth, but they threw an open frame and the Anthonys were declared the title winners by 12 total pins.
“We won because Matt bowled great and way over his average,” Anthony said. “I was disappointed in my performance. There were 64 lanes and rows of people watching. I guess the pressure got to me a bit.
“Matt didn’t really grab the moment until the awards ceremony, and then he was so happy we won. There were smiles all around for the Anthonys.”
Winning the championship isn’t the end of the competition road for Matt and his father.
They will attempt to qualify for in the 2022 Nationals in Orlando, and a win there would send them on to Berlin, Germany, at the Special Olympics World Games in 2023.
