More than a hobby, bowling’s a career right up Leanne Hulsenberg’s alley
Leanne Hulsenberg, a California native, now a resident of Brigham City, is competing this month at the United Sates Bowling Congress Nationals in Reno, Nevada. She was a top female professional bowler on the old Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour, winning 26 titles in 17 years. She won the grand slam in the women's championships and is one of four female bowlers to exceed $1 million in earnings. She won the Women's U.S. Open in 2011. (KELLY KEITER/Standard-Examiner)
Leanne Hulsenberg, California native and current resident of Brigham City, is competing this month at the United Sates Bowling Congress Nationals in Reno, Nevada. She was a top female professional bowler on the old Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour, winning 26 titles in 17 years. She won the grand slam in the women's championships and is one of four female bowlers to exceed $1 million in earnings. Leanne - her nickname is "Boomer" - started bowling at the age of 8 and was on the pro-tour at age 19. She won the Women's U.S. Open in 2011. (Photo Courtesy of Leanne Hulsenberg)
Leanne Hulsenberg, originally from California, now a resident of Brigham City, is competing this month at the United Sates Bowling Congress Nationals in Reno, Nevada. She was a top female professional bowler on the old Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour, winning 26 titles in 17 years. She won the grand slam in the women's championships and is one of four female bowlers to exceed $1 million in earnings. Leanne - her nickname is "Boomer" - started bowling at the age of 8 and was on the pro-tour at age 19. She won the Women's U.S. Open in 2011. (Photo Courtesy of Leanne Hulsenberg)
Leanne Hulsenberg, a California native, now a resident of Brigham City, is competing this month at the United Sates Bowling Congress Nationals in Reno, Nevada. She was a top female professional bowler on the old Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour, winning 26 titles in 17 years. She won the grand slam in the women's championships and is one of four female bowlers to exceed $1 million in earnings. She won the Women's U.S. Open in 2011. (KELLY KEITER/Standard-Examiner)
Toddlers can bowl. Teenagers can bowl. So can moms and dads and grandparents.
That list includes the 46-year-old Hulsenberg, too, of course, although you’ll soon discover not everyone can bowl quite the way she does.
That’s because Leanne Barrette Hulsenberg is a bowling celebrity Utah can now claim as its own. The former Californian, who currently lives in North Ogden, has a string of 27 professional bowling titles to her name, including winner of the Women’s U.S. Open in 2011.
This very week, Hulsenberg — also known to fans as “Boomer” — has been competing in the United States Bowling Congress’ Nationals in Reno, Nev. — but won’t find out if she captures another title there until the months-long tournament ends in June.
From coast to coast, Hulsenberg has traveled to professional tournaments since she was 19 years old and fresh out of high school.
“My parents gave me their minivan so I packed up and went on the road,” Hulsenberg says during an interview at Storm Products in Brigham City where she works as marketing coordinator.
Nowadays, this super bowler is sometimes joined on a road trip by husband Gary Hulsenberg — he bowls, too — and their son Barrett, 5. And by the couple’s small army of up to 16 bowling balls.
Each ball has a unique purpose, Hulsenberg explains before leaving on her trip to Reno: “Some balls hook more, some balls go straight and there’s a few in between.”
So when it comes to packing up the family car for a tournament, “you just kind of pile them in there,” says the former Professional Women’s Bowling Association Player of the Year.
Hitting the alley
Leanne and Gary Hulsenberg moved to Utah in 2013 when they both accepted jobs at Storm Products, a manufacturer of bowling balls and bowling equipment.
“We love it (here), it’s beautiful,” Hulsenberg says. After living in highly populated California, she adds, “We’re happy that it’s a little slower pace.”
Five-year-old Barrett already has his own bowling ball and the couple are making the sport a family activity, just as it was when Hulsenberg grew up in Fremont, Calif., and her parents played in leagues a couple of times a week.
“I kept score for them; that was before we had automatic scoring,” says Hulsenberg, who was inducted into the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame in 2008 for her superior performance.
Leanne and her brother bowled in youth leagues and she says she not only enjoyed the game but also the friendships and camaraderie.
“It was just a good atmosphere for kids to grow up in,” Hulsenberg says. While others were heading off to various sports practices at the end of the school day, she says, “I was always the nerd who went after school to the bowling center.”
Young Leanne also began competing in tournaments and soon discovered she had a knack for knocking down those 10 pins. As she started beating bowlers older than herself, “that’s when I realized I was better than the average kid.”
Highs and lows
After graduating from Irvington High School, Hulsenberg joined the Professional Women’s Bowling Association. The pro tour ran for 26 weeks a year in different cities across the country with a group of about 40 to 50 players.
“They became a good group of friends, even though we were competitors,” she says.
Her pro career didn’t have the greatest of starts; placing third to the bottom in her very first event left Hulsenberg feeling “disappointed and disheartened.” But the next time she competed, she ranked 10th.
“I learned early on there were big ups and downs to being a professional bowler,” says Hulsenberg, named rookie of the year during her second year.
The North Ogdenite often ranked in the top five or 10 female bowlers during her 17 years in the PWBA. Her career came to an abrupt halt in 2003 when the association shut down due to financial woes.
Hulsenberg’s legacy includes being one of only four female bowlers to exceed $1 million in earnings and ranking third in all-time career titles. If the tour had continued, she says she might have reached the two women ranking above her, at 31 and 32 titles each.
But today’s bowling scene offers limited pro events to compete in, she says. When Hulsenberg won her 27th title at the Women’s U.S. Open in 2011 in Arlington, Texas, it was her first in eight years.
“To be third all-time is pretty cool,” she says, adding, “I’m very content with my career and there’s nothing I would really change about it.”
Going left
Lindsay Boomershine, 28, a professional bowler from Brigham City, says she used to watch Hulsenberg on many pro bowling events on television.
“I always wanted to be on TV and be successful like she was,” says Boomershine, who competes in about eight tournaments a year.
It’s not unusual for a bowler to have a great week on the lanes but to stay consistently at the top, playing at all sorts of venues, week after week, like Hulsenberg did on the pro circuit, is admirable, Boomershine says.
One of Hulsenberg’s strengths is that she isn’t one-dimensional in how she positions herself in the game; “I’ve seen her play all parts of the lane,” Boomershine says.
Hulsenberg is also known for her unique style of bowling — she “drifts” to the left during her approach to throw the ball.
“People tried to change it, and it was just what I did,” Hulsenberg says.
And what about that nickname?
“I hooked the ball a lot and someone gave me the nickname ‘Boomer,’ like I boom the ball,” says Hulsenberg, a two-time recipient of the PWBA’s Robby Award for sportsmanship and winner of the “grand slam” of the USBC Women’s Championships (capturing titles in four different events).
Giving back
To stay in shape, Hulsenberg says she walks 2 miles a day on her treadmill to keep her legs strong. She also practices her skills on her lunch hour at work, on the bowling alley found in the Storm Products manufacturing plant.
“It’s like my dream. If I couldn’t have one in my home, it’s great to have one at my work where I can come down and bowl,” she says.
Hulsenberg, who is competing in at least two other tournaments this summer, says she enjoys organizing tournaments and working with youth programs to give back to her sport.
“Personally, bowling has given me everything I have in my life,” she says, from playing on the pro tour to meeting her husband to working at the Utah bowling company.
Bowling remains the nation’s No. 1 participation sport, a pastime that offers good exercise, discipline and social interaction, she says. “It’s an all-around good sport that’s healthy for you and you can do it all year long — the weather doesn’t matter.”
Even after perfecting her skills on the alley for all these decades, Hulsenberg says she still finds her chosen sport a challenge.
Yes, everyone can bowl, she says, “but not everyone can do it well.”
Contact reporter Becky Cairns at 801-625-4276 or bcairns@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @bccairns or like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SEbeckycairns.
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