Jackson’s Tyler Amos impressing as a bowler and student

While he hasn’t been bowling for long, Jackson graduate Tyler Amos has had a tremendous amount of success.

Amos began his bowling career when he was just a freshman in high school.

“One of my friends asked me at a basketball game if I wanted to go to a bowling practice,” Amos said. “I didn’t know if I would be very good but I figured I would give it a shot. I started the first practice and just took off from there.”

That practice on a random January in 2020 is what kickstarted the incredible success Amos would have as a bowler.

“Other than birthday parties I had never bowled before,” Amos said. “I go to tournaments and people there have been bowling their entire lives and then there’s me who’s been bowling since the start of my high school career.”

As Amos goes around competing in tournaments, he feels that since he started bowling competitively so late, he has a slight advantage.

“I’m just now starting to gain love for the sport,” Amos said. “Everyone else has just been on a plateau the last few years and I just keep climbing. I do feel like it is an advantage for me.”

Amos’ list of impressive accomplishments feature multiple wins at tournaments in St. Louis, recognition as the USBC Youth Bowler of the Year in Cape Girardeau and the MOUSBC Youth Bowler of the Year.

On top of those accomplishments, Amos has also received multiple scholarships because of his bowling and success academically.

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of all however, came in July when Amos was informed he would be on the Dexter High School All-American Team.

All members of the team had to apply and the requirements to be considered were at least a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale, a resume of their bowling and academic achievements along with an essay.

“I applied for it in April and I really didn’t think I had a chance of making it at all,” Amos said. “But, when I got that phone call I was on top of the world.”

Not only did Amos make the team, he was named a team captain along with Jena Edwards of DeWitt, Iowa.

“I didn’t know I was (named team captain) until the day we were getting our awards,” Amos said. “The original phone call just told me I had made the team. At the breakfast and award ceremony is when I got the word I was team captain and it was really special to me.”

Amos said he takes pride in the fact that he not only excels as an athlete, but as a student as well.

“It’s not too tricky to balance,” Amos said. “I feel like school has come decently easy to me but I still have to work hard to make sure I’m doing well in both.”

At the high school level, Amos was also a part of the Jackson Indians bowling team that won a state championship in 2022.

“That day was a blast,” Amos said. “We were standing up and yelling and screaming and we managed to stay in first place the entire day. To take home the win was just amazing.”

Now that Amos’ high school career has concluded, he will continue bowling on scholarship at Lindenwood University.

“I’m really excited to start this new path in my life,” Amos said. “I’m excited to keep getting better at bowling.”

As far as differences between the high school and collegiate level, Amos said he has an idea of what to expect.

“Most of the guys I’m going up against are going to be at my level or better than me,” Amos said. “I haven’t been used to that yet so that will be a big change for me.”

Part of battling through that change will be managing the mental aspect of the game.

“If you don’t have a good mental game then it completely ruins your game,” Amos said. “Some tournaments I catch myself getting angry and then my scores reflect that.”