Junior Noah Tom started bowling when he was 13 years old.

It didn’t take long for Tom to become inspired enough to take that fun night out bowling with friends to a whole new level and start bowling in competitions.

Tom, now 16, travels all over the country for tournaments and has placed in many, despite bowling competitively for only a few years.

Tom recently won the Northern California Junior Elite Tour two months in a row.  He also won the Nor-Cal All-Star tournament in Reno last year, and he earned second and third place in the California Pepsi tournament in 2014 and 2015.

Tom and his team also won the Youth Open in Buffalo in 2014 and placed second in the same tournament last year in Chicago.

“For the first year or so there wasn’t any training at all,” Tom said. “I just practiced everyday, [went] bowling everyday. Once I got more into it I got lessons from a guy in Reno.”

Tom practices about three times a week and has league games on Saturdays and tournaments about twice a month.

Tom now owns 12-18 15-pound bowling balls, but he got his first one as a hand-me-down from his brother, who also bowled for a year when he was 12. Tom doesn’t travel with all of the balls to tournaments though.

“It’s really not that big of a deal for league, but for tournaments I bring six,” Tom said. “It’s usually the same six every time, they all react differently depending on the oil that’s on the lane and the way it’s laid out.”

“I have five reactive balls and then there is a spare ball that just goes straight for the second shot if I don’t strike,” Tom continued.

The different bowling balls that Tom owns are for the different lane conditions that each bowling alley has.

The more a person bowls on the lane, the more the oil gets burned out. This is when a bowler switches balls.

Tom’s favorite bowling ball is one that smells like gingersnaps.

“Depending on the company [the bowling balls] have scents,” Tom said.

For Tom there really isn’t any special place he keeps his bowling balls other than laying around his living room.

“I might end up getting [a display shelf] for them since I have so many,” Tom said.

Tom practices at multiple bowling alleys, but his main practice place is Cloverleaf Family Bowl in Fremont. He also practices at Danville Bowl and at Earl Anthony’s Dublin Bowl, but he travels to many different places for different competitions.

His scoring average is 225 per game, which puts hims in the gold division during tournaments.

“There are tournaments all over the Bay Area and I’ve been to Buffalo, New York, Chicago, and I’m going to Indianapolis and I just came back from Vegas,” Tom said.

In competitive bowling there are five games and the top six bowlers face each other. Then in the final game first faces second, third faces fourth, and fifth faces sixth. The top three after that then face each other in step ladder, where third faces second and the winner of that game goes against first.

Unlike other amateur sports, bowlers are able to win scholarship money for college.

“My favorite part is that if you win you get scholarship money toward college,” said Tom, who has won between $11,000 and $12,000 in his competitive bowling career so far.

Tom encourages other people to start to bowl as well. He noted that Dublin Bowl has junior leagues every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“You sign up, get a Nor-Cal membership card, and then you can start earning scholarships right away,” Tom said.

Future plans for Tom aren’t set in stone, but he does want to become a pro bowler on the side.

“I don’t bowl against him, he’s too good,” said Steve Tom, Noah’s dad, who plays with Noah in the Junior Adult Trio league in Dublin.

But Steve Tom mostly bowls in the summer when he has more time.

“I believe [Noah] is the only youth bowler in San Ramon that goes to the Junior Gold tournament” Steve said.

One thing for sure is that Noah Tom definitely doesn’t have any free time to spare with juggling academics, bowling balls, and family time but that’s just simply how he rolls.