Girls bowling: Wadsworth's Aubrey Masuda has unique bond with her mother

Aubrey Masuda didn't have the best day of her Wadsworth bowling career on Jan. 7, rolling a 337 series (158-179) as the undefeated Grizzlies downed Brecksville in a Suburban League match at Kolony Bowl. "I was a mess," the 16-year-old junior said. For good reason. While Aubrey was bowling, her mom Samantha was in the hospital recovering from surgery earlier in the day to remove her thyroid, having initially noticed a lump in her throat in March 2025. A biopsy revealed the lump was a tumor, which was removed during a November surgery and confirmed to be cancerous. Images of Sam's thyroid revealed some suspicious lesions, so doctors determined the best course of treatment was to remove it. On Jan. 8, Sam was found to be cancer-free. "I was relieved and grateful," Aubrey said. "I was just joyful." Until that diagnosis, bowling had been a great distraction for not only Aubrey, but Sam. For two or three hours a few times a week, Sam could watch her daughter compete and both could forget about real life for a while, especially since Sam's mother, Julie Masuda, is battling breast cancer. "Aubrey has been extremely emotional," Sam said. "With everything going on with me and my mom, she's been overwhelmed. She looks at my mom as a parent, so in her mind two of her parents are battling cancer. It's been very scary for her." Without bowling, tough but tiny Aubrey — the two-time All-Gazette pick is now 5-foot-1 and 96 pounds after growing an inch and adding two pounds since her freshman year — isn't sure how she would have coped. "It was definitely a great distraction," she said. "I was able to focus less on what was going on outside of bowling." Sadly, Sam endured a similar but much more heartbreaking situation with her father Dan, who was instrumental in developing her love of bowling, but first some background is needed. ALOHA! Sam was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Dan and Julie Masuda. Because her mom was in the U.S. Navy, Sam lived in San Diego from the ages of 5 to 8 before moving back to Hawaii, where the family lived with her dad's mom for a time. Eventually, the Masudas moved into military housing at Iroquois Point, which is located in Ewa Beach, like Honolulu located on the island of Oahu. Due to some financial struggles, several more moves followed before the family settled in Makakilo, where Sam attended Kapolei High, graduating in 2004 as part of the school's first freshman class. "I think I had a really standard, loving, happy childhood," Sam said. "Moving a lot was a bit rough, and starting at a new school and having to make friends over and over was a little bit difficult, but my parents did everything they could to make things easier for me." Sam, who started bowling while in San Diego then dropped the game until just prior to high school, had no way of knowing she would be doing the same for Aubrey years later, but that's getting way ahead of the story. Dan Masuda was his daughter's bowling coach her first two seasons at Kapolei before being diagnosed with prostate cancer, which already had reached an advanced stage. He died on Nov. 12, 2002, having made one request of his daughter, then a high school junior: "No matter what happens to me, promise me you'll bowl in the state tournament." Having made that vow, the day after her dad died 15-year-old Sam boarded a plane and flew to the island of Kauai to do just that — bowling is a fall sport in Hawaii — while her mother Julie remained home to attend to funeral matters. "We knew it was the end; we just knew," Sam said. "I didn't want to go, but he said, 'You've earned it and you've worked hard. I want you to compete.'" Having finished fourth individually at the state tournament as a freshman and 13th as a sophomore — Kapolei won the state team title her senior year, when she was 10th individually — Sam had no idea what to expect. On the first day of the event, she bowled six games and had a pinfall of 1,100, with a high game of 211, for an average of 183.3. Those were respectable numbers, but not state championship material. "Everything seemed normal," Sam said. "Everybody acted normal, aside from a few comments like, 'I heard about your dad. I'm sorry.'" The second day, using a 14-pound Track Mojo ball, Sam returned to Lihue Lanes and rolled games of 236, 227 and 224 for a 687 series. She ended up beating defending champion Jodi-Ann Gum of Pearl City by 33 pins to win the state title. For her nine games, Sam averaged 198.6. "During the second day, I realized I had a chance to win it," Sam said. "That's when things started getting weird. People in the bowling alley were acting different and I was in a bit of shock. There was a lot going on. The bowling community in Hawaii is very tight knit. A lot of people know each other. In the beginning, (the state tournament) was a distraction. That second day, it was sinking in a little more. "My dad was my coach, so I thought a lot about the things he taught me about how to stay calm and stay focused, but there was definitely a moment where I thought, 'How am I striking? How am I doing this?' I felt like he was helping me along." ON THE MOVE After graduating from high school, Sam briefly attended Chaminade University of Hawaii before deciding college was not for her. Her mom Julie had moved to North Carolina, so she relocated to be with her and earned her cosmetology license, which she still has. Eventually, Sam and Julie, also an avid bowler, returned to Honolulu, where Aubrey was born in 2009. Later, while working for the National Interstate Insurance Company, Sam gave birth to son Kayne, now 7. Because of the high cost of living in Honolulu, Julie also was still working. Sam wanted her mom to be able to retire, so she began looking for another place for the family to live. National Interstate Insurance is headquartered in Richfield, and Sam, who had advanced from customer service to a commercial lines underwriter, was told she would be able to keep her job if she came to Northeast Ohio. After looking at a few schools, Sam settled on Wadsworth, in part because of its bowling program. She, Julie, Aubrey, Kayne and Kayne's father, Destin Lum-Loque, moved there in the summer of 2023, prior to Aubrey's freshman year of high school. "I came up a few months earlier and met with a realtor here," Sam said. "We looked at a bunch of places and I liked this area the best." Though she loved Hawaii, Aubrey was open to the move, even though she would be more than 4,500 miles from her birthplace. "(Hawaii) was definitely a completely different culture than Ohio," she said. "Everyone there (in Hawaii) treats you like family, whether you're a blood relative or not. "(The move) didn't really bother me when I was told about it. I was curious, but I didn't think too deeply about it. It didn't bother me until I said goodbye to my family and left. That was hard." NEW SURROUNDINGS Having moved to a town where many families have lived for generations, making new friends hasn't always been easy for Aubrey, but bowling and spending part of her school day taking pharmaceutical science classes at Copley High through the Four Cities Compact have definitely helped. "We had a lot of talks her freshman year," said Wadsworth 2020 Division I state bowling champion Chris Steele, who is now an assistant with the boys and girls teams at his high school alma mater. "I truly felt for her. I can't imagine going into my freshman year of high school and moving across the country. Bowling truly is a great escape for that. That's where it's a really good thing that she has this game. "It's been tough for her. Everybody already has these great friendships, but that's where I've seen her grow since her freshman year. She embraces who she is. She's not trying to change herself to make anyone like her. It's been really fun to see her grow into her own person. She's a terrific young lady." Aubrey began bowling a month before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Hawaii in early 2020 and didn't pick up the sport again until September 2022, right after she had started her eighth-grade year. Her initial coach was Chad Pojas, but her mom was always there to help. "I had the basic fundamentals down and I was naturally good at them, but I wasn't consistent," Aubrey said. "I remember always wanting to increase my rev rate, but that was the wrong thing to concentrate on at that time. "I remember everyone kept making fun of me because I was 4-9," she added with a laugh. "(Pojas) worked on having me be square at the line. That was the main focus. He also really worked on spare shooting with me, but originally I was just born into bowling. My whole family, we're all bowlers. I've built great relationships through bowling." From the moment she showed up for practice as a Wadsworth freshman, Aubrey excelled. As a ninth-grader, she averaged a Medina County-high 180.4. As a sophomore, it was 179.5, which was second in the county and helped the Grizzlies win the Suburban League championship and qualify for the D-I state tournament. This season, she is averaging 183.0, with junior teammate Cassidy Myers at 183.8 and senior Addy Martin at 152.3 for the Grizzlies (11-0, 10-0). "Aubrey is very unique," Steele said. "She's probably the only high school bowler I've met who sees the game in the same technical aspect as I do. When the ball doesn't hook, she wants to know why it doesn't hook. She really wants to learn the game inside and out. We talk a lot about lane conditions and equipment, a lot of stuff most people really don't see. "Aubrey has a great physical game, but because of her size and stature, she doesn't have as much power as some players. We've talked about that a lot: You're throwing the best shot you can and that's all you can do. She wants to do so well for herself and her team, so when she can't perform, that's tough on her. It's even tougher when you feel like you are performing and aren't getting the results, but she's really grown when it comes to that side of things." MOTHER AND DAUGHTER Like any mother, Sam wants the best for Aubrey, but she's fully aware she can't project her dreams onto her, that she has to let her be her own person, that there can be a fine line — in bowling and in life — between offering advice and letting her figure things out on her own. "Me watching Aubrey, I'm very proud and excited for her," Sam said. "I'm hopeful for her, but I have to check myself and realize she's her own individual. Sometimes I think about opportunities I missed with my own bowling, but I try not to let that influence her journey." Aubrey, who like most teenagers can be headstrong at times, is grateful for everything her mom has done and continues to do, but that doesn't mean they always agree. "It's the strongest relationship I have out of anyone," she said. "It's been me and her since I was born. As moms and daughters do, we go through our rough moments, but it's just normal things. You learn as you grow. Mom's main thing is she knows best and wants the best for me, but I'm stubborn and I don't want to accept that. "She's a good bowler herself and she gives me advice about the things she's experienced, so it's beneficial — if I listen. But even when we're butting heads, I'll think about what she's said and use it in future moments." The owner of a 4.0 grade-point average, Aubrey would like to get a doctorate in pharmacy and hopes to bowl in college, with her current choices including Youngstown State, Vanderbilt, Wichita State and Jacksonville State (Ala.). A doting big sister to Kayne, Aubrey has returned to Hawaii twice since her family moved to Wadsworth but envisions living in Ohio as an adult. That's years down the road, though, so right now she's focusing on enjoying her final two seasons of high school bowling. "I would like to make it to state the next two years, hopefully with the team because that's always better," she said. "I would like to have a better average. It would be even cooler if I could win a state championship. That would be awesome. I know I have the passion and drive to do so." Aubrey, by her own admission, fears letting people down, especially her mom, so Sam is quick to remind her that all she can do is her best. "She's far better than me and she always will be," Sam said. "Sometimes there is a comparison factor, but I've been trying really hard to get away from that. I've found it's better to be supportive and not react to good things or bad. She's a little more emotional than I was, so it's better that way." Aubrey, who is elated at her mom's clean bill of health, knows about the circumstances that surrounded Sam's state championship and admires how she was able to compete so soon after her dad's death. "She's talked to me about it quite a bit, especially since we've moved here," Aubrey said. "She said it was extremely hard for her. She didn't know what to do with herself, but she wanted to do it for her dad. "I can't even imagine the hurt and pain she was going through. I don't ever want to know what that feels like." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.