Mike Jensen has charts and cheat sheets for everything. And he has to, to stay organized for bowling.

Jensen is the coordinator for the senior bowling leagues at Holiday Lanes.

The organized bowler was born and raised in Albert Lea. After leaving the service in 1959, he started bowling in leagues. He was working at Lou-Rich, so he never bowled in more than one league a week.

However, after retiring from working for 18 years at Lou-Rich, the last years as the purchasing manager, he joined the senior bowling league. He has been bowling with the seniors for about 10 or 11 years. He has also upped his bowling time. He now bowls four times a week. He is in three senior bowling leagues and one sanctioned league on Wednesdays at Holiday Lanes.

“I could bowl just about every day of the week,” Jensen said.

His highest series was 699 and his highest game was in the 270s.

Years ago he started helping his friend, the previous senior bowling coordinator, out with his duties and when his friend passed away, Jensen took over. Now, he has been running the show for about four years.

“I enjoy the people I bowl with. It’s just fun, there’s always some ribbing going on,” he said.

As the coordinator, Jensen takes on many tasks, most importantly setting up the teams, recruiting new bowlers and finding substitutes. Before the senior bowling season starts, Jensen looks through his charts and papers and goes over bowlers’ averages. He then sets up the teams so, at least at the beginning of the league, each team evens out to have about the same average. This year, Jensen successfully put together 44 teams.

Age:75

Address:303 E. Richway Drive

Livelihood:retired purchasing manager at Lou-Rich

Family:wife, Marlys; daughters Lori Meyer and Lynn Spicer; five grandchildren; two great-grandsons

Interesting fact:In addition to bowling, he loves to golf, play cribbage and sing in the choir at Trinity Lutheran Church.

There are three senior leagues, one on Monday, one on Tuesday and one of Thursday, all of which Jensen coordinates. This year, he has 80 people to take care of Mondays, 48 on Tuesdays and 64 on Thursdays.

“I don’t mind the work,” he said, “I have a system down for how I do things. Everybody is pretty cooperative.”

“He does an awesome job,” Loren Kaiser, manager of Holiday Lanes, said.

Kaiser is especially impressed with how great of a job Jensen does at finding substitutes. Rarely is there a team without enough bowlers. Jensen scouts out and lures in new bowlers. Jensen and Kaiser sit out at the Holiday Lanes booth at the Freeborn County Fair all week, and Jensen tries to talk seniors into bowling. He first gets them to come out and try it for free and see if they like it and are interested.

Most of them have bowled before, but some haven’t bowled for 30 or 40 years, he said.

“It’s just a fun league,” he said, “No pressure bowling.”

Feb. 3 at 8 p.m. at Holiday Lanes: Valentines couples bowling

Week of March 15: Senior City Tournament: $1 per person, trophies awarded, Holiday Lanes

Aside from the senior bowling leagues, Jensen also helps with other bowling tournaments including the Valentines bowling tournament, Thanksgiving Turkey Shoot and Sloppy Joe Day.

To join one of the senior bowling leagues call 377-3957 or 402-6580. The cost is $8 on Mondays and $7 on Tuesday and Thursdays.

Bowling starts at 12:30 p.m. and runs for about two hours. The season starts the week after Labor Day in September and lasts for 30 weeks. The Monday bowling league has a banquet with dinner at the end of the season at the Eagles Club.