It is a great feeling to know that this column will be read by you on Christmas Day. May your life be blessed and may the time you spend today with family and friends be focused upon the joy you bring one another and not what we wish we could gain from that relationship.
This is such an incredible time of the year. Had my chance to spend time with family and some really great friends today, especially the one the only, the amazing Chris Sanford and her staff at 20th Century. There cannot be a better meatball in this area than those of “Aunt Chris!”
Sadly I missed an appearance of Santa Claus who really made the day of a lot of the youth who roll at 20th Century. What an amazing time that must have been for all the youth who had the chance to whisper in Santa’s ear. If you want to have your own Santa audience I hear that your favorite Stolly family has the hotline to the North Pole.
The heart of Sanford, the performance of her staff, especially Matt Burden as well as Rayleen and Bailey Arthur clearly demonstrated that the spirit of the season is well alive and the true spirit of Christmas was passed onto them from their own parents.
What a great day.
I also spent a great deal of time the last few days in the assessment of what I can do to become a better person … obviously a lot of that will stay private but it did drift into what I may be doing to improve my service to you as a reported ambassador of the game in our area.
I have come up with the following commitments and note please that I did not say resolutions as the word scares me as as we seem to do a pretty good job as a society in sustaining the annual resolutions that we do make.
With that in mind here is my commitment to you the bowling fan for the upcoming season. I fully understand that some may be yawners but I trust that the majority of you will find something to embrace that is included here.
So here we go:
— This past Thursday evening I heard Steve Taylor speak of different bowling memories that were special to him. This was one day after Moose Sciranka, if I recall, spoke of the history of the K of C League. I have procrastinated long enough. The book that I have always spoken of writing will be completed in 2018.
— I am returning to the highway. One of the two times that I was really tempted to simply chuck it all and not write any longer about this sport that I love I ventured out on the highway and visited several bowling establishments in our area. It is my intent to have at least a portion of one column a month focusing on the exploits of different lanes in our area.
— Last week we touched on the skill-set of young ladies who roll for Lima based schools. Obviously that list would be at least doubled if we were to take into consideration the young ladies that bowl within a 50 mile radius of our city. We will be highlighting them and the male high school stars as we travel about.
— The WBL is a great bowling conference. It is now time to reach out to other schools in our area and begin to reduce some of the resistance that they are showing to developing teams in their schools. I am looking forward to doing what I can do to bring more schools into the fold, especially those that had the sport prior to OHSAA full endorsement.
— I have spoken to different individuals in our area who would love to see a way for the OHSAA to soften stance on factors related to dual play. We think that we have an angle that the OHSAA may listen to. It is my plan to do all that can be done to gain an audience with Dr Dan Ross to trouble shoot an issue that has to change.
— Recently I have been trying to target people in our area that have made contributions to the game, individuals that many of us enjoy spending time with. The plan is to continue to do that as I travel the highways.
— Finally I want to be of greater value to the youth in our area. While I may not be the finishing school coach such as Louie Boughan, I do feel that I have a great deal to offer. I do not have any desire to interfere with the efforts of any current coach. I am really not concerned with any cash for the service. I simply want to pay forward what the sport has done for me.
There will certainly be more at a later date but this list should do for now. It was an interesting conversation that I had recently with Ian Friesner and one of the better up and coming coaches James Riepenhoff. There was this debate on if they should even make the trip to Coldwater for the King of Hill event hosted by Garret Stout. Friesner had some crazy apprehension about surrendering pins to another bowler in a handicap event at a house as difficult as Pla-Mor.
Will he and Riepenhoff fought back the fears and made the trip and Friesner brought home the gold and the green. Congrats Ian on a job well done.
Again have a very blessed Christmas and please find a way to bless others as you pay forward what others have made happen for you.
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