Since 2002 the Indiana Youth Scholarship Bowlers Tour (IYSBT) has been providing an outlet for the youth bowlers from around the country to earn scholarship money while competing on some of the toughest conditions around. We are proud to have had the privilege to have gotten to know some of the best youth bowlers in the country (which includes Junior Gold National Champions and USBC Youth Open National Champion). Being able to watch many of our bowlers grow up and become great role models for our current youth bowlers has made us very proud! The friendships we have made and sustained with both the bowlers and their parents is something we wouldn’t have had without the tour.
From the beginning we have always maintained that this is a tour run by and for the bowlers and not the tour Directors. All of the changes that we have incorporated over the years have come through the requests of the bowlers. Although not always popular these changes have been implemented to provide our bowlers the most opportunities possible to earn more scholarship money.
The 2009/2010 season has been filled with many changes. Going from 11 to 30 dates and including Illinois locations in the schedule was designed to help alleviate conflicts with High School and College Bowling Tournaments. Although participant numbers for each event are down, our monthly total participants are up about 40%. We were told by parents of younger bowlers that our age rule would ruin the tour. Now that we are entering the final 1/3 of the season and you look at our season point standings you will see many young High School Bowlers have emerged as stars of the tour.
The 2009/2010 season has also been very taxing on us (Tour Directors). A lot of issues have arisen and at almost every tournament we leave wondering why we even run a tour. The most disturbing part is that none of these issues are generated by you the bowlers but by the parents, who aren’t afraid to remind us each and every week that they are the ones who drive their sons and daughters to the tournaments and they are the ones that foot the entry fees. These parents aren’t afraid to tell us how poorly we are running this tour, however we never seem to get their cooperation when it comes to volunteering in helping to run a tournament.
We have stated this time and time again over the years. One of the reasons we felt the tour was so successful is that except for lineage every penny of your entry fee goes back into scholarship money. Over the years we (Tour Directors) have not only donated time and effort in setting up, running and doing the paperwork for the tour but we’ve also donated literally thousands of dollars each year to make sure that we can pay down to 8 places in each category and make it worthwhile for you the bowlers to show up at IYSBT events. Add into the mix the recession has hurt our own bowling center hard and we need to concentrate our efforts more and more on keeping our business profitable.
With all of the above in mind we have made the following decisions. After the 2009/2010 IYSBT Season is completed we will be making some major changes.
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1.The tour will no longer be a “Youth” tour but rather an “Open” tour where bowlers of all ages can compete. This was a tough decision to make, however it was the age rule that we were experimenting with this season that caused the most headaches we encountered. Youth bowlers will still be able to participate in our events by accepting the rule 400 clause and taking SMART Fund Scholarship Money.
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2.We will be dropping back to 11-15 events and removing the Illinois locations from the tour. The number of events and locations will be determined in the next few months.
The rest of the 2009/2010 season will go on as scheduled with the exception of the 2 TBD dates (March 14th & April 18th). These 2 dates will be held at Thunderbird Lanes as “Open Style” events. Basically a preview for what the tour will be like next season. Points accumulated by IYSBT members at these 2 events will be included in the Season Point Standings. Also these 2 events will count towards earning a spot at the IYSBT Year End event.
Any memberships for the IYSBT that carry over into next season will be valid for the new tour.
Effective immediately we will be implementing the following changes for the rest of the 2009/2010 season.
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1.If we have 20 or more bowlers in a division we will cut to 8 for match play as we have in the past however should we have less than 20 bowlers in a division the cut for Match Play will be as follows:
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•13 - 19 bowlers cut to top 6 bowlers
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•5 - 12 bowlers cut to top 4 bowlers
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2. Due to the participation level we will be capping the number of bowlers to 64 (16 lanes / 4 bowlers per lane) for the rest of the 2009/2010 events. Should we reach 40 bowlers signed up for an event 2 weeks or earlier for an event we will then notify the center we will be needing 24 lanes or 96 bowlers. Also should a bowler sign up for an event and then not show up without notifying us prior to the start of the event we will no longer reserve a spot for that person for the rest of the season unless that person pre-pays for an upcoming event.
It has been a wonderful 8 years working with youth bowlers, however changes are inevitable and it is time for us to move on and make the changes that we feel are needed. To everyone who have been so supportive over the years we want to thank you so much for the help and memories.
Luise Lesser / Todd Apfel
