Kruse’ing Down the Lane

By M. J. CASIANO

VERMILLION, S.D. – Mike Kruse Jr., 26, has a wife, daughter and son. He runs Empire Bowl in Sioux Falls and loads UPS trucks 20 hours a week.

Somehow, he finds time bowl.

“It’s hard to do,” said Kruse, who lives in Vermillion and has broken into the professional ranks. “But we make it work.”

“Well, he does have some time off during the summer when the bowling season is slow,” Randy Svendsen said. “The shop is also slow during the summer. He finds time.”

Kruse took up the sport at 5, and has bowled competitively since he was 10, when he averaged 125. By age 13, he averaged 206.

Since then, Kruse has recorded nine 300 games and six 800 series games.

His father, Mike Sr., started his son in bowling because of his own passion for the game. The older Kruse is a board member on the United States Bowling Congress.

Some may know the younger Kruse from the USBC, or perhaps from his top score of 297 at the Prairie Inn bowling lanes in Vermillion.

“I don’t bowl there that much,” he said. “I go to Suburban Lanes more often.”

Kruse is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association, in a region that includes  North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska.

He is “an extremely outstanding bowler,” said Svendsen, a teammate from Volin, S.D. “I’d rank him very high with the bowlers in his region and state.”

“I won my first title in Raytown, Missouri,” Kruse said. “It paid out $2,500.”

Although he has come close, Kruse has not yet made it on a televised EPSN tournament.

“I was about three matches away from getting on TV,” Kruse said. “I got seventeenth out of 580, ended up winning $2,000.”

That’s chump-change compared to what is possible in the PBA’s national top 64.

“If you are in the top 64, you get a $1,800 check even if you finish last every week,” Kruse said. “That’s $50,000 in a four-month season.”

Getting to that point is a challenge, but the money would offset his feuds with another professional, Pete Weber.

“Weber and I have a personal problem,” Kruse said. “We got in a little fight.”

At the Masters, an amateur event, Weber thought Kruse wasn’t giving him enough lane courtesy.

“Some words were said,” Kruse said. “He made a 150, and I made a 250. I made the cut and he didn’t.”

But Weber isn’t the only competition he has to worry about.

Injuries are an athlete’s worst enemy, and Kruse is recovering from arm surgery.

“I had an odd thing,” he said. “The ulna bone was too long. It was rubbing on the other bone, and it caused pain.”

Kruse had an inch taken off his ulna bone and had a five-inch metal plate and seven screws put in his arm.

“It’s doing pretty good though,” he said. “I’ve got about another month and a half of rehab.”

Then there is competition and adversity that can be helpful, too. His father is also a talented bowler.

“We’re pretty even,” the son said. “I guess it just depends on the day. Our skill levels are pretty close.”

Whenever the two enter a doubles tournament, they split the prize money.

“That works out pretty good,” he said. “I had a better year, but it can go both ways. ”

In fact, in 2001 the two were the first father and son to bowl 300 in a doubles event.

“Since I was ten I’ve always wanted to be a pro bowler,” Kruse said.

Well, he has done just that, and in a mannerly way.

“He’s very kind,” Svendsen said. “One things that sticks out is that he’s never arrogant about the success he’s had.”

Some of that could be attributed to the strong relationship he’s had with his father.

“They are about as close as it gets for father and son,” Svendsen said. “They sit together like pieces of a puzzle.”