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Bowling News USA - February 17, 2010 The Schlemer Report - PBA Tournament of Champions

First and foremost I would like to give a shout out to the service men and women in the United States military. To all those, retired or currently active - thank you for serving our country and protecting us.

It was yet another great visit with the participants of the annual Military Championship in Las Vegas at the Gold Coast. For the second consecutive year, Storm has arranged to have our staff show up for an autograph signing at this event. As you can see, in the following pictures, a great time was had by all. Military participants lined up for nearly two hours to talk with our staff and get their autographs. It is the least our staff could do to pay respect to those that are currently serving or have served in the armed forces.

 

 

 

The players truly enjoyed chatting with the participants and signing pictures to their family members and friends back home. We’re looking forward to this event again next year.

If you haven’t heard of the history made at the Tournament of Champions, then you must be living in a van down by the river or in a cave. The words “girl power” comes to mind when thinking about it. Anyway, Kelly Kulick pasted her name in the PBA record books for good. Although, a few years back it was fellow friend, competitor and Storm staffer Liz Johnson who started that movement. Liz became the first female to make a PBA telecast. Two years ago Kelly made another female first by becoming the first female to earn an exemption on the PBA tour. Now here we are in 2010 and she has just changed the sport forever by becoming the first female to win a PBA event. Not to mention it was a major event which giving her a two year exemption. Kudos to Kelly for her accomplishment. She is living proof that hard work and determination pay off.

As far as the lone representative of the Storm Nation, Rhino Page, if he made it through the first match he very well could have ran the ladder to the title. But, unfortunately that’s not how it played out. Throughout the week Rhino used a variety of balls. He used two different Invasions, a Virtual Energy, a Virtual Gravity, a Reign of Fire, a Second Dimension, a Dimension and a Hy-Road. Every round was a new adventure, just like the show. It was no surprise the TV show was going to be a little different. Those lanes sat dry all week, never a drop of oil applied to them until the morning of the show. So right away we knew one of two things were going to happen since Rhino was the only lefty and wasn’t going to get any help breaking the TV pair down. One, we figured since the TV pair had not been bowled on, there would be more friction than we had seen all week. Two, they would be slicker than cow spit and we would have to transition the lane as fast as possible. Well, let’s just say Rhino used three different balls that I applied 1000 Abralon® to by hand, twice each, in order to get his ball to read the lane remotely close to how he played them during the week. Rhino spent the first twelve minutes of his twenty minutes of practice using the heavily scuffed balls up the outside in order to break down the condition in the front part of the lane and to blend out the back end. In other words he accelerated the transition of the lane in order to play the lanes where he had played them all week and was comfortable. With two minutes to go before going LIVE, I handed him the pin up Reign of Fire he started the match with. It looked good; it was his best option at the time the show started. Unfortunately it didn’t last long. In the middle of the first game the lane transitioned again after coming off the commercial break. With the heat of the lights and the circulation of air, the oil continues to move around and transition even when there are no balls going down the lane picking the oil up and moving it around. After the Reign of Fire went through the face for a split, Rhino instantly changed to the Second Dimension as he had done all week when he saw his ball read the lane too early. But by then it was too late. The split created an open frame in which Rhino just couldn’t recover from. When was all said and done, Rhino was indeed a little disappointed, he is a natural born competitor. But he knows he did his best with what condition was given to him that day. Next time he sees that similar condition and situation, he will be faster to anticipate the ball change and hopefully avoid a costly open frame. But then again, who knows, maybe next time his opponent will be in worse shape and an open frame won’t be as critical. You just never know.

(Click below for Rhino Page in action at the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions)

http://www.youtube.com/user/StormBowlingBalls#p/u/11/z39YWK1ljrY

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February, 2010