Gazette MVP: Buckeye senior bowler Edwin Ortiz is quick study

Edwin Ortiz is not only the best high school bowler in Medina County, he's the most improved. As a hard-throwing Buckeye freshman more interested in having fun with his friends than knocking down pins, Ortiz threw the ball 23 mph while bowling one-handed. When he hit the pocket, the pins exploded, but that didn't happen very often. The 14-year-old averaged a whopping 113. Now a 6-foot, 200-pound senior, the 17-year-old Ortiz has perfected the two-handed style and slowed his ball speed to 18 to 19 mph, the result being nearly a 100-pin jump in average, to 212.6, and Gazette MVP honors for boys bowling. "I actually started bowling when I was a freshman because I was looking for a winter sport to do with my friends, so me and a few others joined the team," Ortiz said. "I could throw it hard, but I could not aim the ball whatsoever. I was really in it to hang out with friends and have fun. I wasn't too concerned about the scores." That changed when Ortiz began experimenting with the two-handed style on his strike ball as a sophomore. Self-taught through YouTube videos, he even started shooting spares two-handed toward the end of that season and finished with a respectable but still not great 159 average. "It was a fresh start from the 113 average," he said with a laugh. "There was a lot of room to go up." Ortiz really got serious between his sophomore and junior seasons, when he worked even more on the two-handed style with Louie Pyros and Justin Rak, who is now an assistant with the Medina boys program. Ortiz even shot a 300 while practicing prior to a Saturday league and rolled three-game series of 825 and 832 outside of the high school season. Having averaged 203 and earned All-Gazette honors as a junior, he saved the best part of his high school career for last. As a senior, Ortiz led county prep bowlers in average, tied for first in two-game series (504), tied for second in high game (278) and was fifth in three-game series (659). The latter came at the Summit County Division I Sectional at Spins Bowl, where he finished second among all bowlers to lead the Bucks to a Northeast District team berth. Ortiz also averaged 221 in North Shore Bowling Conference matches. "He was up there (at Medina Lanes) practicing almost every day of the week," Buckeye coach Nancy Tinney said. "He would ask the mechanic to put out a sports shot for him. He knew the specific patterns he wanted to work on. He's very knowledgeable about bowling, and he just fell in love with it." Ortiz owns 19 bowling balls, 14 of which he still uses. All the ones in his rotation weigh 15 pounds, with his three favorites being a DV8 Troublemaker, Trident Abyss and Roto Grip Attention Star. When he wants a specific pattern at Medina Lanes, he asks operations mechanic Nick Pedraza or high school teammate Michael Baeppler, who also now works at the facility. "He's very consistent," said Tinney, who credited assistant coach Chris Baumiller for his work with Ortiz. "He knows where his break point is, and he knows which ball will hook more and which one will hook less. He's able to find the line and ball he wants, and he's very meticulous about adjusting. "He's very polite, very studios and very helpful to other bowlers. He will even meet them to practice and give them pointers. His personality and demeanor are just so helpful. He's always smiling." Ortiz is so dedicated to the sport that while on vacation with his grandparents in Prague, Czech Republic, he found a bowling center so he could get in some practice. "It was super nice," he said. "The actual lanes and approaches were identical to those in Medina." While able to have fun, Ortiz doesn't mess around when it's time to get serious. He scored a 1380 on the SAT, which places him in the 94th percentile, and carries a 4.5 grade-point average, which ranks sixth in Buckeye's senior class. Having received two scholarships from the United States Bowling Congress, plus money he won at tournaments that went into a college fund, Ortiz has narrowed his college choices to Ohio State, Purdue and Vanderbilt. He plans to continue bowling wherever he goes. Ortiz also attained the rank of Eagle Scout at the unusually young age of 13. For his final project, he built a chimney swift tower at Killbuck Lake Nature Preserve in Burbank. Twelve feet high and still standing, it serves as a nesting place for birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Ortiz also has earned a World Conservation award, 91 merit badges — 21 are required to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout — and 14 Eagle Palms, which are badges of honor awarded to those who stay involved in the organization after becoming an Eagle Scout. There still, however, is plenty of time left for bowling, with Ortiz planning on competing in the Junior Gold Championships in Detroit in July. "I'm not sure where all this will lead," he said. "I definitely plan on continuing in college and adult leagues and tournaments, but I don't know the extent. It might be small tournaments, but it also might be PBA Regional events." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.