He makes it look easy, even when it’s not. Ethan Fiore is the model of nonchalance. “When it’s out of your hands there’s nothing you can do,” he says. “You just prepare for the next ball.” (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The talk of the PBA Tour a year ago, 21-year-old Ethan Fiore has yet to be a topic of conversation in 2026. But after a good qualifying round on Saturday he’s in the running to defend his Kremer Roofing Classic title from a year ago.
Minster, OH – Ethan Fiore doesn’t go out of his way to talk about himself, and he’s so soft-spoken that when he does talk you’d better pay attention.
He doesn’t take the stress of professional competition all that seriously, despite turning pro on the Professional Bowlers Association tour four years ago when he was only 17 years old.
But a year ago a lot of people took him seriously when he suddenly burst onto the scene in the spring to win the prestigious Players Championship tournament, the youngest to ever do it. So young, in fact, he was probably denied the opportunity to buy a round in celebration.
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When he came to Minster last year to compete in the Kremer Classic and the Bowlerstore.com Classic (in Coldwater), there were curious murmurs about him being the next big thing to follow the meteoric rise of those like EJ Tackett, the world’s #1 bowler.
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And when he dominated play in the first day of qualifying a year ago, there were more questions about who, where, when, and why more was not known, and being written about the next young phenom in a sport (the professional bowling) that desperately needs its marquee figures.
That was a year ago.
But when he returned for qualifying Saturday on a quest to defend his 2025 title, the reality of a sport that takes away as cruelly as it sometimes generously gives had given him reason for personal reflection. So far in 2026, he has yet to win. He stands at #32 in tour points ranking, and the year he’s having currently, in his words, “seems like the year I should have had a year ago. This year has been a learning experience.”
He started Saturday on fire with a 244 and 253, and then immediately dropped like a rock, struggling on the Community Lanes surfaces to break 200 in games three and four.
But by game five he had resurrected himself, trusting his smooth two-hand style to throwing one crushing strike after another, finishing with a 222, 259, 231 and 257 to average 225 and finish third in overall points, behind co-leaders Dean Vargo (Cleveland) and Graham Fach (Urbana). Both averaged 233.
Using the two-handed style, Ethan Fiore averaged 222 over eight games of qualifying on Saturday morning.
“The year is just something I’ve had to learn to live with,” Fiore talked about, afterwards. “Not very good by my own expectations. There have been a lot of learning experiences through the weeks, and they’ve just piled up on each other. And when you’re on tour you don’t have a lot of time to digest those things and work on them. There have been some weeks when I put them all together and had good weeks, but nothing like last year when I was making constant TV shows and being a talking point of the tour. It was a hard thing to go through, but it was a learning experience. What’s happened this year is kinda’ what I expected to happen last year.
“I didn’t expect to make any TV shows a year ago. I expected to learn. So now I’m doing the learning part all over again. I’m having to lower my expectations.”
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Watching him perform, he’s the embodiment of nonchalant. His style is so smooth, so elegant even with the two-hand style, that it seems to come too easily. And whether he strikes violently, or throws a gutter ball, Fiore handles it unemotionally – next ball, please – as if mistakes are little more than something that’s predestined.
“It really is out of your hands once you let go of the ball,” he smiles. “There’s nothing much you can do about it. So there’s no need to let it get to you. You have to have a good head about things. You can’t take it personally that you straight-up suck. You just take it as experience and not a loss.
“My first three games today were not pretty,” he adds. “And people take it very seriously because it’s their career, and obviously it’s mine, too. But at the end of the day it’s just a game, and something that people do with their family and their kids. So why take it so literally? If you execute and do it the best you can there’s really nothing else to expect, or ask for. It’s out of your hands. You just prepare yourself better for the next time – the next ball. That’s all I try to do.”
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Another thing that can happen when you’re twenty years old…you get bigger and stronger over the course of a year. Fiore is noticeably taller now than then, has put on weight, and bowls with a more upright position than before.”
“I do feel stronger,” he smiles. “And it’s easier to throw the ball harder with less effort now. It’s a problem that I’ve struggled with…throwing harder than last year and sometimes I catch myself trying to throw it through the back of the building. What you see this week is a dialed-down version of what I have been doing. I’ve had a knee issue this year, I’ve got a lot of games this week, and so I’m trying not to push things too much this week and have something go wrong. I think I was fine with the way I was throwing it today.”
Champion then…Ethan Fiore seeks to defend his Kremer Classic title this weekend in Minster.
If he’s struggled through the first eight months of 2026, Ethan Fiore, at 21, appears to understand early that sometimes success can come early, only to take a recess that’s hard to explain, or live with.
“There’s so many things that are out of your control sometimes, and you have to adapt,” he says. “Most of the guys on tour are at that point of their career where their physique is not going to change, so they’re only getting older and they’re only getting smarter. And when their mind and their physical game matches up they’re going to be ten steps ahead of you if you don’t make the proper corrections, yourself. That’s what I’m trying to do…get myself in a position where I can gain that kind of knowledge while my physical game is in a state of change.”
He travels by himself, along with a personal coach that he’s worked with for years. His family is all back home, in the Tampa, Florida area.
“Working for a living,” he adds. “9 to 5’ers. And that’s not something that I wanted to do.”
The youngest of three children, he has two older sisters.
“They beat up on me pretty good when I was younger,” he laughs.
Pla-Mor lanes proudly hosts the Bowlerstore.com Classic, August 14, 15, 16, in Coldwater. See you there!
But people aren’t laughing now, and likely they won’t be laughing in the future. Despite having a year below his own personal expectations, Fiore is still being talked about as being the next big thing on the PBA Tour, despite his admitting that he’s not even that big a deal at home, in Tampa.
“Bowling is a small thing in Tampa. I mean, people know me, and when I bowl around town there’s always a couple of people who like to chirp and say stuff. But it’s no big deal.”
Which is Tampa’s loss. With Ethan Fiore’s talent and career path he should be. He’s that good, even when he’s not up to his own expectations. And word to the wise in Minster this weekend, and Coldwater next….
He felt very good about his day on Saturday, even a notch or two beneath what he anticipates every time he throws the ball.
“I know I can be so much better,” he adds. “What I want is to get smarter.”
And then…..?
The next big thing.
Tournament Notes
The advancers round on Sunday begins at 10 am…the top 16 begins at 12:30…the top 8 at 2:00 pm…and the step ladder final four at 4:00 pm. Admission is free!
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