Since my 20th year high school reunion is now just a month away, it got me thinking about how the first week of Fall League is like back to school for adults. It has been 20 years since I had a real first day of school. I went to college that we did an internship for six month of year and went to school for six months. For three years I did not go to school in September and in fact school ended for me in September since I went only March to August.

The only thing close to that back to school feeling is Fall League. Just like school we have friends that we only see at bowling so once bowling ends in the spring we do not see them all the summer. Of course just like school we have a group of friends at league that our friendship has transcended bowling. We invite them to parties and talk to them on the phone. Do not forget about the friends we go to summer camp with or summer league. Our summer leagues are made up of some people we bowl with every summer and only in the summer and some we bowl with all year.

Just like school during the first few weeks, you try to determine who left your league and who is new. The new team could end up being your favorite team and good friends by league end. You can meet up with old friends from leagues past or even from high school. Hey anything is possible because it a new season!

Not to lessen Kelly Kulick's accomplishment of winning of the 2007 Queens tournament but it was not good for Women's bowling. As every bowling fan knows Kulick was the first women to win an exempt spot on the Professional Bowlers Tour that up until this year only men have held exempt spots.

Why is her victory bad for Women's bowling? Well, she is now our Queen or women's best bowler in 2007. However, she had less then a stellar PBA performance this year. She only made match play 5 times in 19 tournaments. Just like in football on any given Sunday, a women bowler should be able to beat a male bowler. She was not able to win on the men's tournament. It makes people think if she is Queen and she can not win on the PBA tour then women are not as good bowlers as the men. Of course, she is the only women bowler who could bowl for a living. She has most likely rolled more games on different lane conditions then any other women bowler in the Queens tournament this year. That does make a different. However, I can not help but wonder could a Carolyn Dorin Ballard, Liz Johnson or Wendy Macpherson fare better on the PBA tour then Kelly.

Anyway, congratulations to Kelly Kulick for breaking the PBA barrier, winning the Queens and becoming a comic book character. You had one hell of year.

 

Your bowling league is ending next week and you expect to get your prize fund. You do a little money dance because you have been waiting for your prize fund to buy an ipod or a lawn mower. You get to your league and there is no treasurer. The treasurer is missing and so is your prize fund. The president calms everyone by telling you that we are a USBC sanction league and our funds are bonded. Wrong!!!

It turns out that the secretary did not file your league application three months after you started bowling so you are not covered for those first three months. The president never verified the bank account so he or she did not know the treasurer never opened a bank account for your league funds. Now your league is only covered for 50% of your claim because your league did not follow correct procedure.

It is not very hard to make sure you league funds are fully protected but it must be done. I not going to bore you with every detail but if you are league officer make sure you read the bonding instructions.

There are more then bowling balls spinning on the lanes of one South Jersey bowling center that is slated to close this spring. The owner is spinning that the year old New Jersey smoking ban as the reason for his failing business. The local media has fallen for it hook, line and sinker. Before I paint the bigger picture, I should tell you I do bowl at one of his centers. This company has about five centers and two are in the same town just miles away from each other. I bowl at the one not closing but in the same town.

For the past week there has been newspaper, television and radio reporting on the closing of this center due to public smoking ban in New Jersey. A year ago all public smoking except for in the casinos was banned. For those not familiar with New Jersey the southwest portion borders Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Many of the base customers for two of this owner's center come over from Philadelphia to bowl. Philadelphia has a smoking ban but the Pennsylvania suburbs do not. This center claims the customers are not coming to Jersey to bowl because of the smoking ban. No one has mentioned that a Lucky Strike Bowling Lounge opened in downtown Philadelphia last June followed by North Bowl in July. Nor has there been mention of Strikes Bowling Lounge that opened by University of Penn campus in March 2005.

If their customers were coming over the bridge and now there are two state of the art centers to service these customers why drive to Jersey. I am not a Penn grad but it does not take a Wharton MBA to see the connection. Three new centers servicing a good portion of your customers equals drop off in business. Centers further away from the bridge reported an increase in business.

A quick internet search of Delaware and New York two near by states to go smokeless before New Jersey, only one article could be found about a center closing due to a smoking ban. However, it was noted in the article that the center was not doing well before the ban. There is no proof that center would of survived if the smoking ban was not enacted. A quick internet search found comparative numbers for the months of May through August for 2005 and 2006 released by this owner for a public hearing on a proposed Pennsylvania smoking ban. I will not publish the exact numbers but bar sales were down 11%, billiard was down 30%; and bowling receipts are down 10%. He said in the 40 years his family has run this center, they've never lost sales from year to year. However, he fails to mention the new competition.

I know in my two leagues we did not lose one bowler because of the smoking ban. I do know that my husband and I could not bowl if it was not for the smoking ban. We have a newborn and we would not being taking the baby to bowling center if smoking was still allowed. If you look around one of my leagues, there are new faces. Those new faces have small babies and children attached to them. The only losses in my bowling league were unrelated to smoking. I do believe there was some drop off because of smoking but the fatal blows were dealt by new competitors.

 

The merger of the ABC, WIBC and YABA is now officially a failure. Delegates rejected the USBC plan to have one association serving men, women and youth in each geographic area to be established by March 15, 2009 The only people to blame are us the bowlers. In many associations we keep the same old people in power. Until these leaders with no vision are removed by either the bowler or the USBC nothing will change. There are over 7,000 bowlers registered on Bowl Space but no one posts anything but scores and ball selection. When will you bowlers wake up and care about the future of sport? The USBC rolled out of vision of being a top tier sports organization but the current structure foils it at every turn. I urge each of you to demand the USBC change organizational structure of our sport. Nothing will change if we let the people running their Kingdoms and Queendoms stay. These people draw salaries to do the work and do not want to stop lining their pockets. Your local association proved today they do not have your best interest in mind. It is time for you to stand up for your sport. Make your voice count.

Oh yeah, I purchased a Hammer Raw Toxic today and I shot 634 last night and still found time to stand up for my sport.