I just read a post by a collegiate bowler at the Collegebowling website that upsets me and I'd like to address this issue.

The member ripped apart the collegiate bowlers who have chosen to remain YABA bowlers rather than move up to adult. These bowlers have the rest of their lives to bowl adult, what's the big hurry? Are they afraid of the adult competition? Absolutely not! Have you seen the great quality of our youth bowlers? There is still a lot of youth scholarship bowling to be earned, e.g. the Youth Masters with a 1st place purse of a $25,000 scholarship. The experience gained on many statewide Youth Bowlers Tours while earning scholarship money is profound.

Adult bowling involves big money - out of pocket. An adult league bowler can drop $50 a night easily getting into pot games, brackets, etc...and its all a gamble. And as for the competition, I'd bowl against any good youth bowler anyday rather than an adult bowler with a lousy attitude. Youth bowling is pure, clean competition. I have watched the ridiculous antics of some of the adult bowlers, which a youth bowler would get kicked off the lanes for. The writer of the post said to these youth bowlers, "to grow up", when in fact its many of the adult bowlers who could use that same advice.

I applaud these young men and women who have chosen to compete at the YABA level for as long as they can. They are the smart ones...
and they are helping to make our sport a better sport.

The person you were referring to was just pointing out the fact that when you're that good you can make a lot more money (more than the Youth Masters), when you're that good. you have to win the youth masters to get 25,000 or so. not everyone can win a 25,000 1st place check in that tournament. Either way, those who remain YABA has just as much of an advantage as those in ABC. It's just too bad you can't be either YABA, WIBC or ABC... you will eventually be forced into ABC or WIBC... kids are just milking YABA as long as they can while others want to make/lose money.

Just my 75 cents...

Bowl4life- I agree with both sides of the issue. Had I known about all of the opportunities that exisited for youth bowlers I would have stayed youth, but on the other hand if I possessed the skills of the player that was mentioned in Mr. Fagans post(Nathan Bohr) I would be tempted to turn adult and take a whirl at the big tournaments. I do applaud Nathan, as well as Mike Remakaluas, Sean Rash, Rhino Paige and all of the other players who have made Junior Team USA and all those who participated.

More importantly, I find it sort of upsetting that a man like Mr. Fagan can tell these guys to "grow up" and quit being @($$!#$, when he acted like a child after his team lost in IBC. There is absolutely no reason to loft the ball virtually the entire distance of the lane, almost taking out the masking unit, and then throwing stuff all over the place. Bowl4life- I still have not figured out who you coach, although I do have a few ideas, but if your were at IBC on saturday, I trust you know the incident I am referring too.

ooutlaw99 I may take this the wrong way, but forgive me if i do.

If you are referring me as "coach," you're wrong. i am a player in cbusa. unfortunately, my team was not at the IBC's, but i heard of fagan's incident, and if you think that was a first, you should have been in New Jersey when a masking unit was the victim... anyhow... i am not backing fagan's comments on the language he used. yes it was uncalled for, but we can get over it. i'm just stating both sides of the issue as you yourself agreed. anyhow, i just wanted to clear up any confusion that may have presented itself. this is a great topic to talk about...

Somehow this topic became corrupted but I was able to recover all the posts and repair it (I think!) If anything is in fact missing please repost it.

Could everyone who posted in this topic please click on the Log out link at the top of page and then log back in before posting to this topic again. I would like you to do this at least once to make sure that your cookie is cleared. I believe someone's might be corrupted and it caused this bug.

Sorry for the trouble!

Hi Guys,

Bowl4life is right on the mark. The real purpose of the Junior Gold Tournament is to determine the best players to represent the USA in international compitetion.

International youth compitetion is growing, in many contries, the government is funding the team, supplying the coaches, and facilities. I only wish that the USA was doing the same.

We need the best possible players with in that age range. To complain, like the author of the orginal article at collegebowling did, that it is somehow unfair that collegiate bowlers are in the Junior Gold, ignors the reality of international compitetion.

The orginal article also ingnors another downside of going adult. Cashing in any tournament jeapodizes NCAA eligibility, not only for bowling, but any other sport. With more schools going NCAA in bowling, primarily womens, scholarships, i.e. real money is at stake for the youth bowlers. By the very act of going adult, the collegiate bowler could find themselfs as barred from collegiate bowling and other sports.

If anything, consideration needs to be given to change YABA rules to allow collegiate bowlers to stay in past the current cut off age.

Lon

You have some interesting comments as well. The only reason why you don't see the men going NCAA is because of the money earned in ABC. Those good schools that win championships i.e. WSU, WIU, Nebraska, etc... have enough funding/sponsors to provide them with equipment, travel expenses, etc... Look at Western... they went from the bottom of the pit to rise as one of the creams of the crops. I don't think the majority of bowlers need NCAA, because too much money is at the eliminator, masters, etc... but NCAA needs the bowlers. If NCAA could provide scholarship tournaments and such just like the mega buck events, there wouldn't be a problem.

Now before you chop my head off, i bet you're thinking well the idea is to win an IBC title... so everything should be school oriented. Well we only go through collegiate bowling 4 times and it doesn't pay tuition, rent or other expenses. Scholarships even don't pay for everything. You hear of people getting full rides... that's only for tution purposes not housing or meal plans. Finally, wherever the money is, is where the bowlers will go. Bowling is collegiately is a great experience, but it's still a club sport (men)

iumatrix-
Hey sorry for my confusion, I actually was sending that to Bowl4life, I figured you were a player, the way you speak, and not many coaches will use the name of a ball/company that they are sponsored by in their name.
Anyways, was the first Fagan incident at the Playdrome in Cherry, Hill at the South Jersey Winter Classic? It had to have been, b/c St. Johns bowled the second squad, and we had the first. Lucky for us, I didn't want to bowl until 3A.M. or whatever time you guys got out of there.
Anyways, just thought I would clear up my end of the confusion, I should have structured my post better, sorry.

Actually, my name comes from the movie, "The Matrix." Ebonite just happened to make a series of it after that movie was released (trust me, i know My name has nothing to do with Ebonite, but if you like it i won't argue

You guessed right...

Another topic i would like to talk about in collegiate bowling is the idea of fundraising... what is a good/easy way to fundraise for a program?

This a great idea for a topic. I'll start a new topic for it so this topic isn't interrupted if others should want to continue it.

I am a college student and a YABA bowler. The reason why myself and my partner, who is also a college student, continue to bowl in YABA is because you can win scholarships, and it's just a lot more fun. We enjoy bowling with our friends in the YABA league. Our college does not have a bowling team and has no plans to create one in the future, so if we wish to compete for scholarships in our sport, we must remain YABA.

When we talk about winning money, we're talking about winning money in tournaments outside collegiate bowling. Most money won at a collegiate tournament probably goes back into the team fund. I think the only tournament where you can win and actually keep the scholarship money is the Collegiate Masters held on Memorial Day weekend.

You can win money in the adult leagues and tournaments... and i or anyone else is trying to recruit people to go adult. The original post came about someone who is so talented that he/she could be on a tour circuit or earn mega buck money and has grown into an adult (age-wise) but is still a junior in college. No doubt YABA has its advantages, but it also has its disdavantages just like the ABC, WIBC, etc...

Anyhow, whatever organization you bowl, enjoy it while you can...

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">... and i or anyone else is NOT trying to recruit people to go adult. [/QB]</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">That line should read like this. I repeat, we're NOT trying to repeat people to go adult.

I just entered the college scene this year, and I'm definitely going to stay in the YABA for as long as I can. I haven't had much luck in competitions and I haven't been on the competition scene very much lately since my poor performance in the JOG Nationals of 2001, but if not for competition, I want to stay in the YABA to be around kids if nothing else. I like kids, and its nice to be a role model for them. Its fun to see the younger kids amazed and asking questions such as "how do you hook it so much?" Even when I am forced out of the YABA, I will bowl youth/adult leagues so I can continue to be around kids and encourage them to keep bowling. One final thing, I'd like to not have to contend with cigarettes when I bowl *cough cough >_<*

Of course, I don't have a problem with anybody who decides to move to adult leagues. It all depends on the person and what they'd like to get out of bowling. I enjoy bowling more when I'm around a younger crowd, but I admittedly also need some competition to keep my scores up. It is definitely up to the bowler to decide which saction he or she wants, however.