Cairns sets sights on YBC nationals

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This article was published 01/05/2025 (245 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s easy to see that Alexis Cairns is at home at Thunderbird Bowl.

The 15-year-old Grade 10 student at Vincent Massey, who is headed to nationals next week in Edmonton, has grown up in the game at the facility on the south side of the city.

“There is so much practice,” Cairns said with a chuckle. “I joke and say this is my second house, because I do live here lots and have gotten to know a lot of the workers here at T-Birds and Trevor (Peters) being the owner. It’s just been awesome.”

She throws a couple times a week and also rolls in two leagues, which is a lot of work for a sport she initially took up just for the fun of it.

“It has been quite the career,” Cairns said. “My grandparents bowled in Winkler at the old lanes before the new ones were built and started taking us whenever we went there in the summer and I started liking it. it was ‘This is fun!’ One day we were at the mall and they had all the kids activities to join and T-Birds was there.

‘It was like ‘Let’s check this out,’ and me and my mom checked it out and there was a youth bowling option and I said ‘I would really like to try it.’”

As it turned out, she was a natural. She began participating in the youth league and Peters noticed something in the youngster.

“In 2022, Trevor was like ‘This girl has potential,’ and Trevor and I started working together,” Cairns said. “I won provincials and nationals that year and it was crazy. It was an absolute whirlwind events of starting and thinking you’re just here to throw a bowling ball and there’s not that much to it, to winning nationals.”

Bowlers take a couple of steps to qualify for national championships. It starts in the Youth Bowl Canada (YBC) league in Brandon on Saturday mornings, with the top bowlers then heading to Winnipeg for provincials for separate YBC and Canadian Tenpin Federation (CTF) events.

If you win provincials, that earns a spot at nationals. She started heading to provincials around age 10, and has won gold four times.

This year, the YBC provincials were held in Brandon, which helped as she earned her spot at nationals, which are in Edmonton from Monday to Wednesday.

“I’m very nervous going into nationals now,” Cairns said. “I was nervous going into provincials because it’s my last year as a junior, next year I’m an intermediate in CTF provincials and a senior for YBC, so it was a lot of pressure going in.”

Cairns attended her first big event in 2022 — the CTF national championships in Winnipeg — and came away with gold in doubles, and silver in singles, teams, all-events and team all-event.

At YBC nationals, she earned singles gold and combo team bronze.

She also attended nationals in 2023, winning a team medal, but wasn’t at either national event last year.

Cairns had an exceptional season in 2023-24, earning National League awards of merit from the Canadian Tenpin Federation when she had a 172 average and 639 series, which were both highs in Canada in the junior girl division.

Cairns said she is usually very nervous the morning of big events, but when she arrives at the bowling alley and gets herself out on the lanes, she calms down a little.

She noted there is a very different energy at nationals, in part because she’s made so many friends with other top bowlers across Canada.

“It’s quite different,” Cairns said. “It’s an awesome atmosphere. You get to meet people but you also get to see people you haven’t met, so that’s really nice when you get there. It’s friends you don’t often see, so it’s awesome to see them. You’re a little more calm when it comes to that because you see your friends and have people there you’re bowling with.

“The intensity of everything in bowling and trying to win — you want to get that gold — so it is very high intensity and the energy is loud. It’s very loud in the bowling alley because every team has their own cheers and your parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and all the family are rooting for you if they come. It’s very energetic in there.”

She isn’t a hurry to leave after she bowls, instead taking time to watch her fellow competitors. She said it’s easy to spot small things she can add to her game. There’s just one thing she doesn’t watch.

“When I’m sitting there most of the time, I’m just watching my other opponents throw and seeing if there are things I can pick up on, like what ball they’re throwing, what arrow they’re throwing at and where there ball is exiting the lane,” Cairns said. “It’s just learning tips for me but if I’m not doing that, shoutout to my mom, I’m up there talking to her and trying to keep my eyes off the scoreboard and not watch it, because I feel like that’s when I get in my head.”

That’s the rub when it comes to bowling and many other sports. You can throw your best, and if somebody happens to have a better day, you’re out of luck.

Cairns embraces that in her approach.

“I’m definitely more of a let’s-go-have-fun kind of person,” Cairns said. “When I’m going into this event, of course I want to throw really good and come out with another banner to hang here at T-Birds, but I get it if things go wrong.

“I want the results of good things but I want to have fun and take it as another experience.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com