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- Aug/Sep 2017
SERVING THE BOWLING INDUSTRY SINCE 1967
Greater Sacramento USBC Inducts Three to Hall
Jerry Nunes, Irene Raff and Brent Bridges
By Mary Lynly, California Bowing Writers
GSAUSBC President Brent Korff did what few emcees do – make the most of a captive
audience. He advised the attendees of the GSAUSBC extraordinary 2016-2017 season
The Board of Directors worked 5 consecutive weekends as the California State Senior
Bowling Association’s 47
th
Annual Championship held at Steve Cook’s Fireside Lanes
and AMF Rocklin. 502 teams from around the state competed in two divisions based on
combined age. 85% of those teams were from outside the area.
The driving force to get this tournament held in the Greater Sacramento area is here
tonight. Hall of Famer George Glavas. George lobbied hard to bring the tournament to
the Greater Sacramento Area. Why was this important? It saved many local bowlers the
time and expense of traveling to other cities. Even more important is the benefit to the
local economy. Between motels, restaurants, retail shops and more the benefit easily
exceeded $200,000. The California State Senior BA was so pleased with the effort by
the Association volunteers, bowling centers and the participation by our members that it
voted to bring the tournament back here in the fall of 2018.
Our generous GSA members contributed $9,000 for the Bowlers to Veterans Link. Al-
though in past years the money has stayed in California, we learned that only a small
percentage was benefitting veterans in our immediate area. Our Board subscribes to the
philosophy of “Think globally and act locally.” Therefore, our Board adopted a new policy
to only send 10% of what is collected to address statewide veteran needs and the other
90% will be granted directly to local veteran organizations by our Board. This year we
awarded $3,760 to the VFW Post in Folsom and another $3,760 to the Mather Veterans
Village which provides housing to homeless veterans in the area. I personally visited
these two organizations and was very impressed with the work they do to help veterans
in need. Both agreed to provide periodic reports of how the funds are helping local veter-
ans.
The number one initiative for this past season was to increase communication with our
members. Since tournament participation was up by more than 20%, we have to con-
clude that we did indeed make some progress. We overhauled our sacbowl.com web
page, became more active on our GSA USBC Facebook page, engaged in the direct
emailing of upcoming events and news to those members whom provided accurate
email addresses, and some of our most conscientious board members increased dia-
logues with league secretaries and fellow bowlers.
Tournament opportunities were increased including Senior Championships and a Super
Senior Division within the Masters Tournament. This coming season there will be a Sen-
ior Masters and a Queens Tournament on a separate day from the regular Masters. Ad-
ditionally, there will be a Women’s Championship in October featuring a doubles and
singles competition.
The association office was moved and will save $6,000 annually to help offset cost in-
creases and allow us to increase awards to our membership. We helped support the
PWBA event held for the third consecutive year at Steve Cook’s Fireside lanes and three
of our former youth were able to cash in that event.
The GSA board strives to stay up with accomplishments of our members too. Several
of the association youth participated in the USBC Junior Gold competition in Cleveland
Ohio and of 327 entrants for the U15 girls, 2 of the top 16 were from our Association.
Overwhelming? You bet. If you have read this far and are thinking this sounds like
shades of times past – you are right. Forward thinking, awareness of all facets of deci-
sions and the consequences and a genuine caring for the membership. An increase in
participation and interest on all fronts! Congratulations to President Brent Korff and the
GSA Board of Directors.
The best was yet to come with the announcement of the honorees. Unfortunately,
Jerry Nunes
who was being honored for
Superior Performance
in the Hall of Fame
was unable to attend. Barbara Metzinger Hureaux gave a riveting presentation of
Irene
Raff,
posthumously, for
Meritorious Service
and
Brent bridges
was inducted with an
incredible list of accomplishments for
Superior Performance
. Additional honorees
were
: The Ralph Sutton Memorial Scholarship to Robbie Bennett; Senior Female
Bowler of the Year to Carolyn Cooley; Senior Male Bowler of the Year to Joe
Chabot and League Secretary of the Year to Linda Zierman. Director of the Year
went to Gillian Tracy.
U.S. Sweeps Team, All-Events Gold Medals
At 2017 World Bowling Senior
Championships
ARLINGTON, Texas -
The representatives from the United States traveled to
the
n Germany with a goal of
claiming as many medals as possible, but winning gold as a team always is the
sweetest victory of all.
The men and women from the United States reached that pinnacle again Sat-
urday at Dream-Bowl Palace near Munich, with both teams successfully de-
fending the world championships they claimed in Las Vegas in 2015.
The all-events medals also were decided Saturday, with Team USA's Ron
Mohr and Leanne Hulsenberg winning gold in their respective categories.
Lynda Barnes secured the silver medal on the women's side.
Three members of the men's team - Mohr, Bob Learn Jr. and Lennie Boresch
Jr. - returned to put their title on the line and got to share the latest win with
United States Bowling Congress and Professional Bowlers Association Hall of
Famer Parker Bohn III, who made his world championships debut.
The group earned the gold with a 2-0 win against Mexico in the best-of-three
Baker final, 212-194 and 212-176.
Team USA started the final round with four strikes in its first five frames to
build a lead that proved to be big enough, despite a missed single pin along the
way.
In the deciding game, Team USA started with back-to-back open frames and
clung to a small lead after six frames, but Mohr, Learn and Bohn rallied late in
the game, closing with five consecutive strikes to hold off Mexico.
The United States downed Canada, 2-1 (187-197, 214-196, 239-194), to earn
a spot in the final, and Mexico defeated Finland in the semifinals, 2-0 (214-143,
206-199), to advance.
"Toward the end of the team event on the men's side, it really could've been
any of eight or nine teams making it to the semifinals, so it was exciting, but
also very stressful at the same time," said USBC Hall of Famer and USBC Gold
coach Bill Spigner, who is coaching the United States contingent this week.
"The biggest thing of all about our men's team was the ability to finish off
games, while other teams didn't seem to have that. The whole day was excit-
ing, and to win the team event back to back is amazing."
USBC Hall of Famer Tish Johnson was the only returning member for the
United States on the women's side, but she was joined in the victory Saturday
by a trio of fellow hall of famers - Barnes, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard and Hulsen-
berg.
The quartet cruised to the gold medal with a 2-0 performance against Canada,
winning 235-191 and 199-169.
Seven strikes from the United States in the first eight frames of the gold-medal
match put the opening game out of reach, and consecutive strikes in frames
seven through nine after a missed 1-2-4-10 washout in the second game were
enough to stay in control of the match.
"It's such an honor," said Johnson, the lone left-hander on the women's team.
"Our team was really good again this year. They talked and communicated well
when it came to making moves, and they were very supportive when it was my
turn to bowl. I did the best I could, and it was awesome. They were fun to bowl
with, and when you know each other for 30 years, it makes it a little bit easier."
The United States defeated Japan, 2-0 (232-179, 222-158), to advance to the
gold-medal match, and Canada collected a semifinal win against Sweden, 2-1
(162-181, 154-145, 202-184).
The team event at the 2017 World Bowling Senior Championships featured six
traditional team games over two days, after which, the top four men's teams
and top four women's teams advanced to the best-of-three Baker medal round.
(Continued on page 8)
