Longtime teammates raise awareness at USBC Open Championships
March 19, 2025
PHOTO (from left): Kevin Hebert and Scott Grupas
BATON ROUGE, La. – Bowling tends to have a way to bring us together at just the right time.
Kevin Hebert of St. Charles, Missouri, and Scott Grupas of Corvallis, Oregon, may live more than 2,000 miles away from each other, but the sport has given them the chance to reconnect year after year.
Their usual trip brings Grupas back to Missouri for the Greater Ozarks Open in Springfield and allows them to look back at a friendship that was forged on the lanes in the St. Louis area when they were both teenagers.
The appearance in 2023 turned out to be an eye-opening experience for both beyond the lanes, though, as Grupas – a doctor of osteopathy – noticed a mole on Hebert’s right arm that needed attention.
After a trip to the dermatologist later that year, Hebert received news that the spot on his arm was Stage 2 melanoma.
“My story goes back to the 2023 Greater Ozarks Open,” Hebert said. “Scott comes in from Oregon and puts our squad together, and we’ve been bowling together for nearly 30 years. While we were bowling, he looked down and saw a spot on my arm – a mole I’ve had my whole life and something I didn’t think much about. He said it looked funky and that I needed to get it checked out.
“Once they did the biopsy, it turned out to be Stage 2 melanoma, which means they needed to remove it and also take out some of my lymph nodes. I ended up having surgery in January of 2024, and fortunately, they got everything out and nothing had gotten to my lymph nodes. Since that time, I’ve been going to the dermatologist every three months for full-body skin checks to make sure nothing else is popping up.”
Grupas identified some of the ABCDEs of melanoma (asymmetry, border, color, diameter and evolving) during the trip and didn’t hesitate to alert Hebert to the potential severity.
“When these things are changing colors or getting bigger, that’s when you need to get concerned,” Grupas said. “A lot of us have skin lesions that haven’t changed our whole lives, but when they do, that’s when you need to get something checked. I had probably seen this thing on his forearm for years, but when I saw it that year – it was very concerning to me.
“I do my best to take care of people every day, but to be able to offer that to a friend and use that education and experience to get him going in the right direction on this was very impactful to me. It’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve done.”
After the biopsy was complete and the results were available, Hebert quickly alerted Grupas of the news.
“I think Scott was the first person I reached out to besides my wife,” Hebert said. “Nowadays, you can get access to the results before the doctors can reach out and explain them, so I started sending him screenshots and asking what everything meant. I kind of had to take a deep breath and figure all that out. His knowledge has been invaluable the whole time.”
“After determining the diagnosis, there’s always more questions to be asked and things to be concerned about,” Grupas said. “From there, we stayed in touch with the progression of the diagnosis and surgery. I was very relieved how his cancer was staged at that point, because it was pretty early and the percentages were good that it would be completely curable.”
Shortly after his surgery, Hebert was back on the lanes in Las Vegas for the 2024 United States Bowling Congress Open Championships.
He lost most of the feeling in his thumb from the procedure, but he’s still able to compete.
“They cut my radial nerve, so my thumb is essentially numb at all times – I can’t really feel my thumb very well anymore,” Hebert said. “There are things I have struggled with, but it’s a good trade – to have the cancer gone.”
He and Grupas recently returned to the USBC Open Championships for the 2025 event at the Raising Cane’s River Center, and the pair decided to use their time on the lanes in doubles to also raise awareness for skin cancer with matching jerseys.
“I know people’s medical situations can be very private, but in this case, I felt I had a little bit of a debt to pay and some responsibility to pay it forward and raise awareness for others to get their skin checked,” said Hebert, who made his 15th appearance at the Open Championships. “Someone speaking up helped me, so I hope to do the same. I posted a little bit about my experience on Facebook, and I’ve had friends in St. Louis tell me they saw the dermatologist after hearing what happened to me. It kind of hits me when people do that.
“I did not realize how serious skin cancer could be – especially melanoma – but I found out really quickly after doing some research how serious it can be and how quickly it can spread.”
You could almost say the jerseys supporting skin cancer awareness found them.
“We’ve been doubles partners at the Greater Ozarks, and that also carries over to doubles at nationals,” said Grupas, who made his 13th trip to the Open Championships. “As we started looking for team shirts, I said we should get matching shirts for doubles. I wasn’t thinking about skin cancer or anything else to start. In the first minute that I looked on the front page – there was a skin cancer awareness jersey. It was a done deal. I’m proud to wear them out here, and hopefully it can help other people’s lives as well.
“It’s truly because of bowling that we diagnosed Kevin’s skin cancer and got it treated.”
Hebert closed his appearance in 2025 with a 634 series in singles, and although it’s not his top score on the championship lanes, he appreciates the chance to be lacing up his bowling shoes next to his longtime friend.
“Last year in Las Vegas, I bowled terrible and couldn’t do anything,” Hebert said. “But, I made it out there. Even bowling decent in singles this year, it feels pretty good to bounce back from where I’ve been. Bowling has been a work in progress with the numbness and feel of everything, but the little things that happen like that mean more now. I appreciate it more now, because it was almost all gone.
“Bowling brings us back together each year, and I feel like it saved my life.”
The Open Championships is celebrating its third trip to Baton Rouge in 2025 and scheduled to feature more than 58,000 bowlers and 11,600 five-player teams competing across 150 consecutive days at the River Center.
Visit us on Facebook at the official USBC Open Championships page.
BATON ROUGE, La. – Bowling tends to have a way to bring us together at just the right time.
Kevin Hebert of St. Charles, Missouri, and Scott Grupas of Corvallis, Oregon, may live more than 2,000 miles away from each other, but the sport has given them the chance to reconnect year after year.
Their usual trip brings Grupas back to Missouri for the Greater Ozarks Open in Springfield and allows them to look back at a friendship that was forged on the lanes in the St. Louis area when they were both teenagers.
The appearance in 2023 turned out to be an eye-opening experience for both beyond the lanes, though, as Grupas – a doctor of osteopathy – noticed a mole on Hebert’s right arm that needed attention.
After a trip to the dermatologist later that year, Hebert received news that the spot on his arm was Stage 2 melanoma.“My story goes back to the 2023 Greater Ozarks Open,” Hebert said. “Scott comes in from Oregon and puts our squad together, and we’ve been bowling together for nearly 30 years. While we were bowling, he looked down and saw a spot on my arm – a mole I’ve had my whole life and something I didn’t think much about. He said it looked funky and that I needed to get it checked out.
“Once they did the biopsy, it turned out to be Stage 2 melanoma, which means they needed to remove it and also take out some of my lymph nodes. I ended up having surgery in January of 2024, and fortunately, they got everything out and nothing had gotten to my lymph nodes. Since that time, I’ve been going to the dermatologist every three months for full-body skin checks to make sure nothing else is popping up.”
Grupas identified some of the ABCDEs of melanoma (asymmetry, border, color, diameter and evolving) during the trip and didn’t hesitate to alert Hebert to the potential severity.
“When these things are changing colors or getting bigger, that’s when you need to get concerned,” Grupas said. “A lot of us have skin lesions that haven’t changed our whole lives, but when they do, that’s when you need to get something checked. I had probably seen this thing on his forearm for years, but when I saw it that year – it was very concerning to me.
“I do my best to take care of people every day, but to be able to offer that to a friend and use that education and experience to get him going in the right direction on this was very impactful to me. It’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve done.”
After the biopsy was complete and the results were available, Hebert quickly alerted Grupas of the news.
“I think Scott was the first person I reached out to besides my wife,” Hebert said. “Nowadays, you can get access to the results before the doctors can reach out and explain them, so I started sending him screenshots and asking what everything meant. I kind of had to take a deep breath and figure all that out. His knowledge has been invaluable the whole time.”
“After determining the diagnosis, there’s always more questions to be asked and things to be concerned about,” Grupas said. “From there, we stayed in touch with the progression of the diagnosis and surgery. I was very relieved how his cancer was staged at that point, because it was pretty early and the percentages were good that it would be completely curable.”
Shortly after his surgery, Hebert was back on the lanes in Las Vegas for the 2024 United States Bowling Congress Open Championships.
He lost most of the feeling in his thumb from the procedure, but he’s still able to compete.
“They cut my radial nerve, so my thumb is essentially numb at all times – I can’t really feel my thumb very well anymore,” Hebert said. “There are things I have struggled with, but it’s a good trade – to have the cancer gone.”
He and Grupas recently returned to the USBC Open Championships for the 2025 event at the Raising Cane’s River Center, and the pair decided to use their time on the lanes in doubles to also raise awareness for skin cancer with matching jerseys.
“I know people’s medical situations can be very private, but in this case, I felt I had a little bit of a debt to pay and some responsibility to pay it forward and raise awareness for others to get their skin checked,” said Hebert, who made his 15th appearance at the Open Championships. “Someone speaking up helped me, so I hope to do the same. I posted a little bit about my experience on Facebook, and I’ve had friends in St. Louis tell me they saw the dermatologist after hearing what happened to me. It kind of hits me when people do that.
“I did not realize how serious skin cancer could be – especially melanoma – but I found out really quickly after doing some research how serious it can be and how quickly it can spread.”
You could almost say the jerseys supporting skin cancer awareness found them.
“We’ve been doubles partners at the Greater Ozarks, and that also carries over to doubles at nationals,” said Grupas, who made his 13th trip to the Open Championships. “As we started looking for team shirts, I said we should get matching shirts for doubles. I wasn’t thinking about skin cancer or anything else to start. In the first minute that I looked on the front page – there was a skin cancer awareness jersey. It was a done deal. I’m proud to wear them out here, and hopefully it can help other people’s lives as well.
“It’s truly because of bowling that we diagnosed Kevin’s skin cancer and got it treated.”
Hebert closed his appearance in 2025 with a 634 series in singles, and although it’s not his top score on the championship lanes, he appreciates the chance to be lacing up his bowling shoes next to his longtime friend.
“Last year in Las Vegas, I bowled terrible and couldn’t do anything,” Hebert said. “But, I made it out there. Even bowling decent in singles this year, it feels pretty good to bounce back from where I’ve been. Bowling has been a work in progress with the numbness and feel of everything, but the little things that happen like that mean more now. I appreciate it more now, because it was almost all gone.
“Bowling brings us back together each year, and I feel like it saved my life.”
The Open Championships is celebrating its third trip to Baton Rouge in 2025 and scheduled to feature more than 58,000 bowlers and 11,600 five-player teams competing across 150 consecutive days at the River Center.
Visit us on Facebook at the official USBC Open Championships page.