Every Monday at an alley in Kingston, a specific competitive bowling league plays its games. The league features several firefighters, police officers and postmen looking to enjoy themselves after a long day of work. Among them is one lanky professor with a Ph.D. in Communication and Information Science and long blonde locks of hair, awkwardly releasing the ball with his right hand while also leading with his right foot.
This is how Zach Arth, associate professor of sports communication at Marist, has been bowling his whole life. With this unique form has come remarkable success on the lanes and a prominent role in a local league in which he differs from the rest of the crew.
Arth has been bowling since he was two years old. Under the guidance of his father, who bowled once a week, Arth fell in love with the game.
At a certain point, however, Arth became a far better bowler than even his father could imagine. He joined his school’s bowling team as a middle schooler and kept playing until his junior year of high school, when he stopped playing temporarily.
“I was 16 years old and burnt out, because I had bowled my entire life at that point,” said Arth.
This break ended quickly, as he came back for his senior farewell tour. As a senior, he had his first perfect game, just a few weeks after taking the longest break of his bowling career.
That break helped him.
“Burnout is real, you gotta do what you can to deal with it,” Arth said. “I could’ve pushed through. I could’ve kept bowling and I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. I would’ve been miserable. It’s like, I need to know myself. I needed a break.”
This is the clearest representation of Arth and his time as a bowler. Bowling is not his career, and it is not his only way of unwinding after a busy day—it is just something he enjoys doing. During his junior year at SUNY Buffalo, he had to put the hobby on hold to pursue a career, and life, outside of bowling.
Besides a few occasional nights out bowling with friends, Arth was not getting the bowling reps he once did. It took until he moved to Poughkeepsie to teach at Marist to make his return to competitive bowling.
Even after a 7-year break, Arth found himself still a very capable bowler. He was named rookie of the year and was a key contributor to his team winning a championship in his first year with his league, called Romeo Chevy, Buick, GMC 2025. Despite the absolute mouthful of a name, this league is taken very seriously with a yearly restructuring of rosters through a draft.
This competitiveness, that all the players take to heart, unifies the league. For the most part, the league is made up of similar people—blue collar workers like truck drivers and factory workers. As Arth quickly climbed up the ranks within the league, people began to wonder about his career and background, which eventually led to nicknames like “The Professor” and “The Doctor.”
Bowling is different from most other sports because after a bowler makes their throws, they go back to their team. There’s a lot of downtime. In a league like this, it is a little different—while there definitely are some people that stay to themselves, the majority of the bowlers are willing to be social.
Arth is no exception to this. For as long as he can remember, he has been extroverted. Even when surrounded by people living different lifestyles, Arth doesn’t shy from conversation. Over time, he even established a post-game tradition of going to Taco Bell with a teammate after every game.
The connection does not go beyond bowling for him, though. After the bowling shoes come off and the post game meal is eaten up, Arth goes back home and prepares his next lecture. While some leaguemates will see one another throughout their workday or text in their downtime, Arth doesn’t have any of his teammates’ numbers.
His life away from the game is pretty different from most of his leaguemates—one time, another bowler who works seven days a week mentioned that Easter Monday was going to be his last day off for over a month. Meanwhile, as a professor, Arth gets the entire summer off and works three days per week during the school year. Still, they are all brought together by the lanes.
Despite their differences, Arth has no trouble getting along with the other players. He’s earned the title of team captain and now drafts a team of his own every year.
“I’m an odd-man out, but I say this and I do mean it, I feel more like myself there than I do [in the classroom],” said Arth.
Throughout his entire life, bowling has been foundational to who he is — but even though he feels at home on the lanes, he prefers to downplay its significance.
“I mean, really, it’s the lamest party trick ever.”
Edited by Max Rosen and Mike Schiavone
Photo by Max Rosen
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