Blog - Mid Vally Bowling / Lakeshore Youth Program

January 06

Go Rebels

I am having a blast working with the South Albany High School Bowling Team. These are some great young men who are trying their best to represent the Rebel cause. We are now a little over three weeks to the District Tournament and I expect this team can surprise a few teams at the tournament.

8:34 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

April 25

Oregon Pepsi State Finals 2009

Well the results are in and Laura C. made the cut finishing the first 6 games in third. Brandon M. missed the cut by 31 pins and Jen H. missed the cut by about 45 pins. It the 11 and under handicap division Allison M. is sitting in 20th place and Danielle S. is in 8th place.

7:47 PM GMT | Read comments(1)

Oregon Pepsi State Finals 2009

April 25th 1PM

I have the privilege to watch five bowlers from the Albany area compete at the state level having qualified via regional tournaments. Two competed in the 11 and under handicap division, one competed in the boys 12 and over handicap and two others competed in the girls 12 and over handicap. Laura Clair the returning champion in the girls 12 and over handicap is back defending her Oregon State Pepsi Championship.

What is about enforcing rules about bowling attire? Once again youth bowlers are being allowed to wear clothing specifically not allowed in the rules. Is it so much to ask that youth bowlers wear collared shirts or t-shirts with their name imprinted on the back and pants. This is a National Tournament sponsored byu Pepsi and seeing kids wear gym shorts really is out of line.

Earlier today watching the 9:30am squad, I was privileged to watch a bowling clinic being put on by six youth bowlers. These six bowlers shot a pair of 235's, a pair of games in 240's, one person rolled a 215 and the lowest game was 182.

April 25th 4PM

The squad is wrapping up and we are supposed to know who moves on by 5:30pm. Looks like Laura Clair may move on depending on how her division did this squad. The other 2 in the 12 and over handicap divisions exceeded their averages by 10 pins or more. They distinguished themselves in this tournament.

7:28 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

March 03

Where have I been?

It has been a month since I lasted blogged. I did not realize it had been so long. So lets get right to it. The High School Bowling season has come to a close and so now we can get back to normallacy. First of all great job to all the Albany High School bowling teams. West Albany girls made it to State Competition and West Albany Boys and South Albany Girls made it to the elimination round at Districts. South Albany boys did as a well as they could given their circumstances. Heard some rumblings that some bowlers are thinking about not returning next year but I say that every year at this time.

Saturday Youth Bowling is going strong and the kids are having a good time and the rewards are just streaming out. We have about 5 weeks to go and then a break before the Summer program starts.

11:43 AM GMT | Read comments(0)

January 20

GO DUCKS!!

Wow, never in a million years would I have ever rooted for the Oregon Ducks except for Bowl games and March Madness. Last night I had the privilige of watching the Oregon Collegiate Bowling Team practice against the local High School teams. The Men's team went 2-0 while the Women's team had to settle for a split 1-1. To be fair the collegiate teams had very little warm-up time and I had them move to the lanes where the High School teams had been practicing for an hour. The Ducks stuck around after the High School practice and the Women's team took on the Men's team for three more Baker Format games. Being a former Collegiate bowler from Oregon State and one who has been trying to rebuild Collegiate Bowling in Oregon this was a dream come true. What I observed was an inexpeirenced team needing and wanting competition. Saying that, I think this team will do well as it gets into the Collegiate competition. I wish the Oregon Ducks good luck at the Rebel Invitiational in Las Vegas Jan 24th-25th.

It was funny watching other College Students wanting to get a piece of the Oregon team and all they have to do is get their College club started and they are in. The hope for the High School bowlers was to show that even at the college level there are different skill levels and that it is now always the best that compete in every competition. This was a glimpse into what can be theirs if they want it. Now a good luck wish to the High School teams competing Jan 25th in the Region 2 Districts. a

8:37 AM GMT | Read comments(0)

January 12

01 10-11 2009 Weekend

Another great weekend of youth bowling. Had a youth bowler move off bumpers and shot a 40. I know this does not sound like much but it was a good start. Is it me or do junior bowlers whine alot. Well that is not entirely fair but I had two youth bowlers constantly in my ear last weekend. I know some need more attention then others but it was excessive this past weekend. I plan to have a little conversation with them prior to league next week. It appears that the youth program will gain 5 new bowlers next week. We are getting one because we have our act together and treat bowlers as family. Our town has two centers and there is competition for youth bowlers. The other center runs a fall and winter league and the our youth program this year is trying a league with a split season. We did this because of cost because we are not supported by our center to offset the costs like the other center. We pay our way through fundraising and donations from parents. They are trying ot use it as a marketing ploy. All I can say is good luck.

Wow another Sunday watching High School Bowling. My main highlight for my sons' team was a teammate picking up the Big 4 (4-6-7-10). His team finished 12th out of 15 teams but there was some strong competition. His team lacks polish kind of reminds me of my old youth traveling team (Kim, Todd, Kurtis, Doug and myself). I am itching to get involved but my son wants me to stay on the sidelines. I think I am wearing him down so maybe next year. I have trouble understanding why high bowlers do not want to put in the time to get better. I mean in other sports parents shell out all sorts of money for the kids to compete year round. The other High School Girls team is doing great. My Youth Program Staff wants to take some of the credit since five of girls are in our program.

1:53 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

January 08

Back to the Jungle

It was great to see the kids back on the lanes this past week. Tried to get the Juniors to try something new but as usual they do what they want to do. Sorry it has been awhile since I blogged last. I have been working on the State Youth website getting it up and going for both the USBC Youth and High School programs. When information gets to me I can build it up more.

Had the privilege last weekend to watch my son compete at the High School level. This week we are on the road again for another tournament. He is enjoying it and hope in the next year his team will be able to beat the crosstown rivals. It is really to bad that the local paper does not follow High School bowling like other school activities but maybe soon.

This week the youth league restarts the 2nd half and I hope we can hold on to the High School bowlers, they tend to drop off in March.

7:29 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

November 20

Parents

In youth bowling parental involvement is both great and painful. Coaching a youth bowling league is in some ways better then coaching any other youth sports. All my kids participate and parents do not yell at me about playing their child. My problem with parents start with bowling center design. The center where I coach does not have alot of spectator sitting and thus I allow them to sit in the settee area. USBC and the Registered Volunteer Program makes it clear that a parent can coach their own child but not someone elses unless they have gone through the USBC RVP background check. I find it very discouraging when other parents take it upon themselves to deal with other peoples children instead of letting a Registered Volunteer handle it. Including me there are 5 1/4 volunteers in a program for a 16 teams.

In my lifetime of bowling I thiink I have seen it all when it comes to youth bowling. The domineering parent who drives the youth bowler to excel to only have the bowler quit. The parent who buys all the latest equipment so the youth bowler does not have to learn how to adjust to varying lane conditions. The parent that uses the youth league as a babysitting service. The parent that cannot deal with their child so they put them in the program hoping we can turn them around. However, there are the parents that will scrap every bit of loose change to get their child into a scholarship tournament. The ones that when you need something are ready to help. The ones that say I know squat about bowling but what can I do so the kids have fun.

Like I said parental involvement is both great and painful but I would not trade it for a chance to participate in the PBA Tournament of Champions.

10:23 AM GMT | Read comments(0)

November 06

Lakeshore Youth do it again / AMF friend will be missed

Received the results yesterday from last weekends Grand Prix Tournament. Once again the Lakeshore Youth Bowlers shined and have validated youth program. We had 10 Youth bowlers participate and 4 earned scholarship money totaling over $400. Leading the way was Jacobi and Brandon finishing 1st & 2nd respectively in the C division. Overall all of the youth bowlers who participated did a good job and had reasonably fine performances. I think I can safely say I met my goal of getting our youth bowlers in a position to compete for scholarship money.

Rumour has it that Neil the AMF Manager has moved on to other endevours outside of the bowling industry. He will be missed by the Albany Youth bowling community. He was the only Manager/Proprietor willing to promote youth bowling and go out of his way to provide a venue that could allow us to build a strong youth program in Albany once again. He was a personable person and I always felt welcome coming into his center and not to be reminded I helped out the competition. He had a great relationship with the youth that came into his center and he was always willing to help out when he could. So in case Neil happens to read this blog, THANK YOU!!!!.

9:47 AM GMT | Read comments(0)

October 30

Spooky NoTap & High School Bowling

The Spooky 8Pin NoTap event was a lot of fun. I think the older bowlers realized getting 8+ pins everytime was not as easy as they thought. The ones that participated enjoyed the lights out bowling (cosmic/extreme/moonlight). We will have some awards come out of this event at the end of the year party.

I had the pleasure of watching our local High School Bowling Teams start practicing this week. My early impressions are that the West Girls team should be pretty good. The first couple of practices are always tough to read because most of these kids do not participate in organized bowling youth leagues so the coaches have their hands full. When I was in high school back when bowling balls were made of rock, the bowlers would have come out of the youth leagues. We had a youth traveling league that allowed us to compete against other centers so kind of a high school competition.

I was given the opportunity to make the Mid-Valley USBC Youth Committee offer to the teams. The offer being that if 90% of the team joined USBC then the Mid-Valley USBC Association would pay that teams'High School State Entry fee if they qualified. It also means that by being a USBC Youth member then qualify to apply for bowling scholarships. The bowlers must make their decision by mid December so I can advise the association on how much we need to set aside in the case a team qualifies for state.

It sure would be nice that the State High School Bowling would put together a rules packet that was not tied to a tournament. I recently asked for a copy of the High School Bowling Rules. What I received was the rules for the District and State High School Tournaments. I would have expected a packet detailing how High School Bowling is run in the State and list of the officers. I find it interesting that USBC will spell out everything concerning adult bowling, collegiate bowling, youth bowling but when it comes to High School bowling the water is muddy. In some states the BPAA is in charge of High School bowling and others it is the State USBC, what a mess. Again I want to reiteriate this is only my opinion about the program, not the athletes.

I like to think that a natural progression for a young bowler is join a youth league, join a travel league (where possible), join a high school team, then wrap it all up by joing a collegiate team and finally bowling in a adult league.

8:02 AM GMT | Read comments(0)

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Mid-Valley Bowling Albany, Oregon