First let me welcome everybody to my website. One of the features I will try and bring to you is a weekly “journal” detailing the events on the Denny’s PBA Tour and the Midwest PBA Regional Tour. This is the first of many entries to come, so I hope you enjoy.

This is arguably the most important tournament of my career. There is a lot at stake this weekend and I’m coming off of a very good week in Akron and a very bad week in Taylor, Michigan. The regional point exemption has come down to this, the last event of the regional season. I have a slim 6400 point lead over Dave Beres and it’s going to be a long draining weekend. Also at stake is the Midwest Regional Player of the Year award. It’s a three person race between Dave Beres ( 1 title, 2nd in points ), Jeff Richgels ( 3 titles ) and myself ( 3 titles and 1st in points ). Should be very interesting to see how things pan out.

Friday, March 17th

Today is practice day. I got here early today because since we are on an Air Force Base you have to go through some security checks. You never know how long things like this can take so I try and give myself some extra time. We’re bowling on PBA Regional Pattern #1 this weekend. The pattern is 40’ and we are bowling on AMF HPL 9000s, which could equal high scores. So far this summer every time we’ve used this pattern the scores have been on the medium to high side so I expect the same. What I don’t know is how the pattern will play. On Brunswick Pro-Anvilane the pattern usually plays in, but on HPL’s it plays out. Go figure ! I’ve been battling some leg injuries and a cold/flu so I didn’t plan on practicing the full 2 hours. I noticed right away that there was plenty of friction on the gutter and I jumped out there right away. I used several different balls looking at different angles trying to find what will strike the most. After about an hour I packed my stuff up and spent some time working with my buddy Mike Sopper. He was having some swing issues so I did my best to straighten him out. After practice was over it was time to grab some dinner before the pro-am. Several of us went to the Olive Garden to run them out of soup and salad. If any of you have seen Bobby Jakel ( imagine Ivan Drago from Rocky IV ) you will know what I mean. The pro-am was a blast tonight. It was all youth bowlers and they seemed to have a great time. I was lucky enough to do a couple of trick shots and pick up splits with 2 balls. That always gets the crowd going. After the pro-am it was time for some NCAA Basketball and bed. Big day tomorrow !!!

Saturday March 18th

Today is qualifying day. I got to the bowl to watch the last couple of games of A squad and the scores are huge ! It looked like it would take at least +150 to make the first cut. I used my 15 minutes of practice to get my legs loose and figure out what ball I wanted to start with. I went with a Fired Up to start, although I didn’t want that much angle down lane. It just seemed to strike a lot in practice so I couldn’t put it away. Dave was bowling 2 pair away so I sort of kept an eye on what he was doing too. My legs felt horrible all day and I was having trouble creating leverage. It’s a good thing there was a lot of friction out there because I couldn’t generate much power on my own. After Game 1 it was clear the Fired Up was too much ball so I switched to the new Pyro. That proved to be the right choice because I reeled off several 230-240 games to move up the standings. Dave got out of the gates pretty quick so I knew I had my work cut out for me. I stayed with the Pyro pretty much the rest of the day. Moving pair to pair was close but there were a few guys playing a little deeper with surface and when we followed their pair you had to make big jumps left. All in all it was a pretty solid 8 game block, although I wish I would have finished it off a little better. I think I got to +200 after 5 games and then only went +6 the last 3 games. I ended up the day in 20th at +206 and Dave was 17th at +232. The cash cut ended up being +151 and 16th place was +235. Tomorrow could get very interesting. ( By the way, Mike Sopper led his squad in qualifying. That will teach me for helping him !!! )

Sunday, March 19th

We bowled the 5-game semi-final round in the morning and this was the key round of the tournament. Our starting pair broke down during practice so we had to move down to 1 & 2 to start. I wasn’t quite sure how this would affect me but at this point I needed every pin I could get. As it turned out it was a good break. I started with my Pyro and got of to a quick start with 279. That was just what the doctor ordered because throughout the day the match play cut number didn’t move very much. I sort of plugged along the next couple of games before I popped another 270 game in game 4. That pretty much sealed the deal for match play. Now the real work starts ! I qualified 11th and Dave qualified 13th for match play. On a side note, Jeff Richgels failed to qualify so that brings the POY race down to Dave and me. My first match was against Larry Stepp. Larry was one of the few guys bowling well from in, so I knew he would be left of me during our match. I made the decision to scrap my game plan and jump left of him with a Paradigm. We tied the first game at 247 and he won the roll-off. Meanwhile Dave went up 1-0 against my old roommate Paul Nicholas. After game one I noticed Larry’s look starting to go away a little bit, but Larry is a great player and he can get hot at any time. I figured it was time to step it up a notch. I managed to win the next 3 games 227-181, 278-197 and 235-179 to advance to the Round of 8. Dave also advanced with a 3 games to 1 win against Paul. Paul had been fighting some back problems, but bowled an awesome tournament. I was glad to see him bowl that solid again. The round of 8 was against Rob Plaza. Rob used to live in Springfield years ago and we used to bowl league together. He just re-joined the PBA about a year ago and has had some pretty good success since. He had qualified 3rd so I knew my work was just beginning. I went back to my earlier game plan ( Pyro ) and moved back right because Rob and I were in the same part of the lane. This round was best 2 of 3 so the transition wasn’t going to be as drastic. Neither one of us struck a lot during this match and I was able to pull out the win 216-207 and 224-222 (doubling in the 10th to win the match.) Meanwhile Dave eliminated Tom Hess in a 2 game sweep as well. The Round of 4 matches were 1 game matches between Sean Swanson and myself and Dave Beres against Chad Maas. I knew going in that if I lost this game and Dave went on to win the tournament, the exemption would be his—but if I win here, I lock up the exemption for next season. Everything that I’ve worked for came down to this one, single game. I went with the Pyro again and tried to bowl my game and not worry about anything else. As a matter of fact I didn’t even see most of Sean’s shots, mainly because Sean has my number and I don’t think I’ve ever beaten him !  I started off with a triple, then I rang a 10-pin. I didn’t even look at the scoreboard so I have no clue what he was doing. I picked up a double before I rang another 10-pin. I happened to watch Sean’s shot in the 8th and saw him leave a shaker 7-10 split. What that meant was if I stepped up and struck in the 9th, the exemption was mine. I put everything I had into that shot and it struck. At that point I didn’t know what to do. I fought back the tears because that shot was the culmination of a lot of hard work and 2 years of bowling the grinding PTQ’s. The game ended up being 258-235 and I was moving on to the title match. Ironically I would be bowling Dave, who beat Chad Maas in his semi-final match. I didn’t have much time to regroup before we had to practice for the title match. I don’t think I hit the pocket during practice because I couldn’t get myself settled down, but when the lights came on everything clicked. Dave started double, ring 10 and then struck to the 9th. I started front 6, 3-4-6-7 split – spare, and then I struck out for 276. Dave got up in the 10th with a chance to double and win, but he left a 10-pin on his first shot. The final was 276-258 in what ended up being one of the greatest matches I’ve ever been a part of.

Special thanks go out to Jon Kelly and his tremendous staff at Stars and Strikes bowling center. They are great hosts and Scott AFB is one of my favorite spots. I’m looking forward to defending my title next year. This was also the last tournament for John Weber as the Midwest PBA regional director. He is moving on to the National Regional & Senior Director’s job. I wish him the best of luck and welcome in his brother Rich as our new regional director.

Dave bowled incredible this season and my hat’s off to him. He should be the favorite to win the regional points title in 2006. I wish him the best of luck !

Now it’s on to Indy and the Denny’s PBA World Championships next week. I get to go home and do laundry all night and sleep in my own bed for a change. Talk to you next week from Indy.    Jeff