LAKEVILLE - For LaVille's Ryan Carmichael, his involvement with bowling has opened up many new doors. Last school year, Carmichael led the LaVille High School bowling team to a sectional and regional runner-up in the team state tournament. The Lancers finished in the Top 10 overall at the state tournament. Individually the then-freshman closed up the high school season as the 2025 state runner-up and the only freshman to earn a spot on the Indiana All-State team. That's pretty special. But according to LaVille bowling coach Kevin Kubsch, this was the first time that Kubsch and Carmichael met. I'll let the coach tell the story. "I first met Ryan in the winter of 2021, I believe," recalled Kubsch. "He was bowling two-handed and had no holes in his ball. I called him over, then mentioned something to his mom about taking his ball to the pro shop to at least get some holes drilled. He has just taken off from there." After a successful freshman campaign, Carmichael continues to improve his game and take advantage of the many doors being opened for him. One stop on Carmichael's agenda, the United States Bowling Congress' Junior Gold Championships. The event, held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, played host to over 640 bowlers in the 15-under program. "It's the biggest youth bowling tournament in the country every year," said Carmichael. "There are the best bowlers from all 50 states who show up, including Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, and even people from China and Japan." According to coach Kubsch, this is a tremendous opportunity for Ryan. "This tournament has youth bowlers from all over the United States and Canada that come and compete in a host city," said Kubsch, referring to the scope of the Junior Gold tournament. "This year the tournament was held in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area and was attended by 2,695 youth bowlers. "These bowlers compete in both girls and boys events and are broken down into three groups. Those groups are U18, U15 and U12 groups both on the boys and girls side. They bowled 16 games of qualifying to move onto match play." Kubsch shared that Carmichael got off to a strong start in match play, bowling his first-ever 300 game in competition. "Ryan finished 15th after his days of qualifying averaging just over 210. He advanced to the Match Play side of the tournament where in his 1st round of Match Play he bowled a 300 game, which was his first-ever sanctioned 300." When asked about his first official 300 game, Carmichael replied, "It means so much just to have had all of those incredible bowlers who were all bowling on the same pattern as me, watch me shoot 300 the very first game. It's honestly hard to put into words other than that, that's how much it means." In the qualifying series, bowlers are continuously moved around based on their daily scores and changing averages. "There is a minimum of 16 games that the participants bowl," noted Carmichael. "I had to bowl over 30 (games) because I made it so far. So, there is a lot of bowling." Overall he finished in the top 12 at the Jr. Gold tournament in Green Bay. "He's got a work ethic that has him being one of the best in the state (of Indiana)," insisted Kubsch. "He practices five or six days a week. Any tournament he can find, he bowls in it. What makes this so special is that these games are bowled on some of the toughest oil patterns in the game of bowling. That is what makes what Ryan did so special. To my knowledge I believe he finished 12th overall in the 15U group out of the 644 competitors." Carmichael closed our Q&A session with some things he took away from Green Bay. "I met so many new people from everywhere around the country, whether it's from close places like Illinois or Michigan, or faraway places like Hawaii, Texas, California, and Florida. Honestly, that's my favorite part about this tournament. Plus, all of the potentially huge opportunities because all of these different people saw it, and the fact that it was in matchplay was impressive. I got around $1000 from my placement and shooting the 300, which all goes to the SMART account, which slowly builds up until college when I need it." What's next on Ryan's agenda? "I'm going to try to bowl in a lot of tournaments around Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Kentucky for the time being. And stay somewhat local. "I'm just so happy I got blessed by the bowling gods with the ball reaction to shoot 300, I learned that people from Hawaii are cool people, and just for future reference, it's Junior Gold." Keep finding those doors, Ryan!