Bowled Over : Even Brifman Is Amazed by the Strides She Has Made in 2 Years on Valley Lanes

Most athletes sweat, agonize and dream daily. They ply their trade throughout their youth, hoping they might grow up to be rich and famous by sinking the jump shot, hitting the curveball or completing the long bomb.

Lauren Brifman seems to have stumbled upon greatness.

Only 10 months after the Granada Hills High junior joined her first bowling league, she placed fifth in a national handicap tournament. Brifman, 16, joined the league in September, 1992, as a favor to a friend and entered the tournament by accident.

Now Brifman has a coach who considers her a prospect for the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour.

Two years ago, Brifman had no idea what the initials LPBT stood for. Why would she? She was playing for fun and had only an 80 average. Now she carries a 171 average and seems to be within striking distance of the tour.

“My goal is to be a pro,” she said. “I think I’d like to be at 190 next spring.”

A 200 average would be good enough to put Brifman among the top 30 on the LPBT.

But Brifman barely knew how to hold a ball when she competed in the National Junior Bowling Championships, which attracted more than 110,000 bowlers in July, 1993.

“She had not a clue how to bowl,” said Farol Brifman, Lauren’s mother. “She didn’t know why she was so good.”

Lauren knew only that when she rolled her ball, pins seemed to fall. With coaching, she has learned a fluid approach and delivery that grabs attention whenever she hits the alleys.

“Everywhere we go people say, ‘Is that your daughter?’ ” Farol Brifman said. “I say, ‘Yeah.’ They say, ‘Boy, is she going to make a lot of money someday on the pro tour.’ Or they say, ‘She’s a natural. You can’t teach form like that.’ ”

Farol also recalled how the pro shop operator at a local center--after watching Lauren from his counter--came down to the scoring table to get her name.

Nobody would be making such a fuss over Brifman, however, had schoolmate Michael Liteles not invited her to play on his winter-league team at Brunswick Granada Lanes in September, 1992. Brifman had practically no bowling experience.

“I didn’t think I was that good--not good enough to help the team,” Brifman said.

But she joined and rolled an 89 in her first game. Still, Liteles, an avid bowler, thought she had potential.

“But I didn’t know she would get so good,” said Liteles, also 16. “I had bowled for about eight years. I got a trophy in 1985 for winning a league. She was better than me.”

Brifman had found her niche as an athlete after sampling a few years as a baseball and softball outfielder and a defender in soccer.

In early 1992, Brifman joined the Northridge Knights’ youth basketball team as its only female member. A 5-foot-7 1/2 forward who was occasionally in the starting lineup, Brifman specialized in shooting from the perimeter. She chose the all-boys’ team, in part, because there was no girls’ team in the neighborhood. But she also liked the challenge of trying to crack the Knights’ lineup.

“I like competing and I thought I could do it,” she said.

She dropped basketball as soon as she realized she could score better in bowling. Liteles said it was not unusual for Brifman, who had an 80 handicap at first, to put up handicap scores of 200 or better. Soon national tournament officials would eye those scores.

Brifman said she wasn’t too careful in filling out her league entry form at Granada Lanes. Without reading the fine print, she put a check mark in a box that automatically entered her in the National Junior Bowling Championships. The NJBC starts as a local contest, in which a tournament official randomly selects series scores from one day of league competition.

Brifman’s scores for three games (taken in February, 1992) were 151, 131 and 151, and combined with her 95 handicap at the time. She qualified second among girls in the junior handicap division (ages 9-21) and advanced to the district tournament at Granada Lanes in March. Again she finished second, this time qualifying for the state competition in Modesto in late May.

Brifman said she was a little embarrassed at the notion that she eliminated several hundred girls with more experience. When tournament officials congratulated her, all she could say was, “Oh, really? That’s good.”

Bowling six games at McHenry Bowl in Modesto, Brifman captured the state championship. The highlight was a raw score of 204 in one game, marking the first time she cracked 200. The average score of her handicapped games was 234.83. Tournament Director Joellyn Rinnander called Brifman into the office to break the news.

“Oh, that’s good,” said Brifman, again at a loss for words. But it was on to Kansas City and the nationals.

Among the country’s top 60 girls in her division, Brifman bowled 12 games, averaged more than 220 per game with her handicap, and finished fifth. Nine more pins and she would have eclipsed Amy Glover of Great Falls, Mont., who finished fourth and was the last to qualify for the match-play, stepladder finals. Brifman also was nine pins short of winning scholarship money--$11,000 was divided among the top four.

“Last summer was exciting,” she said. “It seemed like I just got better and better every game. But this year is fun, too, because I feel like I have more control and know a little more about the game than I did before.”

Dave Hawthorn, a local coach and a successful amateur player, started working with Brifman last summer. He immediately set out to correct her approach, arm swing and follow-through. The changes would be possible, he thought, because she had natural talent.

“She’s got great form and we’ve been working real hard to even improve that in the last few weeks,” Hawthorn said. “When I teach people who I think have ability, I try to take all imperfections out and give them nothing but absolute perfection.”

Not only is Brifman talented, she is a quick learner. “If I tell her to do something, within three balls she’ll do it,” Hawthorn said.

Brifman has continued to improve while competing for the Greater Los Angeles Junior All-Stars on weekends. She bowls several days a week in Simi Valley at Brunswick Valley Bowl because Granada Lanes was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake.

Brifman’s average improved 67 pins in the last year, impressing Diane Stanislawski, director of the national junior tournament.

“All of the bowlers that come there have the potential for greatness at some point in time,” she said. “But for Lauren to go up 60 pins in a year, that’s a major accomplishment. Your talking between five and six clean frames in a game. She’s obviously learned to make spares, keep the ball in play and improve her striking ability. It takes a lot to master all that.”

Brifman might someday push her average above 200, which would put her in the company of two noteworthy Valley women. Former pro Donna Adamek, proprietor at Rocket Bowl in Chatsworth, ranks 11th on the LPBT with a 207.2 career average. Tish Johnson of Panorama City, who has made more than $500,000 in 13 years on the tour, ranks fourth with a career average of 208.2.

“Every day when I bowl, I learn something new about me and how good I really am,” Brifman said. “I underestimate myself a lot. I surprise myself with just my ability to do it.”