Like many teens, Cassandra Shoopman thought of bowling as something fun to do with friends when nothing more exciting was going on.

Then she moved to La Pine.

In September 2004, Shoopman and her family relocated to Central Oregon from Nevada. The 17-year-old snowboarding fanatic said she was pumped that a world-class resort like Mount Bachelor was in her back yard. But never did she consider that she’d find a sport that would get her nearly as amped as snowboarding.

”I’ve always been ‘alternative girl,’ ” Shoopman says with a smile. ”Snowboarding is my life.”

Now, her sporting life includes bowling. The La Pine High School senior took up the sport seriously only a few months ago, at the urging of friends who are on the high school’s seven-member bowling team.

”I’d just go to bowl on Saturday nights,” Shoopman says. ”I’d never gone to bowl every day. Now I’m addicted to it.”

And she’s a natural, says Matt Parson, La Pine High’s bowling coach and manager of La Pine Bowling Center.

”She’s picked up on it very, very fast,” Parson says. ”She will someday be great if she keeps at it.”

The La Pine high bowling squad competes against other high school teams, including Bend, Summit and Mountain View high schools, and three teams from Klamath Falls schools.

Parson notes that bowling is not sanctioned by the Oregon School Activities Association, as many other prep sports are. Currently, it’s considered a club sport. However, he adds that other states are recognizing bowling as an official prep sport, which means it is funded by school districts and participants can earn varsity letters. He hopes that will happen in Oregon.

”Across the nation, high schools are picking it up as an actual sport,” says Parson, who has been coaching the La Pine squad for three years. ”High-school bowling is the fastest-growing sport among kids. It’s overtaking basketball and football. It’s really growing big-time.”

According to High School Bowling USA, a 2003-04 survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations found that there were 6.9 million prep bowlers, compared with approximately 1.03 million football players, 544,811 basketball players and 504,801 track-and-field athletes.

It’s not just in the high schools that the sport is growing in popularity, says Wynn Malikowski, general manager of Lava Lanes Bowling Center in Bend.

”Bowling is on a general upswing,” Malikowski says. ”Over 50 million people bowl at least once a year across the U.S. Obviously, weather is not a factor, and it’s still the cheapest form of entertainment for a family.”

Malikowski says today’s bowling centers are not the bowling alleys of generations past.

”You’re not talking about a 1950s center,” he notes. ”Most of them are nonsmoking, brand-new, $6 to $7 million or higher centers with new equipment. They’re nice, bright, clean places to bring a family to.”

Additionally, the sport is relatively easy on the pocketbook, he says, compared with other activities.

”To buy your own equipment is significantly cheaper,” Malikowski says. ”You can get fully equipped for $100.”

Laura Hawes, one of the owners of Rimrock Lanes in Prineville, agrees that the lower cost of bowling compared with sports such as golf or skiing is a bonus, as is the fact that most people can bowl their entire life.

”Bowling is something that will stand a longer period of time,” Hawes says. ”More and more people are doing it. It goes across every age.”

Shoopman says she thinks bowling is growing in popularity because it’s accessible to just about anyone.

”It’s a sport everyone can do. You don’t have to be the best athlete to bowl,” Shoopman says. ”If you’re not cut out to be the head football player or on the volleyball team, this is the sport for you. Anyone can do it, and it’s fun.

”It’s different from a big sport, like softball or soccer, because it’s individual but somewhat (team oriented). We don’t have all the glitz and glamour – the loudspeakers, the crowds,” she adds. ”It’s just usually family (watching). It’s more of a homey sport, in my opinion.”

While bowling might not be as popular, according to the masses, as football or basketball, Shoopman says it still offers participants the same benefits as more mainstream sports, including the opportunity to do something physical, as well as learn important life lessons.

”Every sport teaches you something,” Shoopman says. ”(Bowling) is more of a mental sport. After so many gutter balls or it not going where you want, it can make you mad. But no matter how many gutter balls you get, you’ve still got to try because you’ll get a strike eventually.”