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”