BUCYRUS, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—When it comes to bowling, Joe Powers doesn’t have a moment to “spare.”

Powers, the assistant bowling coach at Bucyrus High School, is an avid bowler himself who has racked up another accolade in his career – the Coach of the Month award sponsored by Lewis Family McDonald’s.

“I try not to just coach Bucyrus kids. I’ll always go out of my way to help the kids at other schools too,” Powers said. “I want everybody to bowl, to enjoy the sport. That’s basically how I look at it.”

Powers, 44, lead the boys’ team this year to a winning season which ended at the All-Northern 10 district tournament in Perrysburg, Ohio. There the Redmen finished fourth, the highest achievement for the bowling team in school history.

Powers also earned Coach of the Year honors for the All-N10 League, then capped off two great tournament runs himself, placing fifth in the Galion Invitational and qualifying for the top 16 in the annual Bill Rahm Tournament in Bucyrus.

This year he has already rolled two 300 games, adding to his career total of 10 perfect games. Three years ago, Powers said, he bowled back-to-back 300’s, finishing that series with an impressive score of 246. He has also had four series over 800.

A Bucyrus native, Powers was introduced to the sport at an early age. As a 10-year-old he started playing regularly in the Saturday morning youth league at Suburban Lanes in town.

He joined the club team in high school since bowling at the time wasn’t designated a varsity sport. He made the squad each year under coach Diane Kaple, who’s still the head bowling coach for both the boys’ and girls’ teams at Bucyrus.

Powers, who graduated in 2000, said it was Kaple who first got him interested in coaching the winter sport. He became her assistant coach in 2012 and eventually watched as his son and two daughters followed in his footsteps as Redmen keglers.

Powers is a regular in multiple leagues around the area, including the Tuesday morning league at Victory Lanes in Galion, the Friday night all-around league at Suburban Lanes, and the Brandy Winfield Memorial League at Cooper’s Bowl in Marion.

“I like the team camaraderie that you have. It’s all in who you bowl with that makes it so fun,” he said. “It’s a lifelong sport. You can bowl and golf your whole life.”