Running on only a few hours of sleep, Logan Fisher still had plenty of energy as he talked through the U12 team’s path to a regional championship. The long day he and co‑coach Ryan Savoy spent guiding five young bowlers through 21 games at Cedarvale Lanes in Eagan was still fresh in his mind, and the excitement hadn’t worn off.
Fisher, who owns Silver Bowl in Silver Bay, left town at 4:30 a.m. Sunday with two of his children on the U12 roster and another on the U15 team. The early departure was necessary to get to the USA Bowling Upper Great Lakes Regional, the final of 16 regional tournaments held across the country. Only one U12 team from the region (which includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa) would advance to the national championship.
The U12 roster included Brielle Fisher and Keenan Fisher of Silver Bay, Myla Savoy of Superior, Owen Davis of Bruno, and Zachary Olein from Oakdale, MN. Many of them had been identified as top youth bowlers in Minnesota, and Fisher said the group came together quickly when the opportunity arose.
“We received an email saying that he (Keenan) had been noticed as a top U12 bowler in Minnesota and wanted to know if we wanted a team,” he said. His daughter had also been recognized as a top female bowler in the division.
The tournament began with an eight‑game qualifier in the morning. The team’s first game showed nerves.
“Their first game was a 150 and they looked a little jittery, but then after that they settled in,” Fisher said.
They found a rhythm, posting consistent scores in the high 160s and low 170s.
“They had one 200 game, they had a couple of 192 games, but they were very consistent scorewise.”
By the end of qualifying, they had earned the top seed.
The format was Baker‑style, with each bowler responsible for specific frames. Fisher explained it simply: “You can’t just have one good bowler. You need several solid bowlers because the name of this particular game is you got to get marks.”
Spares and strikes mattered more than individual heroics, and the team’s steadiness kept them in every match.
Bracket play followed a double‑elimination format. The team won its first match 2–1, then its second by the same margin. They swept their third match 2–0 before dropping a tight 1–2 round that forced a final showdown for the regional title. By then, the day had stretched long.
“We started at 9 a.m. and the last match ended at 5 p.m.,” Fisher said. “It was a long day and a lot of bowling games, but it was a fun experience for the kids.”
The championship came down to the last frame of the last game. The scores were low, 131 to 130, and the team needed a spare to win. The bowler stepping up had missed the same spare earlier in the tournament.
“He rolled his shot and about halfway down the lane you could tell by his body language he knew he hit it,” Fisher said. “He jumped up pretty good and the whole team pretty much went pretty crazy there for a minute.”
Across the 21 games they bowled, Fisher said the team averaged around 172 to 174. He joked, “We found about 18 ways to find 170.”
They came close to a clean game but never quite got one. Still, the consistency was enough to carry them through a field that included teams from as far as Green Bay and Madison.
The roster’s experience helped. Fisher noted that several of the bowlers have won or placed highly at the Minnesota youth state tournament.
“Zachary, Brielle, and Keenan over the past four years or so have won multiple state titles and placed in the top 10 in the division multiple times,” he said.
Their averages range from 136 to 170, with the youngest bowler steadily improving. According to Fisher, “He’s been learning and getting better over time here.”
The win earned the team a spot in the USA Bowling National Championships, set for July 8–9 at Lucky Strike Lanes in Lakeville. Two of the bowlers have also qualified for the U12 Junior Gold Tournament in Minneapolis–St. Paul later in July. Fisher expects to spend much of the month in the Twin Cities.
“I don’t plan this being every summer thing,” he said. “It’s potentially once in a lifetime type of thing. That’s not every day you can be considered a top 16 team in the United States,” he said. “They should be very proud of themselves.”
