Program looking to double in near future By JASON GALLIC TGI Sports Editor LIHU’E — It’s not a sport that gets a lot of recognition. Some may fob it off as a virtual non-sport, in fact. But bowling is cut
Program looking to double in near future
By JASON GALLIC
TGI Sports
Editor
LIHU’E — It’s not a sport that gets a lot of recognition.
Some
may fob it off as a virtual non-sport, in fact.
But bowling is cut in the
same mold as golf. Both require intelligence, high levels of concentration and
training.
And both have active junior programs on Kaua’i.
“We probably
have 30-40 kids,” Lihu’e Bowling Center manager Darryl Izumo said. “But, of
course, we’d like more. And we’re building toward that.”
But the process
has been slow. Izumo came to The Garden Island seven years ago to work at the
bowling center, having moved at the request of the owners. Two years ago, the
owners left, and Izumo assumed the role of Mr. Everything at the
center.
“We’ve kind of just been going steady for the past two years,”
Izumo said of all his programs. “But we’re starting to move things forward
now.”
With the junior program, Izumo gets a hearty helping of assistance
from Judy Peace. With duties doled, Izumo would like to see the junior program
double.
“Ideally, it would be great to see 100 kids in our program,” the
manager said. “But I’d be happy with 60 to 80.”
Izumo doesn’t see that as
an unattainable goal.
“We’ve got 12,000 public students on the island,” he
said, “and probably another 1,000 in private schools.
“That’s a pretty
large base to draw from.”
Kids ages 7-21 are eligible to participate in the
program, which runs on a weekly basis.
“Kids bowl three games a week,”
Izumo said. “There’s a $50 one-time registration fee, and then it’s $5 to bowl
a week, including shoes and 30 minutes of teaching after their games.”
One
of Izumo’s innovations, “which will be in place by the first of the year,” is a
scholarship program for junior participants.
“It’s likely going to work out
that what’s left over from that registration money will go into a kids
scholarship fund,” Izumo said. “And there may be some extra money in there,
too.
“If a kid starts with that when he or she is seven, then it’s a nice
sized check we could give a kid when they graduate high school or
whatever.”
In addition, the junior program is eligible to involve itself in
a multitude of tournaments. Junior tourneys will be held in November on the Big
Island and December on Oahu. February, April, May and July tournaments are
scheduled for 2001.
The April tourney, in fact, will offer bowlers a chance
to earn scholarship money.
“It’s the Coca-Cola Tournament,” Izumo said.
“There will be four categories, and each category’s winner will win scholarship
money, and be eligible to go to the national tournament on the
Mainland.”
And some talented bowlers do roll on the island. Izumo said that
three 300s (a perfect score) have been rolled in 2000. The most recent, on July
3, was tossed by 19-year-old Vance Akiyama.
And, in fact, Kaua’i sports a
bowler on the University of Nevada at Las Vegas’ women’s team. Robyn Ichimasa,
the current three-game series record holder (703) at Lihu’e Bowling Center,
walked on at UNLV. She now is getting $1,000 in scholarship money.
But just
coming up with bowlers has not been Izumo’s only problem. Finding those willing
to coach the younger generation, he said, has been a process.
“I’ve found
that you pretty much have to have a kid in the program to be willing to teach,”
Izumo said. “It’s a volunteer position.”
Izumo is a certified instructor,
and, in an eight-hour, in-house session, can sanction potential teachers to
coach 11 and unders. That is good for level-1 certification by the Young
American Bowling Alliance (YABA). After a year, coaches are eligible for
another course. Successful completion of that warrants them to teach those 12
and up.
“I’d love to have avid bowlers come in and say they want to coach,”
Izumo said. “But I’d just assume have a person in here who is fired up about
helping young people.”
