Sean Rash

Sean Rash
Born	Sean Rash (1982-08-22) August 22, 1982 Anchorage, Alaska
Occupation	Ten-pin bowler
Years active	2005–present
Spouse(s)	Sara Rash
Children	1

Sean Rash (born August 22, 1982) is a right-handed ten-pin bowler from Anchorage, Alaska, and is considered one of the top players on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. He currently owns 11 PBA titles, two of them major championships, and was the 2011–12 PBA Player of the Year. Rash has rolled two of the PBA's 25 televised perfect 300 games, making him the only PBA player in history with multiple perfect games in the TV finals. He now resides in Montgomery, Illinois with his wife Sara, and his daughter Kaylee. He is a member of the Brunswick and Vise Grips pro staffs.^[1]

Before the PBA

Sean Rash was a highly accomplished bowler before turning pro. His amateur accomplishments included:

• Junior Team USA member in 1998, 2002 and 2003.
• Won 2002 Junior Olympic Gold Tournament
• Team USA member in 2002, 2004 and 2005. Was part of the 2004 team that won the World Tenpin Team Cup in The Netherlands.
• Two-time All-American at Wichita State University (2002 and 2003).
• Won the 2003 International Bowling Congress (IBC) National Championship, and was runner-up for IBC Bowler of the Year.
• Won the 2003 USBC Doubles Championship, where he and partner Derek Sapp established an all-time record for pinfall with 1,540 over six games (later broken in 2007 by Jonathan Masur and Jeffrey Butler shooting a 1,544).

Rash also started a tournament in his native Alaska when he was just 13 years old. Frustrated by a lack of scratch tournaments for junior bowlers, he started his own: Sean Rash Stars of the Future. The tournament is in its 18th year as of 2012, and has awarded nearly $25,000 in scholarship money over the years.^[2]

PBA career

Sean Rash throws a ball in a game with Area I Soldiers and civilians at Casey Bowling Lanes.

Rash joined the PBA in 2005. He holds the distinction of being the first PBA player to ever win a title when starting from the Tour Qualifying Round (TQR), which he accomplished in his rookie season at the 2006 West Virginia Championship (see PBA Bowling Tour: 2005–06 season). He won his first PBA major title at the 2007 USBC Masters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The win gave Rash four titles in his first four television appearances, and seven straight match wins on TV to open his career (one short of the record eight wins set by George Branham III). The streak ended when Rash lost to Norm Duke in the semi-final match of the 2008–09 season-opening PBA World Championship. Rash won the 2012 PBA Tournament of Champions for his first championship in five years, and second major title overall. Qualifying as the #1 seed, Rash beat Ryan Ciminelli in the final match 239–205.^[3]

Rash led the 2011–12 PBA Tour in average, earnings and points. On May 28, 2012, the PBA announced that Rash had won the 2012 Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year award in an extremely close vote (Rash received 29% of the vote to Jason Belmonte's 26.6%).^[4]

Sean won his sixth and seventh PBA Tour titles in the 2012–13 season, in the WBT Kuwait Open and WBT Thailand Open. He later won an additional $20,000 in the World Bowling Tour finals (contested at the 2013 World Series of Bowling), but this did not count as a PBA title. Sean was the top money winner on Tour for the 2012–13 season, with earnings of $248,317.^[5]

In the finals of the PBA Wolf Open on May 24, 2014 (broadcast nationally on June 3, 2014), Sean rolled the PBA's 23rd televised 300 game in the opening match. He went on to win the tournament for his 8th PBA title.^[6]

On February 15, 2015 Sean bowled a 300 game on ESPN while competing in the Barbasol Tournament of Champions in Indianapolis, Indiana, the 25th time a perfect game has been bowled in a televised PBA event. This, combined with his June 2014 perfect game, made him the only player in PBA history to have bowled two televised perfect games in PBA Tour events. He did not, however, go on to win the tournament.^[7] On October 11, 2015, Rash bowled from the #1 seed position and defeated Hall of Famer Pete Weber in a single-game final to win the PBA Xtra Frame Iowa Midwest Open for his ninth PBA title.^[8]

Sean passed the $1 million mark in career PBA earnings during the 2015 season. He has accumulated 24 perfect 300 games in PBA events to date (October, 2016).^[1]

Rash won his 10th PBA title at the PBA Fall Swing Badger Open on September 10, 2016 in Allen Park, Michigan, defeating #1 qualifier Wes Malott in the final match.^[9] One day later, Rash won his 11th title in the PBA Detroit Open, defeating top seed Jason Belmonte in the final match.^[10]

Career statistics

Sources

• www.pba.com, official site of the Professional Bowlers Association and Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour
• http://www.bowl.com/tournaments/usbcopen/national/records_general_records.aspx

References

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Jason Belmonte	Best Bowler ESPY Award 2012	Succeeded by Pete Weber
Preceded by Mika Koivuniemi	PBA Player of the Year 2011-12	Succeeded by Jason Belmonte