Tiffany Demaline blends in with every other youngster at Royal Crest Lanes as she chats with her parents, laughs with friends, grabs her bowling ball and gets ready to roll.

When it’s her turn to bowl, however, the similarities cease.

About 100 local youths bowl Saturday mornings at Royal Crest as part of Lawrence’s Young American Bowling Alliance league. Although many of them are skilled at the sport, none quite compares to Demaline.

While some see how fast they can throw the ball down the lane or how much spin they can put on the ball during warm-ups, Demaline lines up her feet and practices her approach.

When it’s time to roll, some bowlers hurry and fling the ball hard, hoping the force will knock down an extra pin or two. Not Demaline.

“I get into a zone, and I just have to focus,” said Demaline, a 14-year-old student at West Junior High. “It’s pretty much a mental game for me.”

She patiently holds the ball in her right hand and takes a long pause.

Right step, left step, right step. She plants her left foot and swiftly flicks the ball down the lane with her right arm. The ball drifts right near the gutter, cuts back to the middle of the lane and smashes through the pins for a strike. Same disciplined routine, same results — almost every time.

That precision has allowed Demaline to find success in the sport she has loved since she rolled her first ball when she was 4. She was presented a Kansas Top-10 plaque Saturday at Royal Crest for rolling the top score in the state — a personal-best 278 — out of all girls age 12-14 during the 2002-2003 season. It was the third time in her career she has won the award.

Tiffany Demaline, of Lawrence, bowled a 278 last year, the highest game in the state in 2003 for junior girls, ages 12-14. Demaline was given a Kansas Top-10 plaque Saturday at Royal Crest Lanes.

“That was her best score ever,” Demaline’s mother, Mikey Peters, said. “She rolled 10 strikes in a row.”

“She’s made us very, very proud,” added her father, Shawn Demaline. “Her mother’s the one who really got her into it because she loved the sport so much too.”

Tiffany Demaline says bowling is in her blood, which may explain her 170 average and numerous awards and such a young age.

Her mother bowls regularly, and her father plays every Wednesday in a league. Her family also owned a bowling alley in Ottawa for a few years, which afforded her the opportunity to roll every day.

“When we owned the alley, that kid would bowl 20-25 games a day,” Peters said. “I’d get worn out just watching her.”

Now, Demaline practices Wednesdays and Fridays at Royal Crest. Saturdays are reserved for competition with her league or to travel to tournaments throughout Kansas.

Eventually she plans to roll collegiately — possibly for one of the nationally-ranked teams at Wichita State or Kansas University — and then join the professional tour. Until then, she said she plans to continue playing locally with her friends and family.

“It’s just a lot of fun,” Demaline said. “Bowling is a passion for me.”