Windsor-Essex Chatham-Kent Bowling Association has many varied youth bowling programs in the different bowling centres within our association. We wanted to highlight these diverse youth bowling programs. We also wanted to show how they integrate scholarships into their bowling programs. It is also important to show how each of the different bowling programs function with the many coaches and volunteers that weekly support each of these programs. We have very strong youth bowling programs within our association because we feel youth bowlers are our future. This article was put together thanks to the input of many dedicated youth program directors. Some were very brief and others very detailed but the dedication these youth program directors bring to their individual programs is what makes our youth bowling so successful.

Super Bowl youth bowling program has the following divisions: Seniors 16-21, Juniors 12-15, Preps 9-11; Bantams 5-8 and PeeWee (bumper league) under age 5. The bumper league bowls 2 games each week while the other divisions bowl 3 games weekly. The volunteer coaches help the kids with basic fundamentals to start then we build from there.

This bowling centre runs two distinct youth bowling programs, one program runs on Saturday and the other program runs on Sunday. On Sunday the Juniors and Seniors bowl in one division. They also only host the Peewee’s division on one day. Youth bowlers pay $15 to bowl. They have two directors of the program Richard Taylor and Guy Taylor whom are not related. Richard runs the overall bowling programs and Guy Taylor coordinates all the in-house tournaments. Scholarships are given out throughout the year for different in-house tournaments that are run at no extra charge during regular league play.

• • A HIGH LOW tournament, matches bowlers within each division, on a team with highest and lowest averages. These bowlers bowl as a team using league play scores over 4 consecutive weeks. Scholarship money is given to the top two or three in each division who have the most pins over the four-week period.
  • An individual format SURVIVOR tournament with handicap scholarship event in each division which runs three consecutive weeks of league play.
  • A MEMORIAL tournament by picking a single day on Saturday and Sunday where they pick the boy and girl in each division with the most pins over.
  • An in-house FAMILY DOUBLES tournament where they give out to top 3 in each Division for both Sat. & Sun. for a total of roughly $2,000 in scholarship money.
  • A SUPER 5 tournament where scholarships are given to the top 4 teams.
  • A BOWLER OF YEAR Tournament at the end of the year. Each month one bowler in each division with the most pins over for entire month gets a crest as the bowler of the month. Each Bowler of the Month bowls in tournament for Bowler of Year in each division. The bowling season is seven months so each bowler can only be bowler of month once. Seven in each division bowl in Bowler of Year Tournament at end of year for scholarship money and a trophy. Pay out between $25 and $50 in scholarship money plus trophy.

Scholarships are also given out for High Average, High Series, High Single for both scratch and handicap for each bowler. Only give one award per bowler. Have a special Perfecta Award if a bowler gets all scratch awards (Average, High Single, High Triple). Scholarships paid out for personal achievements for boys and girls in each division for both Saturday and Sunday combined is on average $4,000 per year. Perfect attendance scholarship money averages between $500-$1,000 per year. This program gives out a combination of scholarships and trophies. Richard stated that “The scholarship money ranges from $100 to $25 on average. Yearly we give out roughly around $12,000 a year to our program kids.” Parents seem to like the program with scholarship money so integrated in the program. Kids still want the trophies. Richard keeps an accumulated spreadsheet and a printed copy of each scholarship.

Guy does huge scoreboards during tournament play. Guy takes care of tournaments and coaches. Richard takes care of actual league. The league has a code of conduct for coaches to date and sign on a yearly basis.

Superbowl promotes their program using flyers, business cards, try to advertise thru schools by emphasising their scholarship program. Have had issues getting to schools to advertise recently because schools indicate it is up to the school board and school boards said it is up to the schools.

Revs Rose Bowl – Club 240 Saturday youth bowling program started sponsoring Junior Bowling back in the sixties at Golden Mile Lanes. Then in 1971 they expanded to Rose Bowl under Joyce Conrad. When Joyce decided to retire in 1975 Bob Oliver then became the Program director after coaching for three years. This program has been a very successful program with many of the top bowlers in Essex County coming from the program. Bob indicated, ”In past years we have had as many as 275 bowlers and still have over a hundred on Saturday morning. We have given out over $100,000.00 in scholarships as we were one of the first to award scholarships and we give out around $7,000.00 per year. We support our local tournaments and this year will be my forty-sixth year taking bowlers to the provincials.”

Revs Rose Bowl – Unifor 444 was once Sports Club 444 at Bowlero. In their prime they had 320 kids. Dan Dumouchelle is the program director of this program. This year they have 52 youth bowlers. Their main goal is to teach all the kids the basics and if they show or want to get more advanced in bowling coaches will help with that. Every bowler in the program receives scholarship money not just the better bowlers. The biggest message to youth bowlers is that they have fun. Dan is also involved in the Classics which is open to all bowlers in Junior and Senior Divisions. Dan indicated “For the Classics we put out harder shots and help the bowlers to improve their skills in the game. All bowlers receive scholarship money. We gave out about $5,000 in scholarship money for this Sunday morning league.”

Revs Rose Bowl – Youth Summer Trios is a summer youth bowling league run by Wayne Dubs and Jamie Morand. The league runs a 14-week season. Bowlers pay $14 weekly with $6.61 going for lineage and $7.39 going to each child. If a bowler is absent then they pay $9. Bowling Centre fees are not paid if the bowler is absent. These youth bowlers get coaching for those 14 weeks as they bowl. The money is kept in the Club 240 scholarship fund. A spreadsheet is kept of all the kids with bowler name, birthdate, sanction number, and amount earned. If a youth bowler bowled every week then they earned $103 in scholarship money. Used to sell 50-50 tickets to another adult league. With the 50-50 money raised they would have a pizza party for kids and give out scholarship certificates. Since the other adult league bowls a different night now, Jamie and Wayne now pay for the youth pizza party themselves. This past summer 24 kids bowled in the league.

Tilbury- J & D Lanes The information for this youth program was written by Mike Ouellette, one of the directors of the program. The Tilbury youth bowling program, unlike the others, is in its infancy stages.

In 2007, after many successful years, Youth Bowling at J&D Lanes in Tilbury suddenly flamed out. Many of us who are passionate about the sport talked about a revival, but talk was all that happened until the spring of 2015. With the help of local service clubs and several businesses, J&D proprietor, Joe Belanger, Men’s League President (and now WECKBA Director) Joe Cartier, and I were able to run an eight-week experiment with two time slots in which youngsters were invited to try out the sport.

The format we decided upon was for each to bowl two games without cost, shoes supplied, each Saturday at either 9:30 or 11:00 a.m. Each received a t-shirt with the names and logos of those who supported the program. We recruited over 60 potential bowlers and J&D, a six-lane house, was alive with the sounds that only youth bowlers can make as they gain knowledge and experience. We closed with an invitation to return in the fall of 2015 to join a real CTF sanctioned league. We knew that not all would return due the fact that participation in this proposed league would demand a weekly fee.

Our goals were met with 24 returnees from our spring adventure which led to the creation of a six team-four bowler league which was sanctioned, cost effective, over 22 weeks. Service clubs (Lions, Lioness, Masonic Lodge, Kinsmen, and Rotary) and the Tilbury Auto Mall sponsored shirts. We managed to cover the sanctioning with some help again. Fourteen of our kids participated in the Association tournament in Windsor and performed reasonably well.

The 2016-17 season saw our total reduced to 21 bowlers, but we were not deterred. We expanded our schedule to 25 weeks. Most leagues at any level experience departures and arrivals like an airport or a bus depot. We lost a set of twins due to a parental job relocation, and another was on a year-long grounding by his family to learn responsibility! Local businesses came through for us again, Dave’s Computer Repair, Kara’s Rose Garden, Katy’s Touch, and Escape at KRG picked up the tab for shirts. Sanctioning was covered again.

In retrospect we feel that there is progress being made, and we had our first 200 games, a 209 by Jessica Buxton and a 203 by Joe Cartier’s son, Tyler. Fourteen competed in the season ending Association Tournament. We now have more volunteers to help us. Thanks to its editor, Gerry Harvieux, our weekly newspaper, The Tilbury Times, includes Youth League results along with my report about the Men’s and Ladies Leagues.

In both years we have presented CTF awards and first place gold medals, second place silver and bronze for the rest. Sportsmanship and leadership are also emphasized. Our awards day features the coaches rolling a couple of games against the League Champs followed by a pizza party and the award presentations.

Registration was held on Sept 9, 2017 and competition begins on Sept. 16. This year we will have a 28-week schedule.

Submitted by Catherine Wilbur