After a summer of striking gold in Peru, Spencer Robarge is ready to keep honing his bowling skills on the plains of Kansas.
Springfield’s young bowling phenom, who already has 59 sanctioned perfect games to his credit, leaves this week for his junior season at traditional college bowling powerhouse Wichita State.
For Robarge, who turns 21 on Sunday, it’s another part of the process toward his goal of not just a career in professional bowling, but one filled with championships. He was named collegiate bowler of the year as a sophomore and already bowled on national television in a professional major final round while a senior at Kickapoo High School.
For good measure, Robarge has declared a second major at Wichita State with human resource management to go along with business management. He knocks down good grades just like he does bowling pins with career plans and goals mapped out.
It’s a reason the lefty with a unique two-hand delivery is in no hurry to turn pro and join the Professional Bowlers Association Tour until he’s a college grad.
“I could get my degree by doing online courses and bowl on tour if I wanted,” Robarge said. “Some people skip going to college, all together. I don’t think it’s the greatest idea. A lot of kids are going to school, getting their degrees and getting four years of coaching, and then trying to go and pursue it. I think that’s the better way.
“You have a degree and something in your back pocket that you can use. You never know when your last shot is going to come. Freak things can happen. Unfortunately, you have to plan for stuff like that.”
Bowling on international stages
Staying in college also allowed Robarge a chance to bowl overseas for Team USA. Along with last month’s Pan Am Games in Peru — where he won gold in singles, doubles, trios and team events — he was part of Team USA at the Under 21 World Championships last year in Sweden.
“It’s hard enough to make it on the team, but it’s harder to be selected to go. It means all the hard work and dedication was worth it,” Robarge said. “I’ll be able to look at the medals and be able to remember all the hard work I put in, all the good times and sometimes the tough times.”
Admittedly not much of a sightseer, Robarge said the Team USA men’s and women’s bowling team members were able to make memories the day before returning home from Peru. He called the ocean views spectacular, though drivers in the South American country are to be feared.
“They aren’t very good drivers over there. Everybody’s car looked like it had been through some sort of war,” he said. “They run into anything and everything. The weather was just beautiful. Same temperature every day. It was 73 every day — and we were there for 9 or 10 days — and 64 at night.
“I’m not a big sightseeing person. I’m more focused on the bowling, but it was beautiful.”
Honing his craft
Robarge’s bowling scores are beautiful more often than not, as they have been since he was a wee lad growing up around the sport. His grandmother, Clara Vest, worked at Enterprise Park Lane lanes and his older brother, Blake Demore, was a renowned youth bowler before earning a scholarship to Wichita State himself. Mom Susan Robarge has been the ultimate supporter of both Blake and Spencer.
Demore still dabbles in some professional bowling while running the pro shop and giving lessons at Century Lanes in Nixa. Robarge, who practices out of Century Lane when he’s home, said he would like to run a bowling center with his brother someday.
“I was never any good at anything else,” Robarge said, of any other sports interests while growing up. “I’ve always been a little bit shorter. I’m not very fast. Bowling, luckily, you don’t have to be very fast or tall. I really never tried anything else, honestly.”
Robarge’s first 300 game came at age 12, about the time he switched from the traditional one-hand delivery to two hands. At his size, the two-handed delivery was a way for him to better control the ball, while also generating more power with the roll. He was a bit ahead of his time, as he estimates that about half of youth bowlers these days use the two-handed style.
Robarge recalled spending entire days bowling as a youngster, honing his delivery. He went on to lead Kickapoo High School’s team to a state championship as a sophomore. The Missouri state tourney was canceled due to COVID-19 his final two seasons.
“I would say in high school years, at least 10-15 a day,” Robarge said of practice games. “There were days I put 30 or 40 games in during a day. When I was five or six years old, they would give me a lane and I would bowl until they told me I couldn’t bowl any more.
“I still enjoy practicing. I think that’s a huge plus. A lot of people lose the desire to put a lot of work in.”
Practice and patience
Kickapoo bowling coach Jeff Phillips said Robarge is the special talent in his sport that combines ability with a burning desire to be the best.
“Spencer’s practice and work ethic are second to none,” Phillips said. “For as long as I can remember, way before he bowled at Kickapoo, anytime I would be in a bowling alley, he was usually there practicing. I would see him practicing in the afternoon, and then see him practicing that night while the late scratch travel league was going on.
“He also practiced with a purpose. He wasn’t just throwing shots. He was working on things all of the time. He worked harder than any other bowler, junior or adult that I have ever seen in person. It’s the combination of the two that makes him so special.”
Robarge said he’s learned patience more than anything since enrolling at Wichita State, where former PBA Tour standout Rick Steelsmith is the head coach. Robarge said Steelsmith doesn’t focus on the technical aspects of his delivery, instead helping more with the mental side of the game.
“From there it’s just working on trying to attack the lanes to where there is more score out there, to make more spares,” Robarge said. “Maybe 5-10 years ago it was working on new things to do in my shot, different ways to hold the ball. It seems more now than ever it’s about seeing what’s on the lane and maximizing the scoring potential.”
College and the pros at the same time
One of the cool things about college bowling is the opportunity to enter PBA Tour events, and even keep the prize money, while maintaining college eligibility. College bowlers just can’t attain PBA Tour membership, so that means having to go through the PTQ (pre-tournament qualifying) process to make the field.
Robarge made it into the Springfield Classic last winter in his hometown, but failed to make the cut to the top 24. He hopes to bowl that tournament, and some other PBA stops, in the upcoming season.
He’s already had some professional success, finishing third in the 2021 USBC (United States Bowling Congress) Masters. He won two games before falling in the semifinal match to eventual champion Jesper Svensson in a glimpse of possible greatness ahead.
It might be one year or five, but Robarge definitely yearns to be great. Just being on the PBA Tour isn’t enough — he wants to win, but isn’t going to rush the timeframe.
“The way it is now that we can bowl PBA stuff in college is really beneficial,” he said. “I’m getting a lot of good experience and kind of seeing if this is a viable career path,” he said. “I’m thinking right now it is. But we still have two years before we get to that point.
“I'm just going to put a lot of work in, bowl some tour stops and if I’m still on the right path I would love to bowl on tour and be successful. But we’re gonna have the degrees in case that doesn’t work out. If not, I’ll still bowl every weekend tournament there is and maybe bowl some (PBA) regionals in the process. I would definitely like to be a decent professional bowler and win some stuff along the way.”
