Anaheim’s Smith Is On a Roll Again : Bowling: Two-time All-American has won two gold medals and could become all-time single Festival gold-medal winner in the sport.

Steve Smith backpedals away from the foul line, waving both arms in a windup that ends with a clap as he slams his hands together at the instant his ball curves into the pocket and blows away all 10 pins for a fifth consecutive strike.

The next time he releases the ball, he staggers to his left, twisting his body and slashing the air with his right fist. The body English works for strike No. 6.

And then, when he rolls his seventh strike in a row, he nonchalantly turns and strolls back to his seat with all the fanfare of a guy finding a spot on a bus. Only the wide grin that splits his face and a quick wink give away his state of joy.

Smith is on a roll at the South Bay Bowling Center. And he’s obviously enjoying every minute of it. It’s show time for the showman.

The 21-year-old bowler from Anaheim has won two Olympic Festival gold medals--in singles and doubles (with partner Steve Kloempken of Las Vegas)--and could become the all-time single Festival gold-medal winner in bowling with first-place finishes in match play and the four-person team competition.

Monday, Smith and struggling partner Patty Ellenburg, of Chandler, Ariz., finished 12th in the mixed doubles event. (All doubles teams are selected by a random drawing.) Smith, however, bowled well, averaging 215 over the 12 games.

So far, it’s been three days of pumped fists and high fives for Smith, a two-time All-American bowler at Cal State Long Beach. But only two weeks ago, he was an emotional gutter ball.

During the regionals of the Team USA National bowling tournament June 29-30 in Santa Monica, Smith missed making the cut by eight pins. And those eight pins mean he lost any chance of making trips to Cuba for the Pan American Games and Singapore for the World Championships later this summer with Team USA.

Last year, he finished ninth in the Team USA finals, three places short of making the six-man team.

“I was pretty mad at missing out on a chance to travel and be with the guys on the team,” Smith said. “China, yeah, that makes you pretty mad. And missing it by eight pins makes it tougher. You can look back at so many places where you could’ve recovered eight lousy pins.

“I’m normally a really good spare shooter, but I probably missed seven or eight spares in 18 games that I normally would have made.”

Smith recovered from a poor performance in the morning block of the regionals and knew what he had to do going into the final game. He started with two strikes, then had three consecutive taps (when one pin remains standing after an apparently direct hit on the pocket). After a split, a spare and a strike, Smith rolled what he thought was a perfect ball into the pocket in the ninth frame.

The eight pin stood its ground, however.

“I was bowling really well, but I was just getting tapped out,” he said. “The second I left that eight pin, I knew it was over.”

So Smith arrived at the Olympic Festival as a young man on a mission: “This is my final Team USA-type of competition for a while,” he said, “so I’m just letting everyone know I’m around.”

Smith is pretty hard to miss, especially if you’re bowling on the adjacent lane. And, if you don’t keep your eye on him, he might deck you with a roundhouse right.

“I guess I’m one of the more flamboyant bowlers around,” Smith said, smiling.

He had high hopes for making Team USA this year, buoyed by the fact that he finished only three spots short of the squad in his initial try last year.

“That was my first competition outside of collegiate and junior tournaments and I was really nervous,” Smith said. “The atmosphere was real intense, and I was trying to be too perfect instead of just relaxing and bowling.

“But I felt better about it this year and I went in with a lot more confidence. I won’t be on Team USA this year, but I’ll make it next year, I guarantee (it). This time, the pins just didn’t fall my way.”

That’s a state of affairs Smith hasn’t had to deal with often. Since he started bowling as a 10-year-old at Rossmoor Bowl in Seal Beach, he’s been knockin’ ‘em down and bowlin’ ‘em over. His first average was 120. In a couple of months, it was 155. And he was averaging almost 200 before he was a teen-ager.

In 1988 and ‘89, he was Southern California Junior Bowler of the Year and three times he was a member of the Southern California All-Junior Team. He won eight Junior Amateur Tour titles and rolled six 300 games. After graduating from Western High in Anaheim, he enrolled at Cal State Long Beach and was runner-up for collegiate bowler of the year honors after his first year with the 49ers.

Smith figures he’s still young and will have plenty of chances for fun and travel. He also figures that his West team, which also includes USA Team member Kloempken, has a very good chance to win a gold today and that would tie him with three other bowlers who have won three gold medals in a single Olympic Festival.

And, if he keeps rolling with this roll, who knows who might come out on top when match play concludes Wednesday? Could a rewarding trip to Redondo Beach take the place of missing trips to Cuba and Singapore?

“Setting a gold-medal record, that would be a really good feeling,” he said. “Yeah, that could make up for the lost year.”