Mike Crowley has long been one of the area's most active, and better, bowlers.

He competed in the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships recently in Albuquerque, N.M. It was his third national tournament.

This season he's rolling three nights a week, averaging a solid 217. However, each of those leagues is in the Auburn USBC Bowling Association. That's a fairly new concept for the adventurous Crowley.

For about a decade, Crowley, a Weedsport resident, bowled on Thursday nights at two different establishments in the Watertown area. His job as a sales representative with D&W Diesel Inc. took him on a run up north. He would stay overnight and then continue his job on Friday morning.

“I was always talking bowling and golf with my customers,” the 47-year-old said. “It was a vendor/customer relationship. Finally, some of them asked me if I wanted to bowl.

“I figured I would do it instead of sitting in a hotel room bored to death.”

Once he finally got on the lanes with his new bowling mates, it was a release for Crowley. He has spent 19 of his 20 years on the road for D&W Diesel.

“We didn't talk shop,” he said. “They were friends, not just customers.”

Crowley, who was runner-up in the 1993 The Citizen Masters, stopped bowling in Watertown about two years ago. Business simply got too busy. He covers hundreds of miles over two days, traveling as far north as Massena.

But he has good memories, and believes the experience made him a better bowler.

“I miss it because it was a whole different atmosphere,” he said. “I got the opportunity to bowl on challenging conditions. I would bowl in an old house with wooden lanes, and then come back here and bowl on the synthetic lanes at Rainbow.”

Crowley said he never bowled an award score out of town, but remembers some 770 matches.

He also competed in a city tournament at Fort Drum, as well as 700 Club events in both Watertown and Auburn.

While work is still busy for Crowley, he feels blessed to be with D&W Diesel, a family owned business “that treats its employees very well,” he said. But with his children, Melissa, 19, and Matt, 17, coming into their own, he and his wife, Michelle, should have more time to themselves.

Michelle, incidentally, is one of Auburn's top woman bowlers. She won The Citizen Masters handicap crown in 1993, and was runner-up in 2004. Mike's next big adventure is to snag her as a doubles partner for next year's USBC Championships in Las Vegas.

“I would love for that to happen,” he said. “We'll see how things work out.”