Local Lads Light Up the Lanes at Wallenpaupack Bowling Center

This week, TWI Sports will take a close look at the junior leagues hosted by the Wallenpaupack Bowling Center.

Each Saturday, nearly a hundred youth bowlers from Wayne, Pike Counties, as well as New York State, flock to Paupack Lanes to compete in what, according to statistics, is America’s fastest growing participation sport.

One young man who has risen to the top of the local youth bowling arena is Kyle Blake.

A junior at Honesdale  High School, Blake has fired several 700 series this season, including his latest — a 706 series during last Saturday’s senior youth league.

Kyle is now averaging 203 which is the highest  for league at this point.

Another lad who has greatly improved over the past season is Michael Santos, also of Honesdale.

Santos is currently averaging 177 in the senior division and in the 190s in Anthracite Valley Youth Leader competition. 

Cheers to Pepsi
Last year, TWI Sports broke the story concerning Paupack Lanes’ hosting of the  District 8 Pepsi Championships.

Next month, hundreds of youth bowlers, parents, and spectators will travel to historic Hawley for a chance to advance, or see their child advance, to the state finals in Allentown.

The District 8 Championships is under the direction of Matt Tardona who is anxiously awaiting the tournament’s commencement.

This will be Wallenpaupack’s first time hosting the tournament. It is an honor bestowed upon them because they vend Pepsi products — opposed to some of the area’s larger centers which sell Coke products.

Perfect Start
AHA Enterprises, a team which, though surrounded by drama consistently finds a way to finish on top, began the second half of the 2009-10 campaign 27-0.

Heading into Friday’s match, which is also a position round, AHA will take on Tigue Auto.
AHA, led by their captain Ron Holewka, also referred to as "Casey Stengel" for his managerial quirks, is looking to capture its second league championship in the past three seasons.

Hilltop Haircare
This week, it is fair to make mention of the consistent effort given by Hilltop Haircare thus far this season.

Led by Kyle Blake, this junior-league team has the high scratch game and series all but secured and is also out-averaging every other team in the league by more than 130 pins. However, despite pulling off feats like every year, they never manage to make it to the top.

Despite averaging 737 — the equivalent of 184 per person — with no other team averaging more than 601, Hilltop Haircare has won only 13 points after 5 weeks in the second half.

This is because, in an attempt to even the playing fields, USBC and their team of highly skilled mathematicians, have reached a conclusion that 100% of the difference in the team’s average is the best handicap system to use.

To put it simply: USBC has concluded that it is just as easy for a bowler averaging 110 — an average which some in the senior division do, in fact, bear — to bowl 30 pins over his average as it is for a bowler averaging 200 (such as Blake), to bowl 30 pins over his average.

A 230 game requires at least a five-bagger — five consecutive strikes in a row with the rest of the frames consisting of high count-spares.

A 140-game requires about four marks (spares or strikes) with decent count on the other balls.

This week, Hilltop Haircare must give 301 pins to their opponents per game. To put this metaphorically, the team is allowing their opponents to bowl with two extra bowlers each averaging 150.

This handicap amount, although insanely elevated, is still relatively low compared to what the team has faced previously. The team has faced handicaps as high as 400.

The flipside to this is that the lesser-skilled or developed bowlers are able to compete amongst the higher averages.

There is no denying the delicacy of the issue, and neither side is completely out of line.

While it is frustrating to the high-averaging bowlers to consistently lose, the lower average teams can walk in each week knowing that, at the very least, they have a chance at winning.