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Linus Hartings and Rick Hartings, proprietors of Pla-Mor Lanes in Coldwater, will be inducted later this month in the inaugural class of the Ohio High School Bowling Coaches Association's Hall of Fame for their contributions to supporting and coaching high school bowling.
COLDWATER - Just over 25 years ago, a mission began to make bowling a high school sport in Ohio in the same vein as football and basketball.
The task took time, but now, bowling is a sanctioned sport that is growing, with many schools sponsoring teams.
Two men who helped will be honored at the end of August.
Pla-Mor Lanes owners Linus (Liny) Hartings and son Rick Hartings will be inducted as part of the inaugural class of the Ohio High School Bowling Coaches Association's Hall of Fame on Aug. 30 at Worthington Hills Country Club in Columbus.
Rick Hartings, who has served as coach of the Coldwater bowling program from the beginning and is the current president of the OHSBCA, will be inducted as a coach while Linus will be honored for his contributions as a member of the Bowling Centers Association of Ohio (BCAO) for supporting the high school programs.
"It's an honor for me," said Linus Hartings, who this year celebrated his 50th consecutive USBC National Tournament in Reno, Nevada and the 50th anniversary of Pla-Mor Lanes. "Really. It's an honor."
"It's an honor for me too, and I'm not done coaching," said Rick Hartings. "But my wife (Patty) says, 'I'm getting closer to the end.' I'm a one year contract every year."
The idea of a hall of fame for high school bowling came from Rick Hartings' neighbor, Tom Brunswick.
"He always asked me, 'Does the coaches association have a hall of fame?' I said no, but we've talked about it, but it just sits on the backburner," said Rick Hartings. "Tom said you need to get it off the backburner and start pushing it because you guys deserve (the honors)."
The process of going from an idea to what goes on today, where high school bowlers not only compete for state titles, but have a chance to compete for college scholarships, has been a challenge both Hartings have taken to heart.
One hurdle to cross was getting the blessing of owners from other bowling centers. A high school-sanctioned league would threaten to take away from the lanes' own leagues for high school students. "If we would ever push it to the OHSAA, then they would have to stop youth leagues during that wintertime," said Rick Hartings. "A lot of proprietors didn't like that idea."
"I didn't look at it like we were losing league bowlers. I was looking at the increasing the sport as a whole and give other students in school the opportunity to play a sport if they weren't 6-6 or 240 pounds," said Linus. "Because anybody could bowl, that was my idea."
The high school and youth leagues moved to a schedule beginning in September and ending before the official start of the OHSAA season.
The area's two main high school conferences - the Midwest Athletic Conference and Western Buckeye League - demurred early on to establish league play. Rick Hartings then establish the West Ohio High School Bowling Conference, encompassing schools from the MAC, WBL, Shelby County League, the former Cross County Conference (now part of the Western Ohio Athletic League) and Temple Christian based in Lima. The conference began play in 1999. Weekly match days were rotated between the schools' home lanes with a postseason tournament helping determine the conference champions.
After several years of the OHSBCA sanctioning state tournaments, the first OHSAA-sanctioned state tournament was held in 2007. Coldwater defeated backyard rival St. Henry, which also uses Pla-Mor Lanes for its home lanes, for the first boys state championship, with Beavercreek winning the first girls state title.
From that point, the sport began to surge. Coldwater's boys won three more state titles and were runner-up several times. The Coldwater girls won five more titles. Also, WOHSBC members Wapakoneta, St. Marys and Celina also won titles.
"I remember meeting (then-OHSAA executive director Dan Ross) at the state final (when) he was there watching," said Rick Hartings. "I thanked him like for believing in us. It took a couple of years, they did a couple trial runs that, you know, looked at how many schools we had to have (to sanction the sport). It's still growing that they are considering going three divisions (the OHSAA has had two divisions since the 2013-14 season).
The success helped coax the MAC and WBL into making bowling league-sanctioned. The WBL had its first official bowling season in 2015-16 with the first MAC champions in bowling crowned in 2021.
The feeder system into the high school leagues, both the youth leagues and the junior high programs, have remained strong. Some of the schools have several teams competing in the junior high divisions, where teams are set up so that every team member gets a chance to bowl.
"That's how we promote our sport: the kids don't sit the bench, everybody gets a chance to go start or get in," said Rick Hartings.
"(Years ago) we only had like six lanes of youth program," said Linus Hartings. "Now we have three shifts of 16 lanes."
Both Hartings are expecting a group of supporters to attend the ceremonies.
"There's a few of them coming," said Rick Hartings, who was nominated by Coldwater athletic director for the hall, while Rick nominated Linus.
Both Hartings have been able to see the bowlers they mentored in their younger days, as many continue to bowl in leagues at Pla-Mor and other bowling centers.
"I would like to know the number but I know it's a very large number," said Rick Hartings. "The people that I have coached over the last 27 years that have gotten married or went to college, (then) came back and got a job and then now they continue to bowl."
"I've said many a time that if we do the high school program right, that will be the salvation of men's adult leagues in the future," said Linus Hartings. "And we definitely show that here."
Also being inducted on Aug. 30 will be coaches Joseph Altimore (Massillon Perry), Bob Bobbitt (Beavercreek), Greg Coulles (Centerville, Kettering Fairmont, OHSBCA), Tom Hart (North Olmstead), Shane Ison (Hillsboro), Jane Kline (Bellefontaine, Andy Parker (Miamisburg, Centerville) and Kurt Scott (Urbana) along with BCAO contributor Frank Ruggerie.
