MADISON HEIGHTS — A senior at Detroit Loyola can take pride in setting a school record that cannot be broken.
Cody Champion bowled a perfect game Jan. 29 during the Bulldogs’ 21-9 victory over Madison Heights Bishop Foley at Astro Lanes. It’s the first 300 score in school history, according to coach and athletic director Dennis Morey.
“It’s been a long run,” Champion said. “I could have done it multiple times (before), but I was always one strike away or two strikes away. It’s just a goal that I reached and I’m happy for it. Finally, I got the 300 I wanted.”
How rare is that feat? According to scores reported to the Michigan High School Interscholastic Bowling Coaches Association, only three other boys statewide have rolled 300s this winter: Braylon Watts of Belleville, Brayden Siders of Carleton Airport and Monte Eaton of Boyne City. No girls were on the list.
It’s also been estimated that a 300 occurs once in 11,500 games, and accounts for just 0.03 percent of games rolled by bowlers in any league.
Champion — whose previous high game was 279 — started bowling when he was “around 3 or 4.” He frequently takes part in travel tournaments, so the achievement wasn’t a case of beginner’s luck.
“He’s been close a lot of times,” said Morey, adding it was also the first 300 game he’s witnessed. “It was the right day, the right moment; he was locked in. He threw perfect throughout the two Baker (games), and the first (individual) game. It was quite a streak. He was hitting everything.”
Twelve strikes in a row are required to roll a “perfect game” — one in each of the first nine frames, followed by three in the final frame.
“The last frame, the 10th frame, I knew it was going to be a strike, I knew it,” said Champion, who averages 208 pins per game.
Obviously, the pressure of the moment didn’t get to the student-athlete, even as the increasing crowd of onlookers sensed what was happening.
“I wasn’t nervous,” Champion said. “I just needed to stay calm, just breathe and make my shots.”
“He’s just been bowling his whole life. He comes from a bowling family,” Morey said. “He’s always calm, under control, he never gets rattled, and it’s just like him on the basketball court — he’s a point guard, he’s a natural leader, he’s able to point things out to the guys and relate to them so he’s able to fix things.”
Like all but two of Loyola’s bowlers, Champion is a two-sport athlete, playing varsity basketball this winter along with Donovan Clark, Martez Davis, Jaydon Hill and Eric Jones. Adding to the unique situation, Morey coaches both teams in-season, so he is able to minimize the scheduling conflicts whenever possible.
Loyola’s basketball team entered February with a record of 14-3, and is the second-ranked team in the upcoming Cardinal Division playoffs that begin Saturday, Feb. 7. The Bulldogs will play Riverview Gabriel Richard at 1:30 p.m. with the game held at Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice.
Champion’s late-season goals are the same for both sports: to have the team go further than they have in the past, and hopefully win an individual state championship in bowling. He’s qualified for the state finals in each of his first three years, advancing out of the qualifying block each time (twice as the second seed, and once as the top seed). Champion reached the elite eight in his freshman season.
Champion has yet to decide where he will attend college or what he will study, but he says feats like his 300 game helps for “just getting my name out there.” His older brother, Ryan, a 2024 Loyola graduate, has been on the bowling team at the University of Olivet.
With the championship tournaments coming up including the Catholic League finals (Feb. 14 at Oak Lanes in Westland) and the MHSAA regionals (Feb. 18 at Monroe Sports Center in Monroe), Champion hopes he and his teammates will peak at the right time.
“As long as I bowl my game and my teammates just hit the pins and we get as many pins as we can, I think we’ll be good,” he said. “As long as we stay together and play together, we’ll be fine.”
And that’s the perfect outlook.
CHSL tournament ready to roll
Catholic League teams will gather Feb. 14 at Oak Lanes in Westland to decide the bowling league championships. There are separate competitions for boys and girls in both the Bishop (large school) and Cardinal (small school) divisions.
Last year, Novi Detroit Catholic Central boys and Farmington Hills Mercy girls won the Bishop titles, while Jackson Lumen Christi’s boys and Allen Park Cabrini’s girls will try to defend their Cardinal Division crowns.
The league tournament isn’t a prerequisite to doing well in the state tournament, though, as two CHSL schools were recently able to capture state championships without winning Catholic League titles. Last winter, the Allen Park Cabrini boys team won the MHSAA Division 4 team championship, its first in program history. The year prior, Madison Heights Bishop Foley won the MHSAA team title in Division 3.
