October 17, 2024 Nolan Hughes

Following a dominant freshman season in which he captured 2023 PBA50 Rookie of the Year honors, Florida’s John Janawicz took his game to new heights this year.

During the 2024 PBA Tour, Janawicz won five titles and two majors — PBA50 Johnny Petraglia BVL Open, PBA Senior U.S. Open (major), Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship (major), PBA50 Petraglia Classic, and PBA50 South Shore Classic — and led the PBA50 Tour in competition points to earn PBA50 Player of the Year honors.  

“It still hasn't really hit me much yet that I became PBA50 Player of the Year,” Janawicz said. “I'm just very fortunate that Chris Chartrand and everyone at Kegel (where Janawicz works full-time as a technician) has been supporting me and continuing to pull my load while I've been away. I'm just very grateful that they've given me this opportunity and allowed me to fulfill a dream.”

“I never would have thought, especially at the age of 25 when I knew that my professional bowling career would be over with all the back problems I had and then going to work for Kegel, to be a PBA Player of the Year. That never would have been on my radar.”

John Janawicz earned his fourth career PBA50 Tour major title in the 2024 Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship, putting him a PBA50 World Championship shy of the Senior Super Slam

In 16 events this season, Janawicz collected eight top-five finishes, 10 top-10 finishes and $76,250. He averaged 226.66 across 375 games.

With this award, Janawicz etches his name alongside PBA legends Parker Bohn III, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Pete Weber, Norm Duke, Wayne Webb and Mark Roth, among others, as a PBA50 Player of the Year recipient.

“Those are some legends of the game there,” Janawicz said. “To be in that class of player, it's quite an honor. I’m very grateful and very humbled to be mentioned in the same breath as those guys.”

Perhaps the most remarkable feat of Janawicz’ stellar season was his performance in stepladder finals. Specifically as the No. 3 seed, he compiled a 12-1 record, averaged more than 251 and won four titles.

In his eight stepladder finals appearances, Janawicz compiled the following stats:

  • 16-3 record (5-0 in championship matches)
  • 84.21% win percentage
  • 243.21 average (212.89 opponent average)
  • 2 games < 200
  • 15 games > 230
  • 6 games > 260

Even factoring in the small sample size — Janawicz’ 19 games in stepladder finals represent about 5% of his total games — those numbers are hard to believe, even to the man himself.

“To be able to win in the stepladders at the rate I did was something that I still have kind of hard time describing. That’s not a normal win percentage,” Janawicz said. “You can make good decisions on the fly and be in the right place at the right time, and you still have to have some things go your way. As a whole, I had a lot more things go my way this year than against me.”

Janawicz did not point to any one specific change or evolution in his game from his freshman to sophomore campaigns that led to his substantial improvement. He said a year of experience on the PBA50 Tour, which he said features more burn and double-burn squads than he’s used to, helped him devise better gameplans.

“I probably got smarter in terms of laneplay strategies and knowing the kind of equipment I need,” he said. “More than anything, it’s continuing to not panic. When things don’t go well, you have to have the confidence that you’re going to figure it out. You just might run out of time.”

"Running out of time" is an accurate description for Tom Hess, who orchestrated a stellar 2024 season himself.

Hess also won five titles and finished second in competition points. Hess kept himself in contention for a second PBA50 POY throughout much of the season, but Janawicz’ victory in the season’s penultimate event sealed the deal.

As the PBA50 Tour stars exchanged triumphs all season, almost as if they were trying to one-up each other, Janawicz refused to allow the POY conversation to enter his thoughts.

“I try not to look that far ahead because I don’t worry about things that I can’t control,” Janawicz said. “I’m a firm believer that if you focus on what you need to do and if your gameplans are right, then you’ll be close. If somebody was that much better than you, hey that's fantastic. You don’t have any control over what your opponent does. If I'm doing (what I need to do) right, at the end of the year it should work out just fine. This year, it did.”

Ever the technician, Janawicz said he looks forward to getting back to his process and improving next season if given the opportunity.

“There’s always room for improvement: You can get a little bit smarter. You can miss less spares. You can see transition a little bit faster,” he said.

The PBA50 Rookie of the Year, PBA60 Player of the Year and Dick Weber Sportsmanship award winners will be announced soon.

Past PBA50 Player of the Year Award Winners

2023 — Troy Lint
2022 — Parker Bohn III
2021 — Tom Hess
2020 — not awarded
2019 — Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2018 — Michael Haugen Jr.
2017 — Brian LeClair
2016 — Pete Weber
2015 — Pete Weber
2014 — Norm Duke
2013 — Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2012 — Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2011 — Ron Mohr
2010 — Wayne Webb
2009 — Ron Mohr
2008 — Tom Baker
2007 — Tom Baker
2006 — Tom Baker
2005 — Tom Baker
2004 — Bob Glass
2003 — Bob Chamberlain
2002 — Mark Roth
2001 — Bob Glass
2000 — Bob Glass
1999 — Dale Eagle
1998 — Pete Couture
1997 — Gary Dickinson
1996 — John Handegard
1995 — John Handegard
1994 — Gary Dickinson
1993 — Gary Dickinson
1992 — Gene Stus
1991 — John Handegard
1990 — John Hricsina
1989 — Jimmy Certain