The completion of the State Tournament in Mandan, ND marks the end of the bowling season for many. While some bowlers still have a trip to a USBC National Event in the near future, most bowlers have packed it in for the year with thoughts of the lakes and summertime fun with friends.
Since starting NDBowling.com in 2012, I have taken a moment at the completion of each season to gather my thoughts about state of bowling in North Dakota and the most recent season in particular. I feel as though my thought of bowling in North Dakota is pretty accurate. Aside from running NDBowling.com, I attend and compete in 90% of events in the area. Here are my thoughts on the 2014-2015 season:
1 – NDBowlTV will make NDBowling.com relevant outside of North Dakota
In its first full season, NDBowlTV was an instant hit. Despite being in its most basic state, the High Plains Bowling Network received high praise for its coverage of some of the regions’ biggest events. NDBowlTV has allowed friends and family members of bowlers to tune into the North Dakota bowling scene from all over the world.
NDBowlTV has also gathered the attention of a national bowling company. Ebonite signed on with NDBowlTV in early March to be the official bowling ball sponsor of the network in 2015-2016. I am excited to work with Ebonite, and I am sure bowlers and fans of NDBowlTV will enjoy the shows next season.
As I look forward to next season, I am excited to not only improve the NDBowlTV experience, but also showcase some of the best bowlers around. I truly believe that NDBowlTV will make the NDBowling.com brand relevant outside of North Dakota. I would like to thank all those out there who have contributed to NDBowling.com in the past 3 years. NDBowlTV is the result of your kind contributions and without all of you, this would not be possible.
2 – 2014-2015 was a big year for the NDBowling.com Majors
As NDBowling.com continues to grow, the focus on and desire to win NDBowling.com Major Championships continues to grow among bowlers in the region as well. In my time spent at each event this season, I have heard tournament directors, bowlers, family members, and proprietors refer to their events as Majors. I expect entries at these events to continue to grow over the next few years as the desire to win them increases.
This season provided many exciting moments that we may never see again. Michael Schmidt won an unprecedented 6th Manitoba Open Title to extend his NDBowling.com Majors record to 7. Scott Endersbe recorded the first 300 game on NDBowlTV at the CMA Memorial Shootout. Eric Parvey became the first bowler to win 3 separate NDBowling.com Majors with his victory at the NDBowling.com Classic. Matt Smallin joined 10 other bowlers with 3 or more Major Championships following his win at the KFYR TV Bowling Classic. Clayton Mohr won his first Major at the CMA Memorial Shootout and claimed the top seed in all 3 Major Finals that he participated in this season (Manitoba, CMA, KFYR). I am excited for the 2015-2016 season and what it could bring to the NDBowling.com Major Championships.
3 – I wish bowling had a more defined difficulty scale
We have all heard it before, and we have all done it before as well. Bowler “A” goes to a tournament and shoots lights out. Immediately, those who didn’t bowl pick apart the accomplishment by saying the shot was too easy, the bowler is left handed, ect. It happens quite a bit on the PBA Tour as well, most notably at this seasons TOC.
I just wish bowling had a better way for bowlers and fans of bowling to understand the difficulty level of a given tournament condition. Just because the scores are high, doesn’t mean its because the condition is easy. I think having a better system of determining the difficulty of lane conditions would go a long way in appreciating the skill level of bowlers out there. Lets say it was determined that the tournament condition was a difficulty level near US Open standards and that particular level was understood by bowlers and fans of bowling as to how difficult it is to score on. Now, lets say that Bowler “A” once again shoots lights out. Would we make up excuses as to why he/she did? Or would we appreciate how good the performance was? I personally feel like appreciating the highly skilled in our sport will help the overall well being and perception of bowling. Instead of complaining about high scores and making up excuses as to why certain people bowled well, we will instead appreciate those who perform well because we have the understanding as to what is good as opposed to what is lucky.
4 – Several bowlers bowled tournaments for the first time this season
I just want to give a big shout out to all the bowlers who took the jump and bowled a tournament for the first time this season. Bowling tournaments will help a bowler understand where their game needs to be in order to compete. The knowledge gained through bowling tournaments is the most useful when it comes to improving your game. I encourage all bowlers to either continue bowling tournaments or bowl an event you normally don’t bowl. Also, try to encourage others to bowl more tournaments or at least try a certain event. Help grow the sport with NDBowling.com!
Tune in next week as we reveal the final NDBowling.com Scratch Rankings for the 2014-2015 season. We will also reveal the final NDBowling.com Tour standings and award the player and team of the year winners!
Daren Seney | NDBowling.com