Youth Bowling

NYS Youth Leaders
Officers for 2013-14

President — Nicole Cioni, Ulster Park, nicole.cioni@gmail.com

1st Vice President — Daniel Passonno, Watervliet, dpassonno@yahoo.com

2nd Vice President — to be appointed

Secretary-Treasurer — Kim Black, Troy, kim.black1995@gmail.com

Sergeant-at-Arms — Lawrence Lang, Rhinebeck, ltrainranger@aol.com

Advisor — Judith Phillips, Kingston, grandma0831@aol.com

Advisor — Nancy Howell, Kingston, nhowell1212@gmail.com

CERTIFICATES TO REPLACE PATCHES
AS USBC YOUTH GAME AND SERIES AWARDS IN FALL 2013

APRIL 2, 2013 -- In an effort to provide products and services of value and use to members, the USBC Youth Committee is making a change to special achievement youth awards. Special achievement awards are currently patches recognizing game and series score milestones. Feedback from youth leaders indicate recognition is important for young bowlers, but the patches currently being awarded are not being used. Therefore, starting in the 2013-14 season, USBC National will discontinue sending patches for score recognition to associations and centers as part of a membership kit. The league awards and association champion awards will remain part of the kit.

USBC Youth no longer will set requirements for special achievement awards at the national level. Moving forward, local processors have the freedom to create awards programs to best fit their bowlers. This change is similar to policy recently announced for USBC adult membership; however, the youth change goes into effect in fall 2013, while the adult change takes place in fall 2014.

In order to provide youth leaders a turnkey award program for young bowlers, USBC will offer printable special achievement awards certificates at no cost through the online Youth Resource Center. Click here to go to the Youth Resource Center and see the new certificates, which can allow local youth leaders to instantly recognize a young bowler. Use the password youth (all lowercase). Once you are in the Youth Resource Center, click on the USBC tab and then click on awards.

For youth programs that wish to continue offering patches, the current patches will be made available for purchase at a cost of 40 cents ($.40) each. Again, there is no requirement to continue offering these awards or to use the current achievement requirements. Local organizers have the freedom to do what they feel is best for their area. Click here for order forms.

High score awards such as rings, plaques and trophies for 300 games, 800 series and 11-in-a-row are not affected by this change. Sport Bowling awards also are not affected.

The IBC Youth staff is working to make the transition as smooth as possible. We realize there will be questions about the change, so in conjunction with youth organizers on the USBC Board, we have answered some anticipated questions. Click here for Frequently Asked Questions.

WHY THE YOUTH AWARDS ARE CHANGING

The USBC Youth Committee, in conjunction with staff, is working on a dynamically new membership product for the 2014-15 season. As part of this project, associations and bowling center operators provided feedback about awards. Both groups overwhelmingly believe some type of awards are valuable, and both agreed patches are not being worn or displayed by a majority of the youth bowlers today.

Rather than continue to spend more than $100,000 annually on a patch recognition system, the USBC Youth Committee decided to make a change as soon as possible and direct the savings toward future programs.

Since its creation, the International Bowling Campus Youth Development team has made some strides to stabilize youth bowling. For the 2012-13 season, youth membership is tracking to show growth for the first time in many seasons. One of the ways this was accomplished was by offering a free membership product this past year as part of the "8 for 8" promotion. More than 6,000 young bowlers participated in the promotion with 92 percent being new bowlers.

There are reasons for optimism, but the efforts to grow youth bowling have an expense. The current one-size-fits-all awards model does not meet the needs of youth bowlers and is not a wise financial model for the future. The USBC Youth Committee believes it makes more sense to adjust the awards program rather than increase prices to fund patches often left behind in the settee area.

This change is approved by the USBC Youth Committee and the USBC Board of Directors. A workshop is planned for the 2013 USBC Convention to provide additional details. USBC staff will be reaching out to more youth program leaders in the coming months for input so together we can work toward making this a positive change for our youth bowlers.

Instructions to Replace Youth Jersey

OCTOBER 30, 2012 -- Here are instructions for both missing, damaged or jersey exchanges:

1. Please verify the contents with what is listed on the packing slip.

2. If you are missing items listed on this invoice or have DAMAGED items to be replaced, contact 866-602-8398 ext 111 or via email at info@parsonkellog.com

3. If you need to exchange jerseys for different sizes, please send the jerseys you want to return to the following address:

IBC Youth Jersey Exchange

621 Six Flags Drive

Arlington, TX  76011

Include a list of the sizes you need and where you would like them shipped.

USBC Junior Gold Competition
Doesn’t Violate NYSPHSAA Rules

FEBRUARY 17, 2012 – Reacting to questions about amateur status and participation in USBC youth tournaments, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association has issued an interpretation that during the 2011-12 school year, participation in a USBC North Point Junior Gold Qualifier and/or qualifying for and participating in the USBC North Pointe Junior Gold Championship will not violate the NYSPHSAA Amateur Rule.

The NYSPHSAA rule states, in part, that a student athlete forfeits his or her amateur status in a sport by “competing for money or other compensation (allowable travel, meals, and lodging expenses may be accepted)”. With this interpretation, the NYSPHSAA is saying that USBC Junior Gold competition is permissible under its rules.

Representatives from NYSPHSAA and USBC will be working together to ensure participation in these types of events will not violate high school eligibility rules and regulations.

USBC, BPAA Join Forces
to Create $250,000 Youth Event

ARLINGTON, Texas – The two largest youth scholarship tournaments in the nation have joined to develop an unprecedented opportunity for youth bowlers in the creation of the $250,000 North Pointe Junior Gold Championships presented by Brunswick.

The North Pointe Junior Gold Championships is made possible by the merger of the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Junior Gold Championships and the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America’s (BPAA) North Pointe High School Singles Championships into one event.

The new North Pointe Junior Gold Championships will feature some significant changes for the tournament and USBC Junior Gold membership including:

• USBC Junior Gold membership no longer will have a minimum average requirement
• The North Pointe Junior Gold Championships will have two age divisions – 20 and under, 15 and under – for both boys and girls.

“The creation of the North Pointe Junior Gold Championships is a remarkable example of bowling’s membership organizations and leading sponsors coming together to make a change that benefits the kids,” International Bowling Campus (IBC) Director of Youth Development Chad Murphy said. “We now have a significant event for children 15 and under, which is a critical development age, preserved the opportunities for older teens and opened the benefits of Junior Gold membership to all youth bowlers.”

North Pointe Insurance is the nation's largest insurer of independent bowling centers. In addition to its sponsorship of the Junior Gold Championships, North Pointe has made a multi-year commitment to the Youth Education Services (YES) Fund and will be recognized as a YES Fund founding partner.

The North Pointe Junior Gold Championships will continue to be open to youth bowlers who qualify throughout the season at regional Junior Gold events around country and will feature automatic bids to Junior Team USA as part of the competition. The event will be held in Indianapolis in July 2012, in conjunction with the USBC Youth Open.