About2010 USBC Youth Open
July 9-10, 15-20, 22-24
Expo Bowl
5261 Elmwood Drive
Indianapolis, IN
You may know that adult USBC members have their own national bowling tournaments called the USBC Open Championships and the USBC Women’s Championships. But do you know that you have your own national championship?
It’s called The USBC Youth Open, and it’s YOUR national bowling tournament. This year it’s in Indianapolis and you’re invited!
Now it’s your turn to show your stuff on a big-time bowling stage with the chance to win thousands of dollars in scholarships. You don’t have to have a certain age or average – and you don’t have to qualify from a league or state tournament. You just have to be a boy or girl USBC Youth member and you can bowl. If you’re competing in the USBC Junior Gold Championships (the Youth Open is held at the same time and location as Junior Gold) you may also bowl in the USBC Youth Open with your friends and siblings who are USBC Youth members.The USBC Youth Open—it’s a great chance to compete in a national bowling tournament and have fun meeting new friends from around the country. Read on to learn more about the tournament, then sign up with your friends today.Tournament Description and Format
The USBC Youth Open, the only true national open tournament for youth bowlers, will be a fair test of your bowling skills. You’ll bowl nine games total—three games each of singles, doubles and four-player team. Your combined scores from those events will be your optional all-events score. You’ll compete in one of four average-based divisions, so you’ll be matched up according to skill, not age or gender. All scores are scratch.Doubles and singles events are bowled on the same day while team competition is on another day. You can request the specific squad dates and times when you want to compete, and you may enter the team event without bowling singles and doubles. However, if you choose to compete in singles must also bowl doubles, just as all doubles pairs also must bowl in the singles event.Boys and girls compete together on the lanes and in the tournament standings, except for all-events which tracks results of players in each division in separate boys and girls rankings. Teams and doubles pairs may be same gender or a mix of boys and girls.Read More
Results
With all four of its bowlers boasting previous Junior Team USA experience, TurboVision turned to that training and experience and flew to the top of the leaderboard with games of 815, 902 and 945 for a 2,662 team total. Brent Bowers led the way for TurboVision despite a 173 start. He added games of 280 and 279 for a 732 series and was followed by Andrew Koff (719), Jake Peters (697) and Sarah Germano (514). Did TurboVision hang on for a championship at this year’s Youth Open? Check our results to find out.
Final Standings
USBC Youth Open resume with big scores
By Aaron Smith 7/16/2009 USBC CommunicationsINDIANAPOLIS - The 2009 USBC Youth Open resumed Thursday at Expo Bowl after taking a few days off for the USBC Junior Gold Championships qualifying. The Youth Open Championships, sponsored by Pepsi, had started on July 10 and will finish on July 25.
The leading performance of the day came from Bobby Middleton of Waldorf, Md., who took over the lead for the Division 1 Singles with a 777 series, which included a 290 game. Division 1 includes bowlers with averages above 190.
The 20-year-old started off singles with a 232 before recording the final 11 strikes his second game. He capped the series with a 255 game.
"The nerves got to me towards the end since I knew I could reach 800," said Middleton, who bowled in his first Youth Open Championships. "I hope the score holds up."
Middleton also credits being aware of the lane conditions and planning ahead in helping him jump up the leaderboard.
"I looked at the graph, and knew we would be bowling on something that had been opened up already, so I chased the shot inside," Middleton said. "I got the right ball in my hand and then it was bombs away."
Middleton added a 640 series in doubles, but was not competing in the team event.
The team event earlier in the morning started on a high note as Sarah Rawski of Chesterfield, Mich., took her run at reaching perfection.
The 18-year-old started off her team event with the first nine strikes before leaving a 5-pin to finish with 278. She added games of 194 and 186 for a 658 series to help her Division 1 team (combined average of 760 and above) Sunnybrook to a 2,185 total. Sockk Rockkers of Allen, Texas currently lead at 2,476.
"I really wanted to have the chance to shoot 300, but I thought about it too much," said Rawski, who competed in her first Youth Open Championships. "I was so tired from the last three days (of Junior Gold), so I was happy to put together the front nine."
Rawski added 576 in doubles and 532 in singles for a 1,766 all-events total.
Both Middleton and Rawski competed in the Junior Gold Championships earlier in the week. Middleton, competing in his third year at the event, had an 18-game total of 3,406 to finish in 234th. Rawski, in her second year, placed 242nd with 3,118.
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More Tournaments
Whether you’re a highly competitive bowler carrying a 200 average in a sport league or a bowler who wonders if there is a tournament in which you can compete and have a chance to win, the USBC offers such a wide variety of tournaments that you are bound to find one perfect for you.
Are you a women’s bowler who thinks she can cut it against PBA Women’s Series bowlers? Try the USBC Queens event. Are you a youth bowler looking to put your skills to use by earning some scholarship money? Learn more about how to qualify for the Jr. Gold Championships. Are you a bowler looking for a chance to compete on a level playing field against bowlers in your average range? Look into the USBC’s longest-standing event, the 108-year-old USBC Open Championships. USBC tournaments offer opportunities for all bowlers regardless of age or skill level. You never know, you could be one of the next bowlers to compete on live TV at the next USBC Bowling’s Clash of Champions.
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Bowled one season with Grand Valley State, 2007-2008
Selected for 2007-2008 All-Conference Team in American Heartland
Intercollegiate Bowling Conference
Dean’s List at School Craft College, 2008-2009
1st Place 2008 Youth Open Championships Team Event, Div. 2, with teammates Rachel Ringrose, Richard Huddleston and Fred Ringrose
An aspiring accountant who won the Division Two team event at the 2008 Youth Open, one of the fondest memories of Kayla Blanchard’s young bowling career occurred when she met two-time Team USA member and 2007 Women’s World Champion, Shannon O’Keefe, at the 2009 USBC Queens Tournament in Detroit. “I was waitressing there, and all the bowlers were there,” Kayla explains. “The one person I liked the most was Shannon O’Keefe. I thought she was the easiest person to talk to. She was the most personable.” Though Blanchard identifies O’Keefe as her favorite professional bowler, the person she credits the most for her success at the Youth Open and in making the All-Conference Team in the American Heartland Intercollegiate Bowling Conference during her Freshman season with the Grand Valley State bowling program is her father. “”I have been bowling since I was 2,” Kayla explains. “He has been at the bowling alley every night with me, working with me. I was planning on going to McKendree but when financial aid fell through they could only give me so much. My Dad said ‘If you really want to do this I will pay for it,’ but I wanted to stay home.” Blanchard may have opted to stay closer to home rather than bowling with a high-profile collegiate program, but with another appearance at the USBC Youth open this year, she has no plans of hanging up her bowling shoes anytime soon.Read More
Jessica BeachStats
Founded bowling program at Western Michigan University
2009 Jr. Gold Championships Qualifier
When Jessica Beach entered Western Michigan University to find no bowling team there as friends joined collegiate bowling teams elsewhere around the country, Beach took matters into her own hands. “A lot of my friends were on the college bowling circuit at various colleges, and I felt a little left out,” Beach explains of her efforts to create a bowling team at her own school, which she identifies as her proudest bowling accomplishment. “So I founded the bowling team at Western Michigan University, and this will be our first year competing collegiately, so we’ll see how it goes. There is a significant amount of good bowlers on campus—I found about five that average over 200.” Beach, who qualified for the 2009 Jr. Gold Championships in Indianapolis and also competed at the Youth Open there, has already compiled a varied resume of volunteer experience at just 19 years old, including coaching duties for the bowling team at the high school from which she graduated (Portage High School in Kalamazoo, Mich.), volunteering with Special Olympics events at her local bowling center, and helping with the coordination of local marathon runs on behalf of efforts such as breast cancer research.
An aspiring accountant who won the Division Two team event at the 2008 Youth Open, one of the fondest memories of Kayla Blanchard’s young bowling career occurred when she met two-time Team USA member and 2007 Women’s World Champion, Shannon O’Keefe, at the 2009 USBC Queens Tournament in Detroit. “I was waitressing there, and all the bowlers were there,” Kayla explains. “The one person I liked the most was Shannon O’Keefe. I thought she was the easiest person to talk to. She was the most personable.” Though Blanchard identifies O’Keefe as her favorite professional bowler, the person she credits the most for her success at the Youth Open and in making the All-Conference Team in the American Heartland Intercollegiate Bowling Conference during her Freshman season with the Grand Valley State bowling program is her father. “”I have been bowling since I was 2,” Kayla explains. “He has been at the bowling alley every night with me, working with me. I was planning on going to McKendree but when financial aid fell through they could only give me so much. My Dad said ‘If you really want to do this I will pay for it,’ but I wanted to stay home.” Blanchard may have opted to stay closer to home rather than bowling with a high-profile collegiate program, but with another appearance at the USBC Youth open this year, she has no plans of hanging up her bowling shoes anytime soon.Read More
Ana KoffStats
Medaled in every event at 2008 Tournament of the Americas
Named to Miami Herald’s Girls First Bowling Team
Outstanding Scholar Award for Excellence, Gulliver Prep. High School (Miami, FL)
Being the sister of the youngest bowler ever to finish in the top 25 at the U.S. Open and perhaps the most sought-after player in college bowling is not easy. But Ana Koff is as thankful for her brother Andrew’s inspiration as she is for his friendship. “My brother and I have a great relationship and I am actually proud to be known as ‘Andrew’s sister,’” Ana Koff says. “Bowling has brought us together and I honestly think that we have a very close relationship because of it. I would never have gotten started in the sport had it not been for his support contagious love of bowling.”
But if you think this means that Ana does not have a competitive streak when it comes to her brother, think again. “I wouldn’t go down without a fight,” she says when asked who would win a best of five match between herself and her brother—though she does concede that Andrew would be more likely to win because of his 3-hour-a-day practice regimen. When she credits Andrew as an inspiration for her successes as a bowler, Ana undoubtedly has in mind the experience that she calls the best of her life. “To me, all of the awards and trophies that I received are only secondary to the two awards that I won at the Tournament of the Americas,” Ana says of representing her country. Like her brother, Ana may be interested in bowling for Wichita State collegiately and shares a great friendship with the PBA’s Chris Loschetter and his family. “I love to paint and to make greeting cards. In fact, it was Mrs. Loschetter that got me into making cards,” Ana says. “Chris is very kindhearted, always willing to help youth bowlers.” One pleasure Ana has discovered on her own, though, is roller coasters. “Best roller coasters ever,” she says of Cedar point in Sandusky, Ohio. “The Dragster is about 420 straight up and then down. This morning I got 1st row!”Read More
Submit a BowlerTo submit a bowler, send us the following:
(Note: Parental consent is required for nominees under the age of 18)The name of the bowler you would like to nominate:
Bowler's Phone Number:
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Bowler's Age:
Bowler's Gender:
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Tell us why you think this person should be a featured bowler on bowl.com:
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YouthOpenSubmit@bowl.comThank you for your nomination! While we are unable to respond to each individual submission due to the volume of submissions we receive, we will be contacting you if your nominee is chosen to be featured on bowl.com.Read More
About2010 USBC Youth Open
Competitor's Guide
Kayla BlanchardStats
Jessica BeachStats
An aspiring accountant who won the Division Two team event at the 2008 Youth Open, one of the fondest memories of Kayla Blanchard’s young bowling career occurred when she met two-time Team USA member and 2007 Women’s World Champion, Shannon O’Keefe, at the 2009 USBC Queens Tournament in Detroit. “I was waitressing there, and all the bowlers were there,” Kayla explains. “The one person I liked the most was Shannon O’Keefe. I thought she was the easiest person to talk to. She was the most personable.” Though Blanchard identifies O’Keefe as her favorite professional bowler, the person she credits the most for her success at the Youth Open and in making the All-Conference Team in the American Heartland Intercollegiate Bowling Conference during her Freshman season with the Grand Valley State bowling program is her father. “”I have been bowling since I was 2,” Kayla explains. “He has been at the bowling alley every night with me, working with me. I was planning on going to McKendree but when financial aid fell through they could only give me so much. My Dad said ‘If you really want to do this I will pay for it,’ but I wanted to stay home.” Blanchard may have opted to stay closer to home rather than bowling with a high-profile collegiate program, but with another appearance at the USBC Youth open this year, she has no plans of hanging up her bowling shoes anytime soon.Read More
Ana KoffStats
But if you think this means that Ana does not have a competitive streak when it comes to her brother, think again. “I wouldn’t go down without a fight,” she says when asked who would win a best of five match between herself and her brother—though she does concede that Andrew would be more likely to win because of his 3-hour-a-day practice regimen. When she credits Andrew as an inspiration for her successes as a bowler, Ana undoubtedly has in mind the experience that she calls the best of her life. “To me, all of the awards and trophies that I received are only secondary to the two awards that I won at the Tournament of the Americas,” Ana says of representing her country. Like her brother, Ana may be interested in bowling for Wichita State collegiately and shares a great friendship with the PBA’s Chris Loschetter and his family. “I love to paint and to make greeting cards. In fact, it was Mrs. Loschetter that got me into making cards,” Ana says. “Chris is very kindhearted, always willing to help youth bowlers.” One pleasure Ana has discovered on her own, though, is roller coasters. “Best roller coasters ever,” she says of Cedar point in Sandusky, Ohio. “The Dragster is about 420 straight up and then down. This morning I got 1st row!”Read More
