A PUBLICATION OF THE GREATER MIAMI BOWLING ASSOCIATIONS

April 2001

GMBA CITY TOURNAMENT
FEATURING GUARANTEED FIRST
AND SECOND ALL EVENTS PRIZE

The 59th annual tournament of the Greater Miami Bowling Association will be held at Piper Lanes on June 2-3 and 9-10, 2001. (The tournament returns to Piper Lanes for the first time since 1980). The tournament is open to all GMBA ABC sanctioned members (male and female). The tournament features 2 separate divisions, based on average. The biggest feature is a $500 GUARANTEED FIRST PRIZE AND A $250 GUARANTEED SECOND PRIZE for handicap all events. There will also be special squad prizes. The handicap is a very competitive 90% of 230. You can bowl in the Team and Doubles events multiple times. But, you can only bowl once in the Singles. Tournament entry forms are now available in bowling centers. You can also visit the GMBA Internet Web site to reserve your entry. Call the GMBA office at (305) 665-2225 or send an email via the web site if you need an entry form or have any questions about the tournament. The regular entry closing date is May 28, 2001, but late entries will be accepted during each tournament squad if lanes are available.

INTERNET WEB SITE

Don't forget that the Greater Miami Bowling Association has an Internet web site. View information about local bowling, read the Sparetimes, look up yearbook averages, get links to other bowling organizations, reserve your tournament entries, and send email to the GMBA. For the league secretaries, there is also a service for submitting league award applications. If you are a web surfer, mark this as one of your favorites. The web address is www.miamibowling.org

If you would like to receive an email notification when a new issue of Sparetimes is ready to be published, please send us an email on the GMBA web site giving your email address. We will email you when the new issue is posted on the web site. (It is usually posted on the site about a week before the printed copies are available). You can then logon to the web site and read the Sparetimes.

GREATER MIAMI WOMEN'S BOWLING ASSOCIATION

Walk for Cure for Juvenile Diabetes
The Walk for the Cure for Juvenile Diabetes was held recently at Miami's Metro Zoo. As promised, the animals were out and there were about 50 walkers signed up for the event. A big thanks must go to Ikon Office Solutions for aiding and sponsoring the Greater Miami Women's team "The Strikers". They paid for each walker to have a GMWBA-designed T-shirt. All proceeds from the GMWBA team, which will probably go over $5,000 when the counting is done, go directly to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International Research Foundation. Another big thanks goes to each and every participant. THANKS ALL!! You looked great and did a great job.

Marie Sparks
Many of you may know Marie Sparks, the former GMWBA secretary. Unfortunately, she is not in good health at this time. The GMWBA would like to put together a shower of blessing basket just to cheer her up and show we care. If you would like to contribute a card or letter, please address it to Marie Sparks in care of the Greater Miami Women's Bowling Association, 7165 SW 47 Street #316, Miami, Florida 33155. A few of the GMWBA board members are planning to collect and deliver them as a show of love and best wishes. Thanks ahead of time for your help.

City Tournament Results
Records went flying out the door during the Greater Miami Women's Bowling Association Championship Tournament held at Homestead Bowling Center on February 17-18 and 24-25, 2001.

Suzann Neidig rolled 234-266-226 (726 - a record scratch score), which led to her capturing both the women's scratch and handicap singles titles. Not to be outdone was Sharon Colon whose record scratch 9 game total for All Events was 2087, rolling sets of 715-712-660.

In the team event, along came Total Control, who set the scratch team record of 2615 and also won the handicap team event with 2633. Bowling on this team were Sharon Colon (715), Patty Nevers (584), Lauralee Gam (671) and Janelle Woodburn (645).

The winner of the President's Award (highest handicap set rolled in team event by a person with 130 & under average) was Leola Brinson with a 657. Laura Schwartz was the recipient of the Secretary's Award with her 695 set rolled in the team event as a first time entrant in the tournament.

Other highlights included a first 200 game rolled by Suzanne Escobar (136 average), highest game of 279 (2) by Sharon Colon, as well as highest series of 726 by Suzann Neidig. Also, there were 190 200 games, 55 clean games, 7 games at least 35 pins over average by 130 & under, 8 games at least 50 pins over average by 149 & under average, 36 600 series, and 3 700 series.

Awards and prize monies were distributed at the GMWBA annual meeting on March 24. This meeting also included the election of officers and directors, as well as delegates to the state and national conventions.

The top finishers in the tournament are as follows:

Team - Handicap
1st Total Control 2633
2nd Strike For Gold 2596
3rd Power Pellets 2577
4th No Name 26 2543
5th Bank On It 2533

Team - Scratch
1st Total Control 2615

Doubles - Scratch
1st Lauralee Gam - Sharon Colon 1374

Singles - Handicap
1st Suzann Neidig 726
2nd Rel Murray 721
3rd Lucretia Kemp 719
4th Charlene Richards 715
5th Leah Williams-Jones 703

Singles - Scratch
1st Suzann Neidig 726

All Events - Handicap
1st Lucretia Kemp 2090

All Events - Scratch
1st Sharon Colon 2087

President's Award
Leola Brinson 675

Secretary's Award
Laura Schwartz 695

ABC/WIBC/YABA MEMBERSHIP CARDS FOR 2001-2002 SEASON

Starting with the upcoming summer leagues, it is planned that bowlers' ABC/WIBC/YABA membership cards will be mailed directly from Bowling Headquarters in Greendale, Wisconsin to the bowlers at their home address. This is a drastic change from the current procedure of the league secretary distributing the cards. New membership cards will also be plastic, instead of paper, and will have a much nicer appearance. Additionally, a welcome letter from the respective national organization President will be included with the mailed membership cards.

This new program is part of a change from Bowling Headquarters to provide better service to the membership. This service can take place due to a major upgrade in the software that is used in the local bowling offices to process bowlers' memberships. Because the software takes advantage of the technology of electronic transmissions, bowlers will now receive their membership cards in a much more timely manner than in the past (in many cases, it will be just a few days). Another side benefit of the software targets the bowlers with honor scores (298, 299, 300, 800, 11-in-a-row). Their award applications can now be sent electronically, thus reducing the amount of time it currently takes for them to receive their awards.

Because of the direct mailing, it will be very important for each bowler to ensure their address is accurate and written legibly on their sanction application card. If you don't get your membership card in the mail within a few weeks of paying for it, check first with your league secretary to ensure he/she submitted it to the bowling office. If so, then contact the bowling office to ensure your mailing address is correct.

GREATER MIAMI JUNIOR BOWLING ASSOCIATION

Internet Web Site
The Greater Miami Junior Bowling Association now has an Internet web site. It is directly liked with the Greater Miami Bowling Association's site. Visit the junior site for information about junior bowling, tournaments, awards and such. The web address is www.miamibowling.org/GMJBA

Yearbook
The Greater Miami Junior Bowling Association is once again getting prepared for the annual yearbook. The Junior portion is approximately 30 pages and contains results of major tournaments, outstanding achievements and the averages for all of our junior bowlers. Forms for advertising will be available in all of the centers within the next few weeks. The ads for the Yearbook provide up to $1000 in additional funds for many of the recently initiated awards for the juniors. In addition to the over one hundred 70-99 Pins Over Average Awards distributed yearly, we also present plaques to those juniors, boys and girls, who have had the high averages, sets and games during the past year and certificates and medallions to the Division winners of the Dade County High School Handicap Division. Last year we presented 14 awards including 300 game awards and 800 set awards to our outstanding juniors. Deadline for advertisement is June 27. Rates begin at only $10 for a business card and $25 for a 1/4 page. Contact Jim DeLeonardis at (305) 251-5171 for further information.

Dade-Kendall Junior Scholarship Tournament
Nikki Mundon's 300 game highlighted the 9th Annual Dade-Kendall Junior Scholarship Tournament held on February 25 at Don Carter Kendall Lanes. This yearly tournament was again a huge success with junior bowlers competing in four divisions for over $1,800 in scholarships, with $200 being awarded for 1st place and $100 2nd, $75 3rd, and $50 to 4th and 5th places. In addition, plaques were given to the 1st place champions. Eight games of qualifying were bowled to determine the top 5

positions, who then advanced to a modified stepladder finals with the 3rd, 4th & 5th place bowlers rolling off to determine advancement. In the Girl's Handicap Division, top qualifier Mindy Coile survived a late challenge by Brooke Kern to win the title by a score of 203-194. Top qualifier Steve Wilson rolled his best to top Zack Remsen 224-193 for the Boy's Handicap title. In a repeat of last year's finals, top qualifier "Ms. 300" Nikki Mundon edged Melissa Coile, by two pins 202-200. Second place qualifier Keith Nation bested top qualifier Chad Brewer 235-197 to capture the Boy's Scratch Division. The KJSF extends its thanks to Ron Hodgen, manager, and the staff of Don Carter Kendall Lanes for their support and generosity for the production of this annual event. The bowling center donated $575 towards the scholarships for the juniors. Additional thanks are deserving to Wednesday Night Turkeys, Paula's Scratch Trio, Rooms To Go and Dolphin World Trophies leagues for their donations.

The final results are:

Girls' Games:
Nikki Mundon 300
Stefanie Nation 300 (2)
Brigette Harrelson 299

Genuine 11: Arthur Beuge, Chad Brewer, A.J. Hamby, Irvine Headley, Keith Nation, Richie Naue, Stefanie Nation

Big Four: Walter Guasp, Charles Maxey

Dutch 200: Chad Brewer

Triplicate: Glenn Canavan, Andrew Meyers, Brian Rosenberg, Rachel Williams

100 Over Average: Theron Cobb, Kyle Hedin, Robert Hester, Chase Lausted, Corey McKechnie, Robert McMahon, Richie Naue, David Pedro, Chris Slater, Jesse Thrash, Steve Wilson, Stephanie Mazza.

Look for this year's yearbook for a complete list of high scores, and other achievements, GMJBA's city tournament, Junior Orange Bowl and miscellaneous awards for our junior bowlers.

City Tournament Results
The 32nd Annual GMJBA City Tournament was held at Bird Bowl March 3rd and 4th, 2001. The outstanding moment of this years event was Miss Stefanie Nation's "300" game, the first by a female in GMJBA City Tournament history.

Trophy Winners:

Division #1 Team:
1st Buzz's Revenge Champions
2nd Lane Sharks

Division #3 Team:
1st Sugar, Honey, Ice, Tea
2nd Thrown Together

Division #4 Team:
1st Bird Bowl Lanes
2nd Florida Juniors #2
3rd Bird Bowl's Finest
4th The Boyz

Division #5 Team:
1st Lucky Stars
2nd Eliminators
3rd Texas Preps #3

Division #6 Team:
1st Hot Boyz

Division #1 Doubles:
1st Stefanie Nation - Richard Naue
2nd David Deleon - Shane Nevers
3rd Keith Nation - David Smith

Division #2 Doubles:
1st Vernell Sullivan - Justin Moore
2nd Alyssa Harper - Jeffrey Boone
3rd Danielle Evans - Robert Mackarvich

Division #3 Doubles:
1st Erik Shelfer - Terrell Ross
2nd Greg Mielke - Shane Olson
3rd Chris Slater - Eddie Martelli
4th Steven Wilson - Kevin Hulse

Division #4 Doubles:
1st Joaquin Sabater - Steven Graham
2nd Melody Sosa - Caitlin Graham
3rd Nacory Cochran - Brandon Mc Cutchen
4th Jesse Falero - Jerry Estevez
5th Kayla Pritchet - Derek Sutta

Division #6 Doubles:
1st Alex Bartolome - Guillermo Antonini
2nd Michael Figueroa - Jose Jose

A heartfelt "thank you" goes out to all who helped present this tournament, especially to Wayne and Danielle Graham and their wonderful Bird Bowl staff! Next year's tournament will be held at Cloverleaf Lanes during the first weekend in March!

YABA

Here are a few new things from the national YABA! The new YABA President is Cathy Cooper. The new YABA Vice President is Kerm Helmer. At the recent ABC convention, YABA held a seminar and informed all present that starting in August 2002, all YABA sanctioned leagues and tournaments that offer scholarship awards must use the SMART Scholarship Fund or use an approved institution. Citing an excessive amount of missing money, YABA Executive Director Jim Zebehazy said this was the only way to insure all youth bowlers of their rightful scholarship funds.

This year's Olympic Gold National Tournament will be held in Reno, Nevada during the month of July. The deadline for submitting entrants is May 15, 2001.

GREATER MIAMI BOWLING COUNCIL

Hall of Fame
There are three nominations for the Greater Miami Bowling Council Hall of Fame this year. Don Carr for ability, Stacey Harper for ability, and Maria Smith for service. These names, along with their resumes, will be forwarded to a screening committee, then sent on to the Hall of Fame members for voting. Inductees will not be made public until the middle of June. This year's election, will take place at Piper Lanes during the 59th Annual GMBA City Tournament on June 3.

This year's installation will be held at Miami Elks Lodge #948, sometime in October. The purpose of this banquet is varied. First, and foremost is the honoring of the Hall Inductee(s). The second is to raise funds for the Bowling Council Scholarship Fund. Applications for the GMBC scholarship are now in every bowling center in the Greater Miami area. The council encourages all high school seniors and college students to take advantage of this $500 scholarship!

Another side attraction is the presentation of the "Gene Chilson Bowler of the Year" Award. This award is presented to the outstanding GMBA member for the past season.

Top 8 Tournament
The Greater Miami Bowling Council Top "8" Tournament will be held October 7, 2001 at Homestead Bowling Center.

To qualify for this tournament, a bowler must bowl in two centers and achieve 60 or more games in each of these leagues and be in the top 8 composite averages in Greater Miami.

There are four divisions: Men, Women, Boys, Girls. These bowlers will bowl 7 games of head to head competition with a final position round to determine the winners. Game winners receive 30 bonus pins, ties receive 15 bonus pins. The first and second place winners receive an award.

It is rarely done, but the Bowling Council would like to say THANKS! to all those who have participated throughout the years in this tournament. Without your love of the game, we wouldn't be able to hold this tournament.

A special drawing will be held to benefit the GMBC scholarship fund. Prize donations are always welcomed. Please contact Paul Boller at (305) 235-2105 if you would like to help the scholarship fund with the donation of a prize for the drawing.

GREATER MIAMI BOWLING ASSOCIATION

Scratch Match Tournament
On February 4, 2001 the Greater Miami Bowling Association offered a very special scratch tournament to ABC members. The tournament was a nine game match tournament and was held at Homestead Bowling Center. The GMBA would like to thank Homestead Bowling Center for their assistance in developing and coordinating the tournament.

The GMBA offered a guaranteed first prize of $500 and second prize of $250. (The turnout was good enough to pay more than the guarantee!) The purpose of the tournament was to give the higher average bowlers a very nice and competitive tournament, with some attractive prize money. 38 bowlers entered the tournament. Each bowler bowled a head-to-head match against nine opponents. 30 bonus pins were given to the bowler for each match that was won. 15 bonus pins were given to the bowler for each match that was tied. The top 5 at the end of the ninth game went into a stepladder final to determine the champion. The scoring was based on each bowler's cumulative scratch score plus their bonus pins.

Richie Omodeo, Jr. and Mike Skinner finished first and second., winning $540 and $270 respectively Don Carr, finished third, winning $176. Roger Boone and Irwin Block finished fourth and fifth, winning $130 and $90, respectively. As a nice highlight, Billy Block bowled a 300 game in the qualifying round.

180-Under Tournament
The Greater Miami Bowling Association is again planning a special tournament for the 180-under average bowlers. The tentative date will be July 15 at a location to be determined. Entry forms for this tournament will be available in June. There have previously been two of these 180-Under tournaments, and each was well received by the participants.

ABC CONVENTION

The 2001 ABC Convention was held March 11-17 in Reno, Nevada at the beautiful Silver Legacy Hotel and Casino.

Convention week started on Sunday for all the ABC Jurisdictional Directors. A 1:00 p.m. meeting was called, and presided, by President J.C. Higgins. The purpose of this meeting was to select an Executive Committee to help make proposals and set policy. Three Jurisdictional Directors were elected for one year and three were elected for two years.

Monday's meeting kicked off at 9:00 a.m. and included a healthy discussion about the Single Membership Organization (SMO). (You will be hearing a lot more about this in the future. It is a proposal from Bowling Headquarters to unify ABC, WIBC and YABA in order to improve service, reduce costs and reduce duplications of efforts). Headquarter staff members were well prepared with facts and figures, but the Jurisdictional Directors did not like what they were hearing. The general feeling was that everyone agreed that there should be one single membership organization, but not in the form it was presented. This subject was discussed all of Monday and half of Tuesday, with the Directors telling staff to try again.

Tuesday afternoon's meeting was largely about proposed legislation and rule changes. Legislation and rule change proposers were allowed to speak on behalf of their motion. The Board then made a recommendation to either approve or reject, and send it on to the delegation at Friday's meeting.

The Board decided there would be a fall board meeting this year to hear the new proposals about SMO. This meeting is usually held in November at Bowling Headquarters in Greendale, Wisconsin.

The seminars on Thursday were well manned and very informative. The ABC, WIBC, YABA, USA Bowling, etc. booths were all well staffed. YABA featured soon to be ABC Hall of Famer Mike Aulby and some of the Junior Olympic Team USA Members.

The Delegates Meeting on Friday went as predicted. However, there were no significant legislative changes adopted to the playing rules for next year. Regarding the Single Membership Organization, everyone seems to want one sanctioning organization, but not as being proposed by Bowling Headquarters. Also, most of the delegates favor the new idea of a SPORT condition. (A SPORT lane condition is one where the lane dressing is placed in such a manner that it is not as high scoring as a normal condition. This lane dressing pattern does require a better executed bowling shot in order to score, hence testing more of a bowler's true ability).

Overall, it was a successful convention (unless you visited the casinos).

BIRD BOWL NEWS

New Synthetic Lanes
Bird Bowl is currently installing new Brunswick Pro Anvilane synthetic lanes. The construction is taking place during the late evening hours, so to not disrupt bowling activities, and should be finished by May. During this time, automatic bumpers will also be installed on all 60 lanes. The automatic bumpers will be a nice feature for open bowling, where each individual bowler can select whether they want to bowl on bumpers. This is especially good for the very young children.

Coach of the Year
Mindi Estevez was chosen as Bird Bowl's Coach of the Year. Mindi has been coaching at Bird Bowl for the past 6 years. She bowls in 2 leagues at Bird Bowl and her 3 children bowl in the Saturday morning junior leagues. She is a coach for the Florida Juniors, where all the kids love her. Mindi is a very hard-working and is truly dedicated to the junior bowlers, which is why she is Bird Bowl's Coach of the Year.

Generation Gap (Adult/Junior) League
Bird Bowl's Generation Gap Summer League will begin Monday, June 18. The meeting will be held on Monday, June 11 at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact the league office at (305) 221-1221, extension 14.

Miami-Dade County Middle School Tournaments
The Miami-Dade County Middle School "warm-up" tournament was held on February 14. The final results were:

Boys Team:
1st Arvida Middle School 2181
2nd Cutler Ridge Middle School 2176

Girls Team:
1st Riviera Middle School 1939
2nd Cutler Ridge Middle School 1723

Boys Individual Series:
1st Kevin Rosenberg (Arvida Middle) 489
2nd Steven Wilson (Cutler Ridge Middle) 480

Girls Individual Series:
1st Brigette Harrelson (Homestead Middle) 568
2nd Caitlin Graham (Riviera Middle) 497

Boys Individual Game:
1st Chris Slater (Cutler Ridge Middle) 181
2nd Kevin Rosenberg (Arvida Middle) 180

Girls Individual Game:
1st Brigette Harrelson (Homestead Middle) 244
2nd Caitlin Graham (Riviera Middle) 185

The Miami-Dade County Middle School championship tournament was held on February 23. The final results are:

Boys Team:
1st Cutler Ridge Middle School 2330
2nd Arvida Middle School 2152
3rd Herbert Ammon Middle School 2021

Girls Team:
1st Riviera Middle School 2107
2nd Cutler Ridge Middle School 1770
3rd Southwood Middle School 1723

Boys Individual Series:
1st Chris Slater (Cutler Ridge) 528
2nd Edward Martelli (Herbert Ammon) 524
3rd Kevin Hulse (Cutler Ridge) 523

Girls Individual Series:
1st Brigette Harrelson (Homestead Middle) 613
2nd Brooke Kern (Riviera Middle) 517
3rd Samantha Murphy (Homestead Middle) 505

Boys Individual Game:
1st Chris Slater (Cutler Ridge Middle) 224
2nd Kevin Hulse (Cutler Ridge Middle) 209
3rd Steven Wilson (Cutler Ridge Middle) 205

Girls Individual Game:
1st Brigette Harrelson (Homestead Middle) 221
2nd Brooke Kern (Riviera Middle) 192
3rd Caitlin Graham (Riviera Middle) 189

High Games and Sets
Bird Bowl is proud to report the following high scores from the winter season leagues.

Cellular Universe - Tony Acosta (279/761), Roger Boone (280/748), Charles Browne (279/704), Tony Colon (300), David Covington (290/727), Al Diaz (299), Joe Fernandez (299), Gary Fox (279/793), Wayne Graham (299, 289/773), Sergio Guillo (279, 299, 299), Julie Hall (256/701), Harold Harper (300/790), Jairo Hernandez (299/746), Peter Hernandez (284, 278, 289, 299/793), Orlando DeArmas (286/733), Peter Loney (300/725), Gus Martinez (300), Greg Moore (285/701), Richard Omodeo, Sr. (773), Danny Saunders (289/734), Joey Smith (279, 300/794)

Southwest Handicap - Aris Angelo (268/738), Carlos Baquero (290/755), Denny Carbuccia (299), George Litwin (279/738)

Lucky Strikers - Stephen Hart (268/771), Ray Leitz (279/728), Albert Mestres (279/741), Tony Mestres (279/749)

Cuba Libre Invitational - Luis Bergolla, Sr. (299/724), Nicole Parisi (300/736)

Junior Leagues:
Texas Preps - Andrew Todd (187/431), Brianna Pucko (161/432)

Florida Juniors - Ryan Reese (256/685), Caitlin Graham (189/509)

Boston Specials - Steven Granat (198/537), Stacey Gladieux (133/355)

"THE FISH BOWL"

The Fish Bowl is now open. For those who don't know about this, it is a 12 lane bowling center at Mile Marker 83.5 in Islamorada. It used to be known as Coral Bowl. It was sold last year, and the new owners have done a great deal of remodeling. It reopened in February with the new name "The Fish Bowl". The new management is very excited to be open, and is taking great strides towards making it a nice place to bowl. There has already been a 300 game, by Bill Danaher on March 1, and a 290 11-in-a-row game by Michael Kaczka on March 16. The Sparetimes says welcome back to the new Fish Bowl.

  UNTIL OUR NEXT ISSUE

The editors and staff of Sparetimes hope you have enjoyed reading about bowling news and information in the Greater Miami area. We hope you will continue to be interested in our publication. We do welcome your comments, suggestions, and newsworthy articles for publishing. Send us your feedback and news articles in the mail to the following address:

Sparetimes Newsletter
7165 SW 47 Street #316
Miami, Florida 33155

You may also send your information via the GMBA Internet web site at www.miamibowling.org

Thanks for reading our newsletter. We plan to have our next issue out in late August. Remember, feel free to send us your ideas.