Men's college bowling: Burlington's Kassen Smith signs with Hawkeye Community College

The Burlington High School boys bowling program has come a long way in the four years since J.R. Taylor became head coach.

The Grayhounds took another step forward on Wednesday when senior Kassen Smith signed a National Letter of Intent to bowl next season for Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo.

For Smith, who has been bowling most of his life, it is the next step in a natural progression to get to where he wants to be.

“Roger (Hawkeye bowling coach Taylor) was looking at me for a while. I talked to him at state for a while. We got a pretty good connection. That really built up a lot,” Smith said. “I don’t know a whole lot about it. I didn’t look into a whole lot of research on it. From what Roger told me they have really nice programs. They have a really nice campus when I went for my visit.”

Smith is coming off a banner season in which he helped BHS reach the state tournament as a team for the first time in program history. The Grayhounds finished sixth in Class 2A.

Smith finished with 4,445 total pins in 22 games. He had a high game of 268 and a high series of 484, both career bests.

Smith knew his senior year would be key if he wanted to continue bowling at the college level. He made the most of his final season as a Grayhound.

“At the beginning of my senior year, I knew this was possible,” Smith said. “I got Ryan Moore from Culver-Stockton. He wanted me to come there. I’m pretty close with him. He and Roger were both looking at me, which was pretty exciting. I chose Hawkeye because it’s a smaller school. It’s easier to get to and it’s in a nice area.”

Hawkeye Community College finished ninth in the NJCAA National Championship this year. The RedTails graduate five sophomores from that squad.

Smith plans to study business transfer in his two seasons with the RedTails, then transfer to Culver-Stockton College, an NAIA school in Canton, Missouri. There, he will be reunited with former BHS teammate Ian Mason.

Once I finish there I’m probably going to transfer down to Culver-Stockton so I can bowl with Ian,” Smith said. “I’m going to transfer my major to either sports communications or sports management.”