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​Sometimes bowling reminds you just how small the world really is.

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Thirty years ago, when I was the tournament director for the Professional Bowlers Association, one of the players I came to know on tour was a talented bowler named Scott Alexander. He was part of the traveling PBA family in those years, chasing titles around the country.

 

I was in Toledo, Ohio at iconic Imperial Lanes when Alexander stepped up to beat Wayne Webb to win the 1995 PBA National Championship for his only career tile on the national Tour.

 

I always wondered why Scott didn't have more success on Tour. He had a solid physical game, but the pins just didn't seem to fall his way in key situations.

 

Fast forward three decades.

 

I walked into Tombstone Bowl in Monmouth on Saturday to watch my son Andre bowl in the Duke’s Shootout #2. It was a typical tournament morning — bowlers greeting friends, checking pairings, getting a feel for the lanes.

 

Andre had been bowling pretty well lately. He recently won a mixed doubles tournament with Jade Frost and finished second a week later in another mixed event with Hailey Jepson. He also had rolled a couple of 300 games and had some big series in various area houses to start out the year.

 

But it was the first time at Tombstone Bowl for both of us.

 

Andre crossed with a group of familiar competitors — close friends Shawn DeWeese and Brenden Sramek — along with a youngster named Keegan Alexander who walked in with Team USA Bowling swag.

 

That got my attention immediately. So did the way he bowled. He opens the tournament with the front nine strikes before leaving a pocket 7-10 in the 10th. 

 

His second game was just as impressive, a 276 leaving a bucket in the 7th frame.

 

Andre had a solid qualifying round, but Alexander was the one who stood out. After six games, the 19-year-old had taken control of the leaderboard, clearly the bowler to beat heading into the first cut.

 

Andre’s road to the finals, on the other hand, was anything but easy.

 

He averaged a solid 220 for the first six games. But he struggled in Game 6 and had to survive a one-ball roll off just to make the cut to the top eight.

 

He advanced, then shot a 245 to barely slip into the top six to reach bracket play.

 

Once he got there, however, his momentum continued.

 

In his first match, Andre caught fire late, striking on his final eight shots to seal a dramatic 248–246 victory over Jesse Owen.

 

The hot streak carried into the semifinal, where Andre rolled a strong 246 against Spencer Werthmann, who had overtaken Alexander for the tournament lead in the cut round. That got Andre to the title match.

 

Waiting for him was Alexander.

 

The title match was competitive throughout, but Alexander maintained the edge and eventually captured the win, 217–208.

 

It was during that final match that I introduced myself to Alexander, telling him that we probably knew a lot of the same people at USBC headquarters in Arlington, Texas. 

 

I added that I also worked on the PBA Tour for about 14 years.

 

Then he said, "Then you probably know my dad. He won a PBA title."

 

I had not made the name connection because Keegan is listed from Killeen, Texas on the Junior Team USA roster. Scott Alexander was from Seattle.

 

But it turned out to be the same Scott Alexander I had known during my years working PBA events — the same player who had won the 1995 PBA National.

 

Until that moment, I had no idea.

 

After Scott stepped away from the PBA tour, he had moved to Texas and still lives there.

 

Now his son had grown into a talented bowler of his own, competing for the strong Mount Mercy University team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

 

That's how he happened to be living close enough to make the two-hour drive to Tombstone Bowl.

 

And without anyone realizing it, the next generation had brought the connection full circle.

 

Keegan immediately texted his dad to see if he remembered me, to make sure the connection was real.

 

"I know you knew each other because I misspelled your last name and he corrected me," Keegan said with a smile.

 

Two young bowlers competing for a tournament title.

 

Two fathers who had shared a small piece of bowling history decades earlier.

 

What are the odds that their sons would meet in a championship match — 30 years later, hundreds of miles away, and in an entirely different chapter of life?

 

Andre wasn't even upset about losing the title match.

 

"I'll take losing a title to a member of Team USA," he said on the ride home.

 

Bowling has always been a tight-knit sport.

 

But every once in a while, it reminds you just how small the world can be.

 

Sometimes it takes a generation to prove it.

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