'Bowling ... carries on with or without us': Father of Oxford shooting victim organizes tournament

Buzzing with excitement and nerves, more than 100 young bowlers competed for a shot at the final round of a Waterford bowling tournament on Saturday.

The tournament at Century Bowl was organized by the Chooch Foundation, a nonprofit founded in honor of Justin Shilling, a lifelong bowler and victim of the 2021 Oxford High School shooting attack.

Shilling, 17, a senior, was co-captain of the school’s bowling team. Craig Shilling, his father, said Justin’s love for the sport and the community he gained with it motivated him to arrange the weekend competition for adults, college, middle and high school students.

Justin’s next birthday would’ve been Thursday, Craig Shilling said.

“Bowling as a sport carries on with or without us,” he said. “Bringing us together is a recipe for an emotional time, but it’s always good to hear more of the stories, and it’s such a special part of our family.”

Charged with the same love of the game, young bowlers in their families packed the lanes on Saturday.

Sixteen of the roughly 120 players on Saturday, will move forward to tournament finals on Sunday.

Emma Fisackerly, a 13-year-old on Oxford Middle School’s team, the Oxford Ladycats, said she was excited to compete Saturday.

“It’s really good to be here and support it,” Fisackerly said of the Chooch Foundation.

Fisackerly, of Lake Orion, was in sixth grade when the 2021 shooting occurred. She heard about the incident after she came home from school that day. Students Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Tate Myre, 16, also died in the shooting. Six other students and a teacher were injured.Playing independently in the youth division, 13 year-old Evan Reed said he was nervous, but excited to try his hand at the tournament.

For Reed, bowling is special for the chill environment and sense of community that comes with it, he said.Century Bowl was where Reed first bowled his highest game, and he said he hoped to claim another win Saturday.

Playing in the high school division, Skylar Sott, a first-year student at Oxford Middle School, was also angling for a spot in the finals, she said. She said her dad knew Justin's dad well.

"It feels good to represent Justin and live on his memory," Scott said.

Danielle Bynum, 51, and her family came to watch her 13-year-old son Caleb, compete in his first-ever competition.

"I was not aware of the Oxford involvement, but I'm glad that we were here for it," said Bynum, of Oxford. "It kind of makes it a little more special."

Semifinals aside, OMS players were vying to wear a cartoonish taco hat and win "The Taco Bell Award" – an honor reserved for male and female team members who made four or five strikes in a row, in keeping with a tradition Justin Schilling first set, said OMS head coach, Zane Wynkoop, 58, of Oxford.

Justin Shilling had been late to a match and still, without practice, had landed five strikes in a row, said Wynkoop, who had been filling in as a coach for that game. True to his lively personality, Justin had been eating Taco Bell when he came to the match and asked for more of the chain restaurant’s food as he was landing the strikes, Wynkoop said.

“To be here for Justin today, I can’t think of any other place I’d rather be,” he said.After Justin’s death and a recent cancer diagnosis, Saturday’s competition felt like a reminder for Wynkoop of why bowling coaching was worth it, he said.“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” he said. “ Justin meant the world to me. Beyond a great boy, he was a better person.”