Adapted Bowling Tournament Strikes Brothers' Fancy
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - You don't know what it's like until you've sat where they're sitting and watched what they're watching.
How their boys come alive when they pick up a bowling ball.
"Oh, it's wonderful," said Laurie Lee of Minnetonka. "Just watching them, and how they've grown in sports, just their self-confidence is huge."
Lee and her husband have two boys, 17-year-old Dylan and 14-year-old Parker.
Both have special needs, caused by a genetic disorder called Fragile X, which Laurie said is a lot like autism.
"Social impairment, cognitive delay, speech delay," she said. "It kind of effects their whole body, their whole brain, their sensory system."
None of that seem s to get in the way when they're bowling. Dylan and Parker competed as a pair in the state adapted bowling tournament Friday in Brooklyn Park -- a doubles team that allows them to play the sport they love the best way possible.
Together.
"He's pretty good at getting strikes, and a lot of spares at least," Dylan said. "So that's going good. And I got a lot of strikes as well, so that's good for me."
Parker loves it too.
"I want to cheer for him," he said. "I got strikes."
Watching them compete together, Lee said there's something about the sport that just brings out the best in her boys.
"They fight and they wrestle, just like typical boys do, and they love each other to death, and they don't want to be away from each other," she said. "It's great for them. And it's wonderful to see their camaraderie with each other. And they cheer each other one like crazy. So it's awesome."