Courtesy of Erin Coleman
The Pickerington North bowling team was the decisive 2023 OCC champion this season, which was an exciting achievement for the entire community. For Jacob and Jackson Neubauer, however, the championship was a family affair. Senior captain Jacob led the Panthers to their sixth OCC title alongside his freshman brother, Jackson.
Setting two all-time school records and leading the Panthers to an 11-1 run and a division championship, Jacob led the Central Ohio High School Bowling Conference (COHSBC) with a 219.1 average during the regular season and was awarded first place out of 372 varsity bowlers.
Last year, Jacob was also named District 12 Super Athlete of the Week and a finalist for Bowler of the Year. Earlier in March, he won the national Storm Youth Championship, bowling an average of 219.5 over 15 games.
Jacob isn’t new to the stress and pressure that comes with being one of the Panthers’ top bowlers to come through the program.
“For me, it’s just a lot of deep breaths. … It’s more of a step back where you don’t look at the big picture and just focus on one ball at a time,” Jacob says. “If anything, the stress increases but I think the game is really about who can manage it the best.”
Jackson finished his freshman year with a solid 195 average and is the next Neubauer in line to keep the excellence rolling.
Thanks to their father, Brian, the two brothers both started bowling around age 8 and were exposed to competitive bowling at around 14. Since then, the two have been each other’s default competitors.
“We’re just competitive, so we’re always trying to beat each other so we’re always on top of our game,” Jackson says. “I feel like he makes me better because it’s better competition and it’s someone that puts a little stress on me, which helps in those stressful situations.”
Jackson and Jacob recall one of their favorite memories of bowling together: when their team rolled a perfect 300 score during a banker-style game. In a banker game, there are five bowlers to each roster with each bowler responsible for two frames.
Jackson was responsible for frames three and eight while Jacob took five and 10. The coveted 300 can only be achieved by rolling 12 strikes in a row. Their parents joke about how, after Jacob bowled the final strike, the entire team tackled him at the end lane in celebration.
For the first time, Jacob and Jackson’s father joined the Panthers as a coach for the young men as they tacked on another OCC title.
“As they jived together, the team just got better,” Brian says. “It was fun being able to coach with the two of them on varsity but it was also fun watching the whole team build as the year went on.”
The boys personally got help from Jeff Robinson, a former Ohio State University women’s bowling club coach, and they credit Robinson for completely changing their game since they met him at the start of their competitive careers.
They learned some life lessons that go beyond the lanes, as well.
“Bowling has taught me that life is a process,” Jackson says. “Meaning your approach and your mental game, everything is just a process no matter what you do.”
Jacob agrees.
“You’re going to go through the ups and downs but you gotta be patient,” Jacob says. “You have to understand it’s not permanent and the odds are, when you go down, you’ll probably come up even higher, and that’s just how it goes.”
Isabelle Fisher is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
