Besides being the long-time bowling coach at Versailles High School, Tyler Phlipot wears a lot of hats relative to the sport…and gets credible recognition for a contribution to sport and community that’s overlooked by many.
When Bowlerstore.com entrepreneur Doug Davidson speaks locally on the subject of bowling it’s worthy of your attention.
And when he brought to our attention recently the contribution of Versailles’ coach Tyler Phlipot to area kids and the sport of bowling, he minced no words.
Davidson, himself, etched his name in the minds of Darke County bowlers long ago as bowling coach at Versailles, and an equipment resource, managing the pro shop at McBo’s Lanes in Versailles. And then in 2010 he started his own independent venture with Bowlerstore.com, located presently on Kley Road.
“Tyler’s been with us every step of the way,” said Davidson, father of PBA professional Michael Davidson. “He took over the Versailles program after I stepped down to follow Michael in his college bowling adventure…and to focus time on Bowlerstore.com. Without Tyler the Versailles bowling program could have easily crumbled.
Phlipot smiles easily at such compliments because he never set out in Versailles to be a pillar of the community…just a husband, and dad, and a dependable employee.
“I started out by working with Doug in the pro shop at McBo’s,” he said this week. “Just part-time. And at that time he was coaching bowling at the high school. This was twenty years ago. And then one day he came to me and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this opportunity and if it all comes together it might be something I do full-time.
“Two years later he told me he was ready, sat me down and gave me a figure to join him. I had been married for two years and had our first kid. I’d never switched jobs before. Working at Francis after high school (in Russia) was the only job I’d ever had. But I took a leap of faith, started with him working out of his house, we outgrew that, had to make a couple of moves, and then five years later we built here on Kley Road. And presently we’re expanding – adding on another warehouse. So, it’s been a trip.”
Davidson, as it turned out, would impart quite the palette of opportunity outside that of Bowlerstore.com.
“Yeah, he came to me one day and said he needed a JV girls coach for the high school,” Phlipot adds. “He asked if I’d like to try it, and I told him I would do it for a year to help him out. A year later the girls varsity coach stepped down and I took that job. And when Doug stepped down from coaching before the 2014-’15 season I took over both the boys and girls then.”
Twelve years later he personifies the meaning of stepping up when there’s a need, whether it’s customizing a bowling ball at Bowlerstore, or teaching the next generation of bowlers how it’s done…four years into the Midwest Athletic Conference having adopted bowling as a varsity sport.
Not talented as a practitioner of the sport in the manner of a Michael Davidson, who’s been on the PBA tour for five years, Phlipot is a sponge – an ardent study of the game, its mechanics, and the mental aspect of teaching others how to play and compete. Now a decade in, he’s still as committed as the day he started, in a day when hardly anyone coaches anything for that long, anymore!
“The best part about coaching is starting out with a young bowler who can barely shoot 100 at the start of the year,” he says. “And by the end of the season they’re shooting 160. And then they finally get a 200. By then it’s like getting that birdie on the 18th hole that makes you come back for more. I enjoy witnessing that.
“I have all kind of kids with all kinds of interests, and they might miss a practice or a match here and there. And I think it’s important to let kids do multiple things, and not strap ’em down and penalize ’em for missing a practice.
“But when that day comes when they reach 180 I know I’ve got them hooked, because they’re gonna’ come back next year because they want to get that 200; or they were just ten pins short of making varsity at the end of the year.”
His position as coach is hardly threatened. Bowling is not the attractant like football and basketball, and bowling coaches are barely known in those communities across Ohio that even have high school bowling.
And yet, for that kid who’s too short for basketball, and too small for football, bowling serves as the perfect platform for those who fall through the traditional cracks of competitive athletics.
“They may not be the kind of kid who plays football or basketball,” says Phlipot. “But if they come out for bowling and I see them work hard I know they’re going to be OK. If they listen, and work, and you see them in the bowling center on the weekends, you know they enjoy it and want to get better. You see that smile of satisfaction when things click. And after that…it’s all success.”
Success is relative, of course. He’s had a handful that have gone on to bowl at higher levels. But most simply continue to bowl as a hobby after they graduate.
“I’ve had some go to the next level, and that becomes a different type of coaching because they need to develop the mental aspect of competition even if they have the game to compete,” he assures. “Stay focused, be confident, and trust your shot. You’re going to throw a bad shot, but you do you have to forget about that one and focus on the next. The next frame is the next game.”
Currently coaching a young group at Versailles, they are, nonetheless, in the middle of the mix of MAC league standings.
“You never know,” he adds. “When things do click you see some pretty special things. We had a kid here a few years ago named Jay Mumaw who threw seventeen strikes in a row one day.”
Stay focused, be confident, and trust your shot. Which pretty much summed up Doug Davidson’s instincts when he hired Tyler Phlipot fifteen years ago. Nothing he touches seems to crumble.
You wouldn’t expect it, either.