January 2017 -
7
SERVING THE BOWLING INDUSTRY SINCE 1967
Ozio Elected to 2017 USBC Hall Of
Fame Class
By Matt Cannizzaro
ARLINGTON, Texas -
David Ozio of Beaumont, Texas, has
been elected to the United States Bowling Congress Hall of
Fame in the Superior Performance category.
The 62-year-old right-hander was among eight bowlers (six
men and two women) on the national ballot and was elected to
the 2017 USBC Hall of Fame class by a USBC panel of veteran
bowling writers, hall of famers and board members.
"When you spend your whole life practicing, bowling 200
games a week and living in bowling centers, recognition like this
means a lot," said Ozio, a 1995 inductee into the PBA Hall of
Fame. "After all these years, I wondered if it was going to hap-
pen, and if it did, it would be great. It was a welcomed phone
call and a sigh of relief."
The 2017 USBC Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take
place April 26 at the 2017 USBC Convention in Las Vegas.
Ozio joins Mike Shady of Fairview, Pennsylvania, who was
elected in the Outstanding USBC Performance category in No-
vember by the USBC Hall of Fame Committee, in this year's
USBC Hall of Fame class.
Ozio is an 11-time Professional Bowlers Association Tour
titlist, including the 1991 PBA Tournament of Champions, part
of a four-win year that ended with PBA Player of the Year hon-
ors.
He went on to find success on
the PBA50 Tour, earning two
victories, the first of which was
the 2004 Senior U.S. Open on
the way to being named PBA50
Rookie of the Year.
Ranked 34th on the PBA's list
of the 50 Greatest Players in
PBA History (2009), Ozio was
slowed by wrist surgery in 2008.
Two years later, he walked away
from the game when he decided
he could not be as competitive on the lanes as he wanted to be.
The decision simply was a change of direction for Ozio, also a
competitive fisherman throughout his time on the PBA Tour.
While on tour competing in more than 30 PBA events a year, he
also fished in more than two dozen tournaments annually.
Ozio now spends more than 300 days each year on the water at
Texas' Lake Fork, where he offers guided fishing tours and in-
struction.
Also on the Superior Performance ballot were Dave Ferraro of
Kingston, New York; Mark Williams of Beaumont, Texas; Randy
Pedersen of Clermont, Florida; Mike Scroggins of Amarillo,
Texas; and Danny Wiseman of Baltimore.
The two competitors on the women's ballot were Marianne
DiRupo of Succasunna, New Jersey, and Tammy Turner of
West Palm Beach, Florida.
Through 2016, there are 417 members of the USBC Hall of
Fame - 217 in Superior Performance, 117 in Meritorious Ser-
vice, 50 in Veterans, 20 in Pioneers and 13 in Outstanding
USBC Performance.
The USBC Hall of Fame was created in 2005 by merging the
former American Bowling Congress and Women's International
Bowling Congress Halls of Fame.
Japan’s Shota Kawazoe Earns
Top Berth for DHC PBA Japan
Invitational Finals
Four American PBA stars round out Saturday’s
stepladder finals field
OSAKA, Japan (Jan. 13, 2017)
– Shota Kawa-
zoe, a 28-year-old Japan Professional Bowlers
Association veteran, maintained his blistering 247
scoring average while winning 24 of his 32
matches to claim the top berth in the DHC PBA
Japan Invitational stepladder finals Friday
at Bentencho Grandbowl in Osaka.
Kawazoe finished fifth in the 2016 DHC event for
his best finish in PBA competition. He will bowl for
the $40,000 first prize and a PBA Tour title against
the survivor of three preliminary matches involving
American PBA Tour champions – Jason Sterner of
Cocoa, Fla.; Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill.; Chris
Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, and E.J. Tackett of
Huntington, Ind. The PBA will provide live stream-
ing coverage of the DHC finals on Xtra Frame
starting at roughly 10:20 p.m. EST (9:20 p.m. CST,
7:20 p.m. PST) on Friday.
Kawazoe has dominated the PBA Tour’s first
tournament of 2017, winning the top berth in the
stepladder finals by 401 pins over Sterner. Rash
and Barnes – the 2015 DHC PBA Japan Invita-
tional winner - made big moves in the final round to
claim the third and fourth spots in the finals. Barnes
will meet Tackett, who rolled his third 300 game of
the tournament Friday to claim the fifth spot in the
finals by 10 pins over Sweden’s Jesper Svensson.
Xtra Frame subscriptions are available in a vari-
ety of packages: three-day ($3.99), 30-day ($7.99)
and Xtra Frame Season Ticket (a full-year’s cover-
age at an average cost of $1.25 per week). Sub-
scriptions are available by visiting ―xtraframe.tv‖
and clicking on the ―subscribe now‖ link.
For fans who prefer a more convenient time to
watch, each XF segment from Japan will be avail-
able on demand in Xtra Frame’s ―What’s New‖
section within approximately an hour of the live
stream, and in the XF archives shortly thereafter.
DHC PBA JAPAN INVITATIONAL
Bentencho Grandbowl, Osaka, Japan, Friday
Final Match Play Standings (after 32 games,
including match play bonus pins. Top five after
32 games advance to stepladder finals):
1, Shota Kawazoe, Japan, 24-8, 8,642.
2, Jason Sterner, Cocoa, Fla., 22-10, 8,241, $100.
3, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 22-10, 8,234.
4, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 18-12-2,
8,155.
5, E.J. Tackett, Huntington, Ind., 17-14-1, 8,138,
$300.
Failed to advance:
6
, Jesper Svensson, Sweden, 20-11-1, 8,128, $5,220.
7, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 16-16, 8,085,
$4,885.
8, Dom Barrett, England, 17-14-1, 8,021, $4,350.
9, Rhino Page, Orlando, Fla., 21-11, 8,012, $3,915.
10, Jason Belmonte, Australia, 19-12-1, 7,979, $3,655.
11, Tom Daugherty, Tampa, Fla., 14-15-3, 7,954, $3,305.
12, Josh Blanchard, Gilbert, Ariz., 18-14, 7,890, $3,130.
13, Takahiro Sato, Japan, 20-11-1, 7,865, $2,960.
14, w-Hiromi Matsunaga, Japan, 17-15, 7,845, $2,785.
15, Choi Won Young, Korea, 18-13-1, 7,833, $2,710.
16, Amleto Monacelli, Venezuela, 15-17, 7,800, $2,435.
17, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 16-14-2, 7,780,
$2,390.
18, Makoto Endo, Japan, 16-15-1, 7,776, $2,350.
19, Kristopher Prather, Milton, Fla., 19-12-1, 7,751,
$2,305.
20, Isao Yamamoto, Japan, 15-17, 7,746, $2,260.
21, Masaki Noda, Japan, 16-15-1, 7,642, $2,220.
22, w-Urara Himeji, Japan, 17-14-1, 7,552, $2,175.
23, Shuichi Heki, Japan, 12-19-1, 7,505, $2,130.
24, w-Hiroko Shimizu, Japan, 14-18, 7,458, $2,090.
25, Yuki Mizumoto, Japan, 12-18-2, 7,448, $2,045.
26, w-Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 12-20, 7,429,
$2,000.
27, w-Yuki Akiyoshi, Japan, 12-20, 7,387, $1,960.
28, Ryogo Tsurumi, Japan, 14-18, 7,257, $1,915.
29, w-Mari Kimura, Japan, 12-20, 7,223, $1,870.
30, Masato Sakakibara, Japan, 8-24, 6,933, $1,830.
31, w-Manae Kameshima, Japan, 5-27, 6,459, $1,785.
32, Junichi Uesaka, Japan, 4-28, 6,333, $1,740.
300 Games:
E.J. Tackett 3, Choi Won Young, Jason
Sterner.
