April 4, 2016
By Rod Williamson | Subscribe to Commodore Nation
Looks are deceiving. On the surface, Robyn Renslow appears to be a soft-spoken introvert. She’s a compulsive organizer who enjoys drawing. Perhaps she is a musician or an accountant.
Put her in a bowling uniform and presto – she transforms into an All-American bowler, one of the finest ever to wear the Black and Gold. In fact, she has ably handled the challenging anchor position on Vanderbilt’s highly ranked team for three years, defying certain stereotypes on her path to stardom.
Typically the fifth person – the anchor – in bowling’s five-person rotation prowls the lanes with bravado. A strike in a crucial spot produces a scream, fist pumps and body language more common in basketball or football.
Renslow’s idea of celebration is to simply pivot back to her teammates and give a slight move of her right arm – the kind of motion one might make after remembering a forgotten password. But inside this tranquil Californian beats the competitive spirit of World War II spy.
She’d be a good candidate for the CIA if it weren’t that she has her heart set on becoming a nurse. Just who is this anyway, the one whose calm demeanor and gifted talents has represented Vanderbilt so well for so long?
Renslow grew up in Brentwood in the San Francisco Bay region, not the wealthy Los Angeles suburb. At an early age she started two things that have stayed with her – drawing and bowling.
“When I was bored growing up,” Renslow recalls, “I liked to doodle. I’d pause the television and draw the cartoon characters on the screen.” She has taken several art classes at Vanderbilt including a ceramics class that she enjoyed.
But more than art, Renslow found she was a natural in the sport of bowling.
“I started in the 5-year old league,” she says, “and by the time I was 10 I was in a scratch league. My average was higher than most and getting into a handicap tournament didn’t make sense.”
By the time she was she was 12 she was on the NorCal Junior Bowlers Tour and became one of the youngest winners on record. Not surprisingly, she won the United States Amateur championship (also known as the Junior Gold) and the Firecracker Shootout – a major amateur championship – before arriving at Vanderbilt.
Robyn planned to attend Fresno State and had originally gone to a local junior college right out of high school. She intended to continue bowling but not on an organized team until one day the youth director at her bowling center said the Vanderbilt coaches had called looking for her.
She wasn’t entirely sure where Vanderbilt was located at the time but she and her mother made an official campus visit, the start of something good. She is just the fifth Commodore to be named first-team All-American, she has been the MVP at three tournaments and she has been the anchor on three of the program’s five perfect Baker games. (A Baker game is when each of the five team members handle two frames.)
A strong student who plans a career in nursing, Renslow admits she looks forward to the pressure of bowling last, often with the outcome of the game hanging in the balance. Few bowlers covet that burden.
“I like the rush you feel when you need to make a shot,” she says. “I love it when it comes down to the last ball. You have to be comfortable in your own skin; you have to be able to block out past shots and be confident you can produce. You can’t have regrets after you throw a shot.”
Renslow credits a youth coach with teaching her that “playtime is in the settee area” and it’s time to get serious when you step onto the approach area.
“On the approach I’m in a different state of mind,” Renslow says. “I may have some thoughts before I pick up my ball but after I pick it up my mind is essentially wiped clear. You rely on muscle memory.”
Renslow explains her calm outward demeanor is her attempt to stay focused on the task at hand, much like a golfer needing to sink a putt.
She freely admits she can and is hyped up about being organized, almost to a fault.
“You should see my closet,” she says. “I’ve got black hangers, white hangers, gray hangers…all my clothes are arranged by color and type; my shoes are sorted by style, all my sweaters and shirts are hung in an exact manner, my bowling gear is together…”
It doesn’t stop there.
“I have my classes organized in folders and sub-folders,” she continues. “I used to rewrite my notes if they seemed sloppy. I guess office supplies are my biggest weakness – don’t take me to an Office Max and turn me loose!”
There is still a month or so remaining in her college career but she already recognizes some of the life lessons competitive bowling has taught her.
“How many lessons do you want to hear, I have a plethora,” she says before mentioning one that seems top of mind.
“Not giving up – pushing to the end,” she continues. “Coach (John Williamson) is always saying nothing is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it appears. I’ve learned not to quit just because something is difficult.”
It would seem an ideal mindset for a nurse: an organized, competitive instinct with a soothing disposition who never gives up, the attributes of a bona-fide All-American.
