FRUITPORT – Bradon Krohn came into the 2023-24 bowling season ready to keep the good times rolling.

He had been a member of a very good Fruitport boys bowling team that won the O-K Blue conference championship for three years in a row and qualified for the Division 2 state finals last season.

He had also come close to reaching his personal goal of winning an individual O-K Blue championship, finishing third in both his sophomore and junior seasons.

So Krohn started his senior season as Fruitport’s top bowler and captain, ready to put a great cap on his career.

But nothing has been easy for Krohn or the Trojans this year.

The Fruitport boys squad wasn’t quite as experienced as in previous years. The Trojans struggled through a midseason slump, and Krohn let the disappointment get to him a bit.

“It was a big transition for him this year,” said first-year Fruitport bowling coach Tim McKeeby. “He knows how good he is as a bowler, and you could see that he really wanted to win, but it was a different team than what he hoped to have in his senior season. There was some frustration among all of us.”

Krohn said his frustration started early in the season.

“I was a little mad that two of our should have been returning bowlers didn’t return, and we were working with basically a brand-new team,” he said. “Everybody was getting in their heads and we were bowling like freshmen.”

Krohn finally pulled himself out of the funk, started bowling better and got back into the race for the O-K Blue individual title. The entire team also improved and set itself up to contend for multiple championships.

Then more bad fortune came along, striking twice in three days last week.

At last Wednesday’s Greater Muskegon Athletic Association City Tournament, Fruitport finished a strong third in the preliminary competition and qualified for the four-team championship round.

The Trojans played a good Oakridge squad in the semifinals and the match came down to the very end. Krohn, the last Fruitport bowler, said he only needed to knock down a few pins to put Fruitport in the finals.

But not enough fell and the Trojans lost by two points, 399-397.

“As soon as it came off my hands, I knew it wasn’t my best shot,” Krohn said.

Two days later, at the O-K Blue Postseason Conference Tournament, Krohn was neck-and-neck with a Coopersville bowler for the individual conference title. That also came down to the very end, but Krohn came up short in his last game and lost the championship by a nose.

The Coopersville bowler finished with a season per-game average of 183.33 while Krohn came in second at 182.42.

“Massive,” Krohn said, when asked how badly that hurt. “It was my goal at the beginning of the season to finish first in the conference.”

There was a silver lining in all the disappointment, however, according to Coach McKeeby. Despite the two tough days, Krohn was able to shake off his frustration much better than he did earlier in the season.

That has left him with a clear head as he approaches his final opportunities to leave his mark in high school bowling.

It all begins at Thursday’s Division 2 team regional tournament and continues with Friday’s individual regional tournament.

If all goes well, Fruitport will once again qualify for the state finals as a team, and Krohn can also qualify for the individual competition.

“He’s become a really mentally tough kid,” McKeeby said. “He’s really come into his own as far as being calm and cool. He was upset (by the city and conference results), but he moved on quickly, and now he’s ready for regionals.

“His growth, not only as a bowler but as a person, has been a huge highlight for me as a coach.”

Krohn said one change in his mental demeanor came when he stopped trying to fix his entire team.

“I just let them do their thing,” he said. “Instead of me trying to help them, I let them come to me. After a while we all realized we needed to change and everybody started to do better.”

Krohn, who will study and bowl in the fall at Montcalm Community College, said he also reminded himself that he bowls better with his emotions in check.

“If you take it seriously, your mental game has to be stronger than your physical game,” he said. “If you get angry you are not going to perform at a good level. You’re going to throw worse shots.”

Krohn is extremely serious about his sport, which he’s been playing since he was four. That’s why getting to the state finals one more time, one way or another, means so much to him.

“For the team, there are a couple big humps we would have to get over, but I think we should be able to make it,” he said. “Individually I am feeling pretty confident. I have been getting progressively better.

“This is my senior year, my last shot to punch that card. I would like to be able to make it.”