Senior Brittany Burden is Coldwater’s anchor for what they hope is a realization of goals…and a return to the state finals in February. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
If the name sounds like someone you know, Brittany Burden’s skills as a bowling anchor gives the Coldwater’s girls a familiar advantage in the 2025-’26 conference race, and beyond.
Coldwater, OH – Senior Brittany Burden didn’t have her best day of the year, or one of those best days that she’s going to have between now and the end of the Midwest Athletic Conference bowling schedule.
Individually, she rolled a 177 and a 199 Saturday morning during conference action against Minster at Plamor Lanes, in Coldwater, a notoriously hard place to score, regardless of how well you throw a bowling ball.
Amongst the PBA professionals who compete at Plamor annually in August, the frustration that’s part of the Coldwater experience on tour is known simply as “being Coldwatered.”
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Saturday, Brittany Burden had her own moments. Needing a strike on the third ball of the tenth frame of her second individual game, she buried the ball in the 1-3 pocket, only to leave a solid ten pin – Coldwatered. It cost her a 200 game on a day in which that high mark came tough to the best bowlers in the conference. Burden simply shrugged it off with familiarity. She’d seen it before…many times before.
If the name is familiar, her brother, Austin, was a leading scorer for the boys team at Coldwater last year, averaging in the 220 range, and the author of a 300 game in last year’s sectional tournament. A lefthander, Burden is known for his high backswing, smooth release, and powerful down-lane rotation on the ball that produces pin action on impact. Lots of pin action!
Some family similarities…Brittany Burden has the same high backswing as her older brother Austin, who rolled a 300 last year in the sectional tournament.
Brittany is a year behind Austin, bowls with her right hand, and has that same high backswing and smooth release. She doesn’t throw it as hard, of course, but she does possess some of the same down-lane rotation on the ball that mixes things up in the pocket upon impact.
Moreover, she’s highly competitive – tough on herself competitively – just like her older brother. Brittany Burden doesn’t like finishing second, and she bowls because she likes the challenge…even when you get ‘Coldwatered’.
“She’s a tough bird,” says long-time Coldwater coach Rick Hartings. “She’s really competitive and I think she’s had fun this year as we’ve added some younger girls (freshmen) to the team. There’s more competition this year, we’ve got a pretty good team, and when the freshmen beat her they let her know about it…not in a serious way, but they’re having fun with it. She’s had a good career, she’s having fun her senior year, and I hope we can go out with a bang…hit our goals, and get back to the state finals. We’ve haven’t been there for a couple of years.”
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She comes from a bowling family culture.
“My dad and my grandpa, they both bowled,” says Burden, who admits to a 277 as being her all-time high game, as a sophomore. “I’ve tried left-handed [like Austin], but it felt weird so my dad and grandpa both told me to stick with right-handed. Austin and I talk about bowling a lot, and he tells me things about how to be better, Sometimes we critique each other. Mostly we’re just competitive with each other and that’s fun. We pretty much have the same kind of attitude about things…we’re competitive. We both like to win.”
She started bowling when she was four years old, and while trying some other sports on for size over the years…bowling has been the one she’s showed the most commitment.
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“I tried track, and some others, but I just didn’t like them. Bowling is fun for me and I like being around the people…meeting new people. I don’t like it when younger people beat me,” she adds with a smile. “Or my brothers. So that shows you that I’m competitive. Very competitive.”
And, she gives a lot of credit to Hartings for helping her improve. Her latest averages in the Western Ohio High School Bowling Conference entering Saturday was 187.5.
“He’s a great coach, and you couldn’t ask for a better one,” she maintains. “He’s helped me to get around the ball better by putting on the [wrist] brace my freshman year. I don’t cross over as much as I did. And he’s helped me with my spare-making. I struggled with that last week and today that’s a goal…make the easy spares.
“Plamor is a tough place for some people to bowl, but I’m familiar with it because I know the oil patterns.”
Without a doubt she knows the ins and outs of bowling, handed down by generations of the Burden family and her siblings. Saturday wasn’t as good as it could have been, but she bowled her average, and she strung some strikes together in her second game that could have been much better…except for the ten pin in the tenth. But she did her part.
Next time…who knows?
Even E.J. Tackett gets ‘Coldwatered’.
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