Sill, Aleta (Rzpecki)
Bowling
b. Sept. 9, 1962, Detroit, MI
Aleta Rzpecki began bowling when she was five and won her first professional tournament at nineteen. In 1982, she won the WIBC all-events title, but she didn't consider it a good year.
She married Dave Sill in 1983 and became the second youngest bowler to win the WIBC Queens tournament. She led the LPBT in earnings that year with $42,525 and explained her success: "I made myself practice, which I didn't do in 1982." She also gave Sill some credit: "My husband worked hard with me on my game."
In 1984, Sill was again the tour's leading money winner with $81,452, a record at the time, and she also had the top average, 210.68 pins, to win the LPBT bowler of the year award. She repeated as money winner with $52,655 and average leader with 211.10 in 1985 and was again named bowler of the year.
Sill was the money leader for a fourth straight year with $36,962 in 1986. But she won only one tournament the following year, when her marriage was beginning to come apart. She and Sill were divorced late that year and she didn't have a single win in 1988. She even thought about leaving the tour.
But she kept at it and began winning again. Sill led the women's tour in winnings in 1993 and 1994. She won the U. S. Open in 1994 and 1998. Combined with previous victories in the WIBC Queens (1983 and 1985) and Sam's Town Invitational (1984 and 1986), that made her the only bowler to win each of the Triple Crown events twice.
In October of 1999, Sill became the first woman bowler to win more than $1 million. She began to cut back on her schedule of tournaments in 2002 in order to concentrate on bowling instruction.
She ranks second all-time with 31 tournament victories and she's third in winnings with $1,071,1904.