Two East Coast and two Nevada teens look the lead in their respective divisions as the
14th annual Teen Masters got underway at the National Bowling Stadium Sunday.
Zack Hattori, 17, of Las Vegas and
Thea Aspiras, 18, of Chesapeake, Va., led the boys and gilrs High School divison, while
Jeffrey Juarez, 14, East Meadow, N.Y., and
Chevelle Holstein, 14, Sparks, Nev., took the lead in the boys and girls Under 14 division. Qualifying in the Teen Masters continues Monday with a second six-game round on a short oil condition for all players.
Bowlingdigital.com has uploaded 10-minute High Definition video summaries of the 2010 Men's World Championships Singles and Doubles title matches onto YouTube. All subscribers of our YouTube channel have already received the message. Bowlingdigital has now uploaded 136 videos from 17 events. To go straight to our YouTube account click 
Dexter Bowling and the United States Bowling Congress have agreed on a partnership that will keep Dexter as the exclusive title sponsor of the USBC High School All-American Team. The three-year agreement also includes Dexter's sponsorship of the USBC Coach/Player Luncheon at the Intercollegiate Team Championships. Dexter has been the official sponsor of the USBC High School All-American Team since 2005-06. Dexter Bowling also will sponsor the USBC Coach/Player Luncheon at the ITC.
Coaches from 25 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) bowling programs visited the International Training and Research Center over the weekend to learn from Team USA coaches how to improve player performance. The inaugural National Tenpin Coaches Association NCAA Coaches Forum brought together 33 head coaches and assistant coaches from across the country. Training included equipment analysis and management, lane maintenance pattern analysis and competition management.
Helen Duval (pictured), a United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer, passed away Thursday, July 29. She was 94. She became one of the pioneers of women's bowling, and was a founding member
of the women's professional bowling movement in 1959. She won two
professional titles during her career. She was inducted into WIBC (now USBC) Hall of Fame for Superior
Performance in 1970, and was inducted into the Ladies Professional
Bowlers Tour Hall of Fame in 1995. In 1996 she was inducted into the
Senior Athletes Hall of Fame.
Darlene Baker (pictured left) of Mahomet, Ill., officially began her term as the first female president in the history of the United States Bowling Congress on Sunday, Aug. 1. Baker served as president-elect on the USBC Board of Directors in 2009-10. She has been working with outgoing president Jeff Bojé (right) on the direction of USBC and expects a seamless transition. The USBC Board also has four new directors for 2010-11.
Two bowlers who upset top seeds are among the survivors after Wednesday's high school division Round of 8 match play in the 14th annual Teen Masters at the National Bowling Stadium. Four surviving boys and girls in their respective high school divisions along with the two surviving boys and girls in the 14-under divisions will bowl the concluding head-to-head single-elimination matches Thursday.
Top seed Kristopher Prather (l.) of Milton, Fla., went 4-0 in his best-of-seven-game match Tuesday to join 15 others who advanced to the Round of 16 of the boys high school division in the Teen Masters at the National Bowling Stadium. In the Girls High School division, Thea Aspiras (r.) of Chesapeake,
Va., held on to her qualifying lead after 18 games and will be the top
seeded player in her division when match play competition gets underway Wednesday.
The 2010 USBC Youth Open wrapped up this weekend and the team title went to an all-girls team. More than 2,000 youth bowlers participated in the USBC Youth Open, sponsored by Pepsi, which was held at Expo Bowl in Indianapolis, Ind. The non-qualifying tournament is patterned after the USBC Open Championships and USBC Women’s Championships. Youth bowlers competed in team (four players), doubles, singles and all-events during the 11 days of competition.
USBC Coaching will launch a new program early next year to re-certify coaches and also will begin a requisite continuing education program to keep bowling coaches up to date on the latest technology and coaching techniques. The program will require USBC Gold, Silver and Bronze coaches who were certified prior to Jan. 1, 2006 to take an online certification test by Aug. 1, 2011 to maintain their status. Level I coaches do not have to be re-certified.
The United States Bowling Congress will bring an international touch to the sport this fall with the launch of Team USA Experience leagues, a new Sport Bowling option that will allow bowlers to test their skills on the lanes. Team USA Experience leagues were developed to give bowlers the opportunity to compete on the same challenging lane conditions that members of Team USA face when competing against the top players in the world at international competitions. Each of the 12 patterns is named after an Olympic host city.
Honor scores are not exactly heart-pounding moments to Mike Norris Jr. (pictured). For the Melvindale, Mich., bowler, it usually is more like a been-there-done-that moment. But despite 98 certified USBC honor scores, including 24 800s and 51 300s, the 33-year-old entered Sunnybrook Lanes for his Wednesday night league on June 30 still chasing his first 800 series and 300 game on Sport conditions. A few hours later, he had both. And he had something else as well: the three-game Sport Bowling series record.
Marshall Kent (pictured left) of Yakima, Wash., and Brittni Hamilton (right) of Webster, N.Y., won national titles Friday, claiming the top spots at the 2010 USBC Junior Gold Championships presented by Brunswick. Kent won the title by defeating Matthew Gasn of Laurel, Md., 269-265 in the final game of match play.
Hamilton ran away with the title, winning by nearly 250 pins. The top four boys and top four girls earned
automatic spots on Junior Team USA 2011. 
Jacob Kent and Brittni Hamilton (r-l) lead the 2010 USBC Junior Gold Championships presented by Brunswick heading into Friday's final round. Kent paced the boys with a 30-game total of 6,412, an average of 213.7, while Hamilton took the top spot on the girls side with 6,240, an average of 208. The week started with 982 boys and 521 girls competing for $125,000 in scholarships. Just 16 boys and 16 girls remain headed into Friday's match-play finals.
Thanks to the generosity of a former bowling great, the movie theater at the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame will have a new name. The newly-created theater will be renamed the Junior Powell Movie Theater after a Platinum level donation by the estate of the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer. The estate joins Brunswick Bowling as IBM/HF Platinum level charter members. The capital campaign, which has generated more than $1 million, closes Aug. 31 when the construction of the
recognition begins.
Jacob Kent (pictured) of Newark, N.Y., wants to make a name for himself as a bowler instead of being known as the son of a former professional bowling star. After the way he started the 2010 United States Bowling Congress Junior Gold Championships, his new identity is already taking hold. Kent put together a massive six-game block of 1,480, an average of 246.6, on Monday to kick off the tournament and followed it with 1,210 Tuesday for a 12-game total of 2,690. He will conclude qualifying Wednesday at Woodland Bowl.
For the first time in history, the United States Bowling Congress will bring the USBC Open and Women's Championships to the same city simultaneously when Reno, Nev., hosts both events in 2013 and 2014. Plans call for the Open Championships to be held in the National Bowling Stadium, while the Women's Championships will take place in a custom-built arena inside the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. USBC plans to develop additional events that will coincide with the two
main tournaments in Reno. 
With a little help from the Black Eyed Peas, Addileen Pointer (pictured) of Highland, Mich., put together a big opening block Monday at the 2010 USBC Junior Gold Championships presented by Brunswick. Pointer, 20, shot 1,321 for six games, an average of 220.1, on the opening squad at Woodland Bowl. More than 1,600 of the top youth bowlers in the nation began their quest for $125,000 in scholarships Monday.