By MIKE KESSINGER

mkessinger@gctelegram.com

Jeremy Kells remembers most everything about the first time he bowled a 300.

It was Jan. 4, 2006 at Garden Bowl. The BCS national championship game between the University of Texas and USC was on TV and so as Kells' moved from each frame he had little to be distracted by. Everyone was more in to paying attention to the football game. It eased the tension he was feeling.

"That helped me a lot because I was kind of left alone," Kells said.

By the time his game was complete though, he did have the crowds attention as they cheered the first perfect game of Kells' life. It was moment he wasn't for sure if it would ever come true since he had bowled a 299 in 2004 at Liberal.

"It was a big relief, because the first time I had to bowl a 300 I was shaking so bad," Kells said of the game in Liberal. "After I threw that 299 I didn't know if I would ever have that chance again. I had a bad feeling."

Bad feelings aside, Kells did bowl a 300 and he would do it again. The second time came of a much bigger stage when on April 12 he bowled a perfect game at the state tournament in Olathe.

Playing on a two-man team with long-time bowling partner Bill Donovan, Kells rolled a 300 on a day he refused to ever check the board going through each frame.

"On this one, I just kind of watched who I followed," Kells said. "I never looked up at the score. This time I wasn't as nervous when I got closer to 300. When I got to the 10th frame, I just looked over at my partner who had just got back from his frame, and I said 'is this the 10th frame?' He said, 'yeah.'"

The relief of bowling a 300 felt good to Kells. The goal is to reach four 300 games so that he can give a ring that represents a perfect game, to his wife and two children, Ashley and Theron. Everyone in his family has picked up the game, and Ashley, who is a freshman at Garden City High School, bowls on the school's varsity team.

The State Bowling Tournament will run until May 21, and Kells and Donovan will find out what place overall they finished in. Kells said the duo was in 19th the last he had heard.

But to Kells, the place the two finish is just one thing. Bowling a 300 is rewarding enough.