This bowler scatters pins - without seeing them

Bowling is a numbers game for Henry Svetina. There's the three holes he slides his fingers into, the five steps he takes before releasing the ball and the 10 pins at the end of the lane that he can't see.

Svetina has been legally blind for close to 20 years. If you are standing right in front of him, he can make out your blurry image. Anything that is beyond a few feet from him disappears into a gray cloud.

The fact that he can't see where he's aiming, however, hasn't stopped Svetina, 50, from becoming a competitive recreational bowler. Using what appears to be a highly honed kinesthetic sense, Svetina averages 170 in a weeknight league at Port Jeff Bowl.

"It's pretty incredible what Henry is able to do,'' said Rick Papandrea, who bowled on the PBA Tour in the 1980s and now is the coach at East Islip High School. "For a guy who is legally blind to have the skill he has is an amazing story.''

Svetina, who grew up in Brentwood, started losing his sight at age 30 after his retinas were severely burned in a work-related accident while he was moving a tank filled with sulfuric acid. Svetina doesn't like to talk about the incident, except to say that the company he worked for is no longer in business.

"After my accident, I just wanted to give up in life,'' Svetina said. "I couldn't drive no more, I couldn't read no more. I was depressed.''

One night, a good friend dragged Svetina to Bay Shore Bowl. Svetina says he had never been bowling before, but he took to it quickly, becoming a regular at the lanes. Word of Svetina's accomplishment began to get out and back in the 1990s, he was profiled in reports on CNN and ESPN, and appeared on television in some pro-ams.

"At first, I didn't want people to watch me,'' Svetina said. "I thought they were laughing at me. But then I found out that they were glad they had seen me do it. I think my going out there showed people what someone could do if they really wanted to.''

Papandrea's father owned the pro shop at Bay Shore Bowl, and the coach remembers being amazed the first time he saw Svetina bowl.

"Once he's able to set his feet, he does it all by feel,'' Papandrea said. "I think for him, it's all feel and muscle memory. I also think because he can't see, he has some heightened senses.''

Svetina often can tell, just by listening, whether he got a strike. But most of the time, he brings a friend along to tell him what pins are left after his first ball. He admits he also has some mishaps that bowlers who can see probably would not have.

"I've hit myself in the leg,'' he said with a laugh. "One time, I threw the ball into the wrong lane - but I got a strike.''

Svetina hasn't bowled in a pro-am since before he moved with his family to Florida in 2005. Though he still lives in the South in the winter, he spends the summer in Port Jefferson with his sister, who conveniently lives less than two blocks from Port Jeff Bowl.

Svetina says he hopes his story can inspire others who have had a setback in life.

"I want people to realize that no matter what has happened to you, you shouldn't give up in life,'' he said. "You can go out and do something.''