Should parents of YABA bowlers bowling in a league or a tournament be allowed to run the league or be the director of the tournament?

I don't feel they should. Too many parents think their kids are perfect and don't do anything wrong also some not so ethical parents might give their children an advantage. I've seen both examples first hand and nothing was really done about it when it was pointed out.

I'm very curious to see what others think.

Our youth leagues are run by the center. Whomever is in charge of entering scores is not, and should not, be a parent. Parents can help in many other ways.

In the case of tournaments, I have known Tournament Directors who have had their own children bowling in the tournament, however, they themselves did not enter the scores or act solely as a director, they had help and delegated scoring to another person.

A lot depends on the character of the parent themself, but I don't think a parent should even be put in that position. It's asking for trouble, and its just not ethical. If a question came up, or a mistake made, even if the parent was innocent, it would certainly cause an awkward situation.

Many years ago, I had the parents mark down the scores in one of our youth leagues. It was found later, that one of the parents was changing their child's score. So,unfortunately, it does happen.

I've seen it done right by some parents and I'm sorry to say but I see it done poorly by many more. It's very difficult to not play favorites to your own children and it takes a strong will to resist doing so. It's been my experience that most parent's don't have that type of composure so I believe it should be avoided.

I as a parent of junior bowlers have had an active part in running tournaments, coaching leagues and being on the state board of Indiana. I feel parents must go in with an attitude of being fair and not over bearing. We in Evansville In. have a lot of parents working with the youth bowlers in tournaments and in centers. I think it works out great.

I would have to agree with Granny J. I currently run the MJBT here in Minnesota, and while I have no kids involved, some of my directors do. Yes, they may root for their own kid a bit more, but they also know they have a job to do in helping to keep the tournament running smoothly, and to serve ALL bowlers, not just their own family. We have been very fortunate to not have any problems as of yet, and I expect none. Since we have a group of directors to run things, it makes things a bit easier, so if we do have a problem, we can switch folks around to take care of it, or have a committee of people that would help to make the appropriate decisions.


Like others, I have seen favoritism played out during leagues and such in minor forms, but I have not seen any that would cause problems in a very long time - at least in our area.

Oh sure... Now that I have stated that we have no problems, I get some complaints of favoritism against my staff. I just gave us the Bo Burton jinx!

A guy who ran a youth program here is being sued by several parents.

He had 3 boys in the league. It was discovered that for several years he was changing scores to ensure his boys qualified for Coke and some of the other better bowlers in the house didn't.

He also permitted one of his kids to bowl in regular sneakers and always turned off the foul lights before bowling. It's said that his kids always fouled but he never said anything about it but he would say that some of the better bowlers fouled when they didn't just to lower their scores.

I used to bowl with this guy on a league and he was always doing the same type of thing. He would claim the opposing team didn't have full racks after a strike was made or that they fouled when they didn't. He was an all around unethical guy but he would always make out that he was the best guy in the world because he ran the youth league for no pay.

A few rotten apples spoil the bunch.

While it might be hard for some parents not to play favorites, I'd be willing to bet that you'd lose more volunteers/coordinators than you could make up if the people involved had NO personal connection to the program (like PTA or any other service group).

Perhaps the better choice would be for other parents and the center itself to be aware of what goes on and not just assume all's quiet on the bowling front.

Boy, this is a a serious debate. As a parent of a child in the program where I work, I can't imagine what the solution is. Would you rather I put my son in another program? What would that say to other parents, that my child isn't even participating in the program I coordinate? The only reason I can spend the time I do in my program is that it's a family affair, with my son, daughter (too young to bowl), and my husband all participating.

As for the issues you've discussed, it sounds like some horrible abuses of power that were never addressed by parents or management of the center.

My only suggestions are to keep an open book policy and allow parents to see the goings on for Coca Cola and the like. Heck, I opened the books to all the kids to show them when they qualified or if they were close.

The irony in my program was that my son came in second in *every* Coke qualifier he bowled through league last year. Every kid in front of him said yes, so he wasn't able to go. One of the kids didn't show, so he *could* have bowled, so the spot was wasted. In one of our leagues this year, he's the only 11 and under boy, so he's guaranteed a spot, so thank goodness

Both my husband and I run the youth program and travel league at our local bowling center-we are also USA Certified Youth Bowling Coaches-we don't treat our kids any different than any of the other 90 kids. We love what we do, and our kids love that we are so involved. It also gets them to learn what organizing a program involves, just like all the other kids, because we use all kinds of kids in different aspects.