Love for bowling takes Schaub to Pan American Games

Bowling first took Cassidy Schaub to college. Now the sport is about to take him to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the Pan American Games to represent the United States.

The first-year Team USA member from Polk, Ohio, was a standout football, basketball and baseball player at Mapleton High School in nearby Ashland, earning all-conference honors in baseball as a pitcher and first baseman. However, bowling was - and is - Schaub's first love.

"I was offered a scholarship to do something I love," said Schaub, who graduated from Pikeville College in Kentucky last year with a criminal justice degree. "There was no way I could pass that up."

The XV Pan American Games, which run July 13-29, are America's version of the Olympic Games which includes the Olympic Program sports and others that are not part of the Olympics. The bowling competition, consisting of singles and doubles events, is scheduled for July 23-26 at Barra Bowling Center, a 20-lane facility located in the Barra Shopping Mall.

Schaub, 23, is among the growing contingent of international players who have found success with the two-handed delivery, including High Roller champion Jason Belmonte of Australia and World Cup champion Osku Palermaa of Finland. In his delivery, Schaub keeps two hands on the ball throughout his swing until the release, at which point he is able to create a considerable amount of revolutions.

"When I started out (at age 5), I was too little to carry the ball with one hand to the line, so I would use two hands," said Schaub, a left-hander who earned his spot on Team USA with a third-place finish at the United States Bowling Congress Team USA Trials this past January. "A coach at home tried breaking me from doing that, but every time he walked away I would use two hands again."

Development and repetition of his two-handed delivery over years resulted in earning a scholarship at Pikeville, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school that has raised its profile in the college bowling world in recent years.

Schaub ended his collegiate career with a spot on the 2005-06 National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association All-America second team and received honorable mention in the Bowling Writers Association of America Collegiate Player of the Year voting.

Joining Schaub in Rio de Janeiro is another Team USA left-hander - Rhino Page (pictured left) of Topeka, Kan., who won four medals at the Men's World Championships in Korea last September and more recently captured three more at the Men's American Zone Championships in Guatemala.

"We should have a big edge in lane play. We will be able to bounce ideas off each other," said Schaub, who is employed as a health insurance claims processor. "Normally, we are battling through the transitions by ourselves. "Having someone as experienced as Rhino alongside me, it will be a huge help when it comes to lane play and ball selection.

"This is easily one of the biggest things I've ever done, knowing what a big deal this is. This is our Olympics."

Schaub and Page also will be joined at the Pan American Games by Team USA's Diandra Asbaty of Chicago and Tennelle Milligan (l-r) of Costa Mesa, Calif.

An estimated 5,500 athletes from 42 countries will compete in 28 sports at the XV Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. Conducted every four years, the first Pan American Games were held in 1951 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.