Sheer will and determination are the two main ingredients that made Mike Rancourt the bowler that he is today.
Born in Sudbury on July 21,1962, oldest child of Sylvia and Pat, Mike was given the choice of either hockey or bowling. Fortunately, he chose bowling and, at the age of seven, started bowling in the Youth Bowling Council at Plaza Bowl. With the help of Al and Pat Telfer, Mike quickly rose to the top of his game. In the YBC, the 4 Steps to Stardom tournament, is the most prestigious tournament on the calendar. Mike was a perennial competitor in this tournament and in his last year, bowling in the singles division, rolled a 912 triple and finished second.
Mike was first exposed to the Open while in his last year in the YBC. In 1980, the Provincial Finals for Northern Ontario were held in Sudbury at his home centre. Mike volunteered as a scorekeeper. As a senior in the YBC, Mike was averaging 250, so it was only natural that he enter the Open after graduation. At nineteen, Mike qualified for his first Open, the Men’s team that represented the Nickel District in Northern Ontario. After attending university for two years, Mike returned to Sudbury and once again, qualified two more times, once in the Nickel District and once for Cambrian North.
While working for the Beer store, part time, Mike moved to Collingwood in January of ‘85 so he could get on full time. Once again, Mike qualified on the Men’s team, this time representing the Huronia zone. Members of that team included coach, Steve Wiggins, another Beer Store employee and Hall of Famer, Al Snow. With the untimely death of Steve Wiggins, Mike re-located again, this time to Barrie.
His time in Barrie was spent bowling in the men’s leagues at Kempview Bowl, where earlier, after honing his skills by bowling sweeps into the early hours of the morning, was averaging over 250. Always thriving for competition, Mike decided to give the tournament division of the Master Bowlers Association a try. Representing Kempview Bowl, and later, Stellar Lanes, Mike joined the tour. In total, Mike would bowl nine years in the Masters, eight in the Tournament division and one in the Teaching division. To his credit, Mike has one tournament victory, that being the Mixed Triples in 1996 with Debbie McAlpine and Hall of Famer Geoff Stevens. Mike bowled 488 games, with a pinfall of 122,850, averaged 251 during his Masters years.
After another move, another Beer Store and another zone, Mike was quick to find his way on to another Open Men’s team, this time in York Simcoe. The year was 1988 and, after a short time in Aurora, has finally settled in to his current residence in Bradford, since 1991. Mike’s first Open team in York Simcoe, in 1990, consisted of three of the zone’s Hall of Famers, Shawn Morris, Russ Hurcom and as stated earlier, Geoff Stevens and a rookie coach by the name of Gary Kehoe. In total, Mike has qualified a total of fourteen times, with a York Simcoe team. There were three times as Zone Champion, another two times as a singles representative, six times on the Men’s teams and three times on the Mixed teams.
Mike has always been a dominant bowler in league play and numerous individual awards were a common occurrence. However, no one can forget the night of November 6, 1991. Stellar Lanes, a relatively new centre, was home to the S.L.M. Match Play league. Not your normal mixed league, formed in 1989 with only eighteen bowlers, as their were four games bowled nightly, across a different pair of lanes each game using the match play point system. On this particular night, Mike was on fire. Starting with a 386, he followed that with a 345 and 338 for a 1069 triple and capped it off with a 390, for a four game total of 1459. That four game score, which Mike feels is one of his greatest accomplishments, has been a Provincial record for twenty years and will be very hard to beat.
Currently, Mike runs the Tuesday Men’s league at Stellar and enjoys curling, a sport that he has participated in since high school.
A hardened bachelor for most of his life, Mike finally met his match, settled down and is raising a family, with his wife Lesley, whom he met through work, and their three boys Ethan, Aidan and Logan.
York Simcoe is thankful that Mike chose 5 pin bowling over hockey many years ago and tonight joins fellow teammates Geoff Stevens and Shawn Morris in his rightful spot in the Bowler’s Division of the Hall of Fame.