Four Yukoners to compete at annual bowling nationals

Photo by Jon Molson

Four of the Yukon’s top youth bowlers will be in fine company this weekend as they represent the territory at the Youth Bowling Canada National Five Pin Championships in Edmonton.

The championships will begin on Saturday and will feature tough competition from coast to coast for the three-day competition.

“This is a huge event,” said the team’s co-coach Wayne Beauchemin.

“We are going to be in a bowling alley that has over 30 lanes in it. It’s quite an atmosphere, that’s a lot different than anything they have experienced here.”

The championships will include both singles and team competition.

There are two separate categories for males and females at the event, which has three age categories for both individual and team competition.

The age categories are bantam, junior and senior. Bantams are players who can be as old as 10 years, while juniors are bowlers who are 11 to 13 years old.

Competitors in the seniors’ category can be between the ages of 14 to 19 years old.

In 2007, the Yukon was able to send a full roster in the boys’ and girls’ to compete in the singles event, but this year the team is missing one bantam boy and one junior girl.

The 2008 team is comprised of Bantam player Olivia Smith, 10, junior Matthew Mendham-Rudniski, 13, and seniors Nicole Thompson, 16, and Craig Beauchemin, who is also 16 years old.

All of the competitors with the exception of Mendham-Rudniski have prior experience competing at the youth nationals. The other coach on the team is Kevin Murphy.

Qualifications for Team Yukon were held back in January and consisted of a nine game point total, in regard to the bowling scores.

Bowlers had five weeks to complete the nine game qualification requirement.

Only one male and female player for each age category could be selected to attend the nationals.

Each game was played in league competition at Mad Trapper Bowling Lanes, located at 95 Lewes Blvd. The different league play at the bowling alley includes youth, adult and senior competition.

There is no playoff round at the bowling championships. Instead, each participant will compete in a double round robin format, which involves each province and territory playing one another other twice.

A total of 24 games will be played over the three days of competition, including six games on Saturday, 12 on Sunday and six on Monday.

Bowlers will be given one point for each victory and half a point will be awarded for a tie.

At the end of the 24-game competition, the top three point winners, for both male and female, in each age division, will be given a medal.

All gold medal winners at the event will also receive a banner, commemorating the championship victory, to be displayed in their hometown bowling alley.

First place finishers also receive a mini banner that they get to keep for themselves.

The Yukon has been attending this competition since 2001. The best performance from the territory came in 2002 when Harrison Kwok won a silver medal, while competing in the senior boys’ category.

Kwok finished with an incredible 14.5 points, which was only 0.5 lower than the first place finisher, who was from the Northwest Territories.

The highlight in 2007 included a seventh place finish, but Beauchemin said a top 10 finish from each of the four Yukon bowlers would be just as incredible.

“The goal is to improve how they bowl and put a good effort in,” he said.

“This is a very intense competition and there are some very good bowlers from across Canada. That’s not to say we are any less than that, but we just don’t have the benefit of the number of competition, the availability of other tournaments and things like that. So we are trying to set the goals in regard to games won and a higher average from the previous year.”

He said the Yukon isn’t seen as a bowling powerhouse, but despite this fact there is still a lot of talent in this year’s group.

“We are the underdog for this thing, without a doubt and we are out there to try our best,” Beauchemin said."We would all like to see some wins and certainly see some good competition and that kind of thing.”

Although the competition will be tough, Beauchemin said he is confident in their abilities.

“We have done a lot of practicing and again it’s more or less trying to reinforce the mechanics aspect,” he said."I think they know what to do to correct the problem.”

This year will be the fourth time Olivia Smith has participated at the bowling nationals.

Smith, who has been bowling for six years, had her best showing to date at last year’s championships when she placed ninth overall in her age group.

The 2008 championships will be particularly special for Smith, who is competing in the Bantam age group for the last year.

Smith said she has improved throughout the season in areas such as throwing the ball straight and just overall control.

She credits the improvement to all of the practice she had done this year in preparation for the nationals.

Smith said she really enjoys attending the championships.

“I really like to travel,” she said."So I think that traveling on a plane is the best part and then getting new prizes. When you go to nationals, you compete against this other player and they give you something from their territory or province and then you give them something. So I really enjoy receiving those.”

She said the best souvenir that she has ever received was a key chain from southern Ontario, which has a blinker that comes on and off when you press a button.

Smith said she is looking forward to going to Edmonton this year.

“I think I have only been to the West Edmonton Mall once,” she said. “That’s also why I am really excited to go to Edmonton because I get to go to the water park in the West Edmonton Mall.”

Her goal is to win the silver medal at the competition and she said placing second would be her greatest achievement in the sport.

“I would be so happy,” Smith said. “I would be like screaming. I would totally like to reach my goal. That would be the best thing ever.”

Smith’s previous best accomplishment came two years ago, at the nationals, when she beat the only undefeated competitor, who was from Quebec, by a score of 187-178.

Smith said she expects to have a lot of fun at the 2008 nationals.

“I am looking really forward to the competition and I am not worried at all,” she said."I just want to have fun and do my best.

Some people think that they are really worried, but they don’t have to be. All they have do is just have fun and try to do their best. I hope everyone does great in the bowling and I hope I do well.”