BUTLER TWP — If Rocco Rice has a bowling ceiling, he keeps crashing through it.

So there's no sense in establishing one.

“The sky's the limit for him,” Butler High School bowling coach Bob Cupp said of the Golden Tornado sophomore. “He's very coachable. He's a quiet young man who absorbs everything we tell him.

“His passion for this sport is obvious.”

So is his production.

Last week at the WPIBL Boys Singles Championships at North Versailles, Rice had the high series of the day at 724. His games were 266, 256 and 200.

He received a plaque from the WPIBL for that achievement. Only one other bowler in that tournament managed to roll a 600 series.

“It was a tough shot that day ... but Rocco couldn't miss,” Cupp said.

Both of his parents, Jim and Rhonda Rice, are league bowlers. They got Rocco started in the sport when he was 5 years old.

Rice won a couple of doubles championships during youth in-house tournaments. He rolled career-highs of 280 (game) and 749 (series) in his Saturday youth bowling league last year.

He also rolled a 268 game and 723 series for Butler as a freshman.

“I began coming up here and hanging around with the (high school) team in seventh grade,” Rice recalled. “My average was probably in the 150's or so then.

“Those coaches worked with me, spent time with me. They helped me with my throw and turned me into a better bowler.”

Rice averaged 192 his freshman season. He is around that same average this season, despite bowling with a blister on the thumb of his throwing hand.

“That thing never fully healed,” Cupp said. “Rocco's been bowling through it. He's put up big games in spite of it.

“He was an outstanding youth bowler and has been on our radar since he was in sixth grade. We invited him to preseason conditioning and had him bowl with our top guys, so he could watch their shots and learn from them.”

Cupp added last year's top Tornado bowler, senior Chris Huff, “took Rocco under his wing, which really helped him.”

Once Huff graduated, junior Brock Hepler took over as the anchor bowler in Butler's lineup. Rice eventually grew into that role.

Butler has no seniors on its boys team this year.

“We needed Rocco to step into that anchor role and Brock helped him in that process,” Cupp said.

Rice plays recreational baseball and golfs as well. But bowling is his prime sport.

“I like the adrenalin rush you get when you're bowling a really good game,” he said. “It's just fun to me.”

And he enjoys bowling on a young team that includes fellow sophomores Eric Devore and Alex Ekas averaging in the 180's, junior Hepler at 180, Luke Keene and Marty Imholof just under 170.

“All of us are friends here,” Rice said. “We help and support each other. There is no drama here. That's why we win.

“We're all good bowlers.”

Butler is competing in the regional individual and team championships Friday and Saturday at North Versailles Bowl.

Cupp said Rice has a unique style that included curling the ball behind his back before whipping it around for his shot.

“He'd been successful, so we didn't want to tamper with his shot too much,” Cupp said. “We just got him to get underneath the ball more. That helped him pick up the 10-pin and his average started shooting up.

“Rocco is a great athlete. Baseball, basketball, he could be successful in any sport he chose. The fact he chose bowling has been great for us.”

Rice hopes to take bowling a long way.

“I'd love to turn pro one day, but I don't know if that will happen,” he said. “Bowl in college, for sure ... I just want to keep going.”