'I still can do it': Saskatoon woman, 99, keeps on bowling through COVID-19 pandemic

For one Saskatoon senior, enjoying her favourite sport during the pandemic is right up her alley.

Simone Kuckartz, 99, says she seldom misses her Monday afternoon senior’s bowling league at Eastview Bowl because it keeps her active and she gets to see her teammates.

She likes the reactions she gets when people realize she’s still bowling at one year shy of a century old.

“They think it’s funny I still can do it, but I still can do it so I like to do it,” Kuckartz told CTV News.

For Kuckartz, who is a mother of 13 and has 120 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, revealing her age never gets old either.

“One lady asked me, she says, I’m older than you. I said, I don’t think so. She was only 79. She almost fell over when I told her I was 99,” she says with a chuckle.

Over the years she’s had to adapt and now uses a cane. She’s had an injury to her arm, but that didn’t keep her down.

She insists on wearing a skirt because that’s what she’s always done and every game she hands out candy to her team, something she says is the secret to a long life.

She also gets support from her family. Her grandson bowls with her in the senior’s league.

“I’m stepping in now and she’s my coach and she tells me to calm down and get strikes,” James Kostyk told CTV News.

Kuckartz is well known at Eastview Bowl and is a celebrity of sorts so people notice when she’s not there.

“During the shutdowns of COVID, it was hard not to see everybody, especially Simone. We really missed her for that first little bit and when she broke free and came back she didn’t miss a day,” restaurant manager Darren Welsh told CTV News.