By John RittenhouseHe may be handicapped, but Hills’ resident Roy Francis isn’t afraid to try new things.Francis has been using a wheelchair since being injured in a truck accident nearly 12 years ago, but that didn’t stop the 62-year-old from bowling in Eden Prairie June 25-26.The Brunswick Center, located in the Twin Cities suburb, was the site of the 2005 Minnesota Paralized Veterans of America Ramp Bowling Tournament.Francis, who started competing in the sport 18 months earlier, turned in his second consecutive solid performance at the event."I placed sixth out of 14 bowlers," Francis said from his home in Hills. "We all played 12 games, and our places were based on total pins. I was in the neighborhood of being less than 100 pins short of the winner."All things considered, Francis was satisfied with his performance.With the help of his wife, Nonie, who collected balls from the return and placed them on his ramp, Francis rolled 203- and 201-pin games during his appearance in Eden Prairie.Those efforts fell short of his career-high 226 rolled during the same event last year, but the big games helped Francis place sixth in the tournament field for the second straight year.For a man who was fortunate to survive a near-fatal accident, placing sixth at a bowling tournament feels just about as good as winning one.It was early August in 1993 when Roy and Nonie were returning to their home in the Black Hills of South Dakota after dropping off their daughter at a Bible Camp in Montana.The Francises were inside their Ford Ranger in Butte County, S.D., when a bump on a gravel road sent the vehicle out of control. The Ranger, driven by Roy, spun around on the gravel road a couple of times before hitting the shoulder of the road and rolling over.Nonie received a bruised hand during the accident. Roy’s life was changed forever."I broke my neck. It was a complete dissection of my spinal cord (at the Cervical 6 Vertebrate). I’m quadriplegic, and I’ll always be this way," he said.Being close to his family and finding a new challenge in bowling have helped Francis cope with his physical limitations.Ron and Nonie moved to Hills three years ago, a place where one of their daughters (Vicki Virkus) calls home. Another daughter (Jessica Pigott) lives in Sioux Falls, and son Scott lives in Pipestone, where he owns and operates a bowling alley. Ron’s mother, Mary Francis, is a resident at Tuff Memorial Home in Hills.Bowling will continue to be a part of Francis’ life, too.Ron plans to compete in a PVA Mixed League for a second time this fall. The league matches are staged on Saturdays at Empire Bowl in Sioux Falls.League play starts in October and continues through April, and it presents Francis with a challenge he has grown to love."I really like bowling. The difficulty of mastering it presents a challenge. It looks pretty straightforward, but a whole lot can go wrong between releasing the ball from your hand and hitting the pins," he said.