Like many 12-year-olds, Kai Hunt has a passion for sports.
The eighth-grader from Burnham has been playing football, baseball and basketball since he was in third grade, and he may even continue that when he arrives at Pittsfield’s Maine Central Institute in the fall.
While those team sports provide any athlete with a sense of team spirit and accomplishment, it’s the individual sport of bowling where Hunt and his family combine their love for the game and family togetherness.
The Hunts bowl at the Newport Entertainment Center, which has 12 candlepin lanes and 12 tenpin lanes, and Hunt has bowled since the age of seven.
“I’ve been bowling my whole life and I always brought him to the alley at a young age,” said Brent Hunt, Kai’s father. “He took it right up and he loves it.”
Kai Hunt has turned that passion into success, as he recently won the Maine State Candlepin Bowling Association’s boys scholarship of $500, which can be used for post-secondary education.
For the first time ever, two 12-year olds from the MSCBA’s Division II took home scholarships, as Kerrigan Skinner of South Paris won the girls’ honor.
To qualify for the scholarship, bowlers must compete in at least five tournaments during the year. The money goes to one boy and one girl with the highest scoring average over the five tournaments.
The Division II age group is made of up bowlers ages 10-12.
Division III is composed of youths ages 13-19 while Division I is for kids aged 9 and under.
Brent Hunt said Kai developed an interest in both the candlepin and tenpin formats, but he’s always been more interested in candlepin bowling.
It’s also where he’s finding a lot of success, as Kai has won 11 state titles since he began participating in the MSBCA Junior division.
Brent Hunt said Kai bowls year round, and he most recently participated in a tournament in Scarborough that involved 54 bowlers from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Kai wound up finishing in the top six, and his reward will be going to a tournament in Massachusetts in May that will be broadcast on local television there.
