JG Wrap up!

What a perfect idea. There is around 3 hours left on the drive back home, so why not write my JG wrap up to pass the time.

First of all, as I am sure all of you have already seen the results, I would like to send a congratulations to Gary Faulkner, Andrew Koff, Zach Hattori, AJ Chapman, and Tyler Vostry for making 2012 Junior Team USA. I would also like to extend a bigger congrats to my friend Marshall Kent for making it on the team for the second year in a row. These bowlers showed exactly why they should be on the team with their bowling during the week and each one deserves the spot.

So, onto my view of my performance, along with general commentary. There is not much to say about qualifying. 18 games on three different patterns. Long, Medium and short. I went +34 on long, +206 on short, and then +105 on medium. I was pleasantly surprised at my performance on medium, as last year it was my worst. The long played much harder this year than it did last year. The short played like a short. One thing I noticed, especially on the short pattern, is that there were a lot of bowlers who had no clue where to play. Im not talking about not bowling well, just flat out play the wrong part of the lane. I saw a fair amount of bowlers playing in the middle with sanded equipment, even when they saw people scoring up the corner. I have a hard time believing that these players have never encountered a pattern like this. Especially with all this promotion of PBA leagues and the ability to acquire Kegel patterns online. Are we up here just fortunate to bowl on hard stuff a lot?

Anyway, onto semi finals. I was leading after qualifying, which was a good and bad place to be. I felt I added a little extra pressure on myself as I thought there would be more people watching our pair than others. But being the leader by nearly 100 pins helped me relax about how I was bowling. The first 6 game block did not go well, but I was able to push myself up to +6 and sit calmly in 5th or so. There were some high sets by a few people around me, so I was caught by a few. The second block, I was able to focus and bowl probably the best set the entire week. I got lined up and never really lost it. Along with bowling better, the bowlers who bowled well last block, seemed to drop to low + and even minus. This also helped as I saw myself climb back up the standings. I ended up going +182 that block, which boosted me back up to 2nd place going into matchplay.

It would be long and boring to explain matchplay, so ill try to give a brief summary of what went down. The first 8 games, I felt I bowled alright. Never really got into a rhythm, but never bowled bad and ended around the top 5 going into the break. I felt I really needed to lock down and bowl well my second block. I started well, shooting 220 the first game, but getting crushed by a 250. Next game I could’ve shot a 250, but ended with a 7-10 in the tenth for a 230. The next couple games we filled with frustration and that lead to a lost focus, causing me to miss a spare and blow count on some splits. Eventually, I took a minute between shots just to collect myself, get my mind back in the game, then saved a 190 out of a game that was looking like a 160. After that renewed sense of achievement, I then proceeded to shoot 230 and then 220, winning both, to vault me all the way back up to 2nd for the final game. Unfortunately, 2-7 were all within each other by about 40 pins. And if things couldn’t get worse, I had to bowl Marshall the final game.
About midway through the game, I had the edge. After that point, it came down to whoever won this game would finish in the top 4 and the loser in 5th. I ended up splitting on a double. Marshall went up and threw three in a row. After sparing out for a 189, Marshall need high count to win the game and get 3rd. To make things interesting, not on purpose of course, he split in the tenth. After some quick calculations, he need to get the count to shutout, which he did. So then that was it. I finished 5th for $3000 and felt like I bowled great to put myself up there.

After the game, I felt like I was swarmed by all my fellow bowlers and friends congratulating me on my bowling this week. Being that it was my last youth tournament, It was a great feeling. My goal going into this tournament was to win and show the country what I can do on the lanes. I was able to accomplish half the goal, which was just fine with me. I felt like my finale was just what I wanted.

As for the Junior Team USA part, im sort of indifferent. I decided not to worry about as a trick to help keep unwanted pressure off myself. But don’t get me wrong, I wanted to make team just as much as anyone else, but it wasn’t something that was on my mind during the bowling. To the contrary of the thinking of everyone else in the bowling circle, I ended up not getting the at large bid to the team. I was a little disappointed, as I bowled well all week, but as I said earlier, I was very happy with what I did out there on the lanes and took home a cool $3000. The two that did get picked deserved it as well, you cant take anything away from both of those bowlers. I knew going into the tournament, that I wasn’t going to get picked, so I had to make the top 4, which I didn’t. I cant change it now. I just have to move on to adult bowling and the much anticipated collegiant circuit.

Overall, this was best two weeks of my youth career. How poetic it would happen at the very end of my career as well. Im going home with $5000 in scholarship, a 300 game in competition, and the best bowled JG of my life. This is the way I wanted to go out.

Id like to extend a thanks to everyone who supported me during the last two weeks, Ty Treddenbarger for our brief, yet insightful coaching sessions, Pat Johns for drilling those ever important bowling balls, and of course my two parents, Jeff and Jill, for taking most of the flak of my rage and of course all the costs of the trips 

-Cameron
“I type like I talk, unstructured and bad spelling”

Im still here

Greetings! As you can tell, Perry and i have been slacking. But Perry did get his JG recap up so thats a plus.

Just a quick update. I have my JG recap all written out, which includes the Las Vegas Open as well. However, its on my laptop and ive been too lazy to post it. Hopefully i can conjure the strength to go upstairs and post it tomorrow...


Also, i have now started into adult ranks of bowling. My first experience of some of the bullshit came at the Kenmore Memorial Swiss. I bowled with my best friend, Sam Neves, and this guy named Chris Pierce. It was a handicap tournament and to my suprise they had me at 194, so 26 pins on my side... However, there were complaints and i got rerated...saying that im averaging 215 in the summer PBA league, so what. The rule was 09-10 book. Whatever, they rerated me to about 210 which was fine with me. We didnt do so well....i entered in some brackets, but unfortunately shot 200's when the pace was 250. Overall a semi depressing showing as i wish i wouldve got some money from it. I guess there will be other times (like this weekend when i bowl another handicap tournament, greeeat.)

Congratulations, however, to Josh Jackson and Sarah Boe, some good friends ive known for a while and bowled against plently of times. They, along with RJ Boe, won the swiss....way to go guys (and girl :) )

Anyway, ill have that JG recap up soon.... stay tuned and thanks again for your time and hope you continue to stay with us as we move on to bigger, possibly better, things.

-cameron

Junior Gold recap

Well junior gold has come and gone, and i better start off saying congrats to everyone who made the team, and especially to my good friend Marshall Kent.

After bringing down 9 balls to choose from, i had to pick my six

I ended up choosing:

Outburst

Eruption

Tropical Heat

Victory Road

Avalanche Solid

T Zone

Day 1:

We bowled on the WTBA Mexico City, it is 45ft long pattern. I started out with the outburst and started stringing. had a good first 3 games then missed a trasition and missed a ball change and absolutely had a bad game. Strange enough though, everyone had a bad game 4 which was really surprising.. anyways then i switched to my victory road with a light surface to smooth out the breakpoint, It worked but wasn't the magic touch going 183 and 183 to close out the set. finished 39 under for the block.

Day 2:

We bowled on the WTBA Los Angeles, 36 ft pattern. I started out right of 5 and used my tropical heat with 2000 surface to smooth out the backend and let it roll. It worked out great starting plus for the first 2 games then once again missed a ball change. then i made a change to the avalanche solid with 4000 surface so it didnt have the snap on the back end and ended up being a great ball choice going the front 8 the next game only to almost 7 9 in the ninth and leave the 7 pin then the next shot almost pocket 7 10.... lol then i went even the next 2 games so i finished 60 over for the block.

Day 3:

We bowled on the WTBA Seoul, 39 ft pattern, started off with the tropical heat, i was getting to the pocket but i wasn't getting the carry then made a ball change to the victory road and started shooting better then it got really wierd for me, balled down to the eruption then game 6 i had to go back because i got into so crazy over under reaction... i finished 49 under but it could of been worse so i am happy.

Day 4:

I qualified 76th of 145 bowlers who made cut which was a improvement for me since i was the cut last year.

WTBA Tokyo 43ft pattern

Block 1:

Started with the Outburst and stayed with it the whole 6 games. . I struggled the first 3 games then pulled my head out of my ass and finished the last 3 games really strong and finished 60 over i believe.

Block 2:

I had the same game plan but a little different starting point, it didnt work. i couldnt catch a break in game 1 then game 2 it was better, actually went plus but then the bad breaks came back to haunt me, then i made a ball change and it worked. all those pins i gained in the first block, i gave back in the second block which is frustrating...

but i moved up the leader board and finished 53rd.

Now to talk about the finals, i missed the first block and watched the final games of the final block. there is some great bowling the last 3 games that i watched. it was some clutch bowling and some good emotions.

congrats to the winners and the people who were in the top 4, that got automatic spots.

the committee got to pick 2 other bowlers from the field of 16, which fellow torched lane blogger Cameron Weier was in.

Cameron had the tournament of his life, never dropping out of the top 5 through the 3 days of qualifying and through semis and so on. he was even leading after day 2. but he was 5th after the finals which didn't get him an automatic spot on team USA and was an at large pick same for the 11 bowlers.

I thought for sure that Cameron was gonna get picked for the team, and how can he not get picked for the team after a tournament like he had during the week. but i guess the United States stops in the midwest because no one from the west coast gets any credit. and cameron didnt get picked for the team which was shocking to everyone. but this isnt the first time the committee passed up great talent, Greg Geering also got passed up last January at the Team USA Trials... its just a shame to see these two great talents and bowlers i would want representing my country not make the team. and by all means no disrespect to the other bowlers, they deserve it too but no one deserves it more then these 2 bowlers..

You don't have basketball without Michael Jordan, You don't have baseball without Babe Ruth, you don't have football without Jerry Rice. you don't have boxing without Muhammad Ali. you don't have hockey without Wayne Gretzky. and YOU don't have Team USA without Cameron Weier and Greg Geering..

A Vegas update: among other things.

Well, it has been i think almost three weeks since my last posting. At that time i was previewing JWTC. That has come and gone along with another tournament as well. I would usually put a tournament preview in here but seeing as i havent yet updated anyone about JWTC, ill just make a mish-mash post including JWTC, Las Vegas Open, and Junior Gold.

Ill start with a quick recap of what went down during JWTC. As i am sure everyone has read Perry's tournament recap, we all know he and his team finished up in third place. A very well bowled tournament for the whole team. They all worked well together and it was fun to watch. A third place showing against the best teams is not a bad thing at all.

My weekend did not go as well. I think Perry did mention something about me going more in depth aboout the sweepers, so ill do that. The sweepers were the first event for the tournament. We bowled on i think it was Route 66, which is a looong pattern. I ended up slow hooking my 715t for the first 2 games and had good success. Unfortunately, i finished poorly and missed cash by about 20-30 pins. Although my good friend Tanner Spacey did end up winning that squad so a big congrats to him.

I bowled the survivor doubles with Jared McNeal, and we had a good time. However the results just werent there as we ended up missing cut. not much more to say about that. It was on short, but i couldnt get a good luck anywhere i played. I ended up throwing that seismic aftermath pearl and it worked ok. Not overly impressed with that ball but thats another entry for another time.

My team event was a blast. Got to bowl with my homies Tyler and Marshall, as well as Jordan Yoke and Kyle Berry. We all bowled decent, but never really got into a rhythm. It was an adventure as well were the last team into the cut to semis. And it just got worse from there. I took us 2 matches before we finally won a game and i think we only won about 3 sets total during semis. Like i said, we didnt bowl bad, just never found a rhythm and never strung anything.

All in all, it was another very fun and nonetheless interesting weekend on and off the lanes. I look forward to going back next year.



The Las Vegas Open recently wrapped up here yesterday (friday). This tournament is run by the folks who run the east coast JBT tournaments. This year was actually only my second time bowling it. We bowled two 6-game qualifying blocks, then a cut, then 8 games of super matchplay, then a modified bracket-stepladder. Super matchplay is where you bowl everyone else in the field every game. You get 10 pins bonus for every person that you beat. So since there was 30 bowlers, there was a max of 290 per game. This lead to insane +numbers.

I had a curious qualifying. Scores were very high. We bowled on a pattern that, well, was pretty easy. you had hold to the left. Almost unlimited. There wasnt too much recovery to the right, but you just had to keep it in the middle somewhere and it hit pocket. Anyway, I ended up throwing a 300 game 11, which then put me +430 for the 11 games so far. Of course, i go on and shoot a 149 my final game to pretty much ruin a very well bowled 12 games. But, still ended up 6th with some buffer room. During the match play i think i average right around 240 for the 8 games. That, along with the crazy bonus, put my into the lead going into the finals.

I received a bye through the first round. to move on, the higher seed only needed one win but the lower seed needed to win twice. I was able to get through Jake Peters in one game and then snuck by Marshall in 2 games. Now i was only 1 win away from the title and $4000 on top. Was i nervous? of course i was. I think this was the most money ive bowled for before in a title match. I know i bowled Zach Hattori in the TPC afew years back for 2k on top. He was like 15 at the time. Now in this title match i was bowling Kamron Doyle, who himself is only like 13.

Anyway, he crushed me the first game, and it looked to be a blowout in the second. With nothing to lose, as all i was doing was leaving spares, i made the call and switched to my HyRoad and strung the next four strikes after two spares. Doyle ends up sparing twice and i all of a sudden had the chance to take the lead and put a lot of pressure on. The next shot was probably the most important of my entire career so far, and i got fast. The ball went too far down the lane and i left a flat 10. I again had a chance to actually lock it up this time, needing to double in the tenth. My first shot i pulled a lot. It pushed but not enough, leaving the 4-pin. Spared, struck. Doyle went up and buried two shots for the win.

That ten pin that i left will probably be in my mind for a while. Not because i didnt carry or anything, but because i didnt make the best shot for that situation. I dont really care about that 4-pin, cause that ten pin was such a pivotal part of the match. I had my chances to put the match away and didnt do it. Whatever, i have a couple days to rest my mind and then get right back into the grind for JG. (ive lost a total of $3000 to a combined age of 28.)

I threw my Outburst and 505t first 6 qualifying. AZO Area for the next 6 and the 8 of matchplay (300 ball.) Threw Area and HyRoad in finals.


Just a quick note, i bowled this scholarship shootout thing at sams town last night and went +70 on the 3 patterns from last years JG. I wont know final results until monday sometime.


Ill Talk about Junior Gold another time. Until then, thanks for reading and have a nice afternoon....i know i will.

-Cameron

Junior Gold Preview

So Junior Gold starts up on monday, and I would do a preview into my prepartion and mindset going into JOG.

Ball Choices: I'm driving to Las Vegas, so since I don't have to worry about airline fees, I decided I would bring 8 balls plus a spare ball to choose from. We are only allowed 6 balls for competition, and i have 3 of those spots for sure filled up, with that being said, My Outburst, Victory Road and spare ball are a for sure lock into the lineup. I have 3 other spots to fill in the lineup between, the eruption, 2fast, avalanche, natural, wicked siege and some other ball i can't remember what else i brought. I am thinking about throwing the eruption into the lineup as a benchmark ball, and something that is gonna be versitale when i need it.

I really don't want to put my natural in the lineup, unless i have an amazing look with it at practice but the avalanche is something i could use on short.

as the week progresses and practice concludes i will post my lineup right here.

My mind set going into this set is not worry about where i am at in the standings and just go out and do my thing and bowl well. one game at a time and continue to string sets together and be happy with it.

I have made some small changes in my game, i moved up a little on the approach to slow my feet down and keep my timing.

also, I freed up my backswing and letting the ball come down instead of pulling it through. everything seems to be working but we will see when competition starts

sorry this is a short post, i m exhausted and can barely think to myself what i should be saying. look for the recap to JOG. have a good one.

"snap it. pull that string"