I had the opportunity to fly to Buffalo, NY and visit with the junior bowlers that qualified for the prestigious USBC Junior Gold Championships. The USBC Junior Gold Championships is the biggest junior bowling tournament in the world, with over 2,700 kids from all over the country and neighboring Canada and Puerto Rico qualifying for the national finals. These bowlers are vying for spots on Junior Team USA as well as earning large amounts of scholarships money for college.
In 1998, I won the very first USBC Junior Gold Championships, so it was awesome to be able to go back to that tournament and see how much it has grown over the years.
On Friday, we held a Columbia 300, Track, Hammer and Ebonite demo, in which all of the Junior Gold participants could come and try out the latest and greatest EBI balls from all four brands.
On Saturday, I was part of a huge clinic that was held free of charge for the first 250 bowlers. We talked about lane play briefly and then worked heavily on spares since the difficult patterns put spare shooting at a premium. After the seminar, the national pro staff of EBI headed over to registration, where we had a meet and greet with all of the participants once they finished registering for the tournament.
I had a blast meeting the kids and seeing how much talent is coming up the ranks in the junior bowling world.
Til next time...
