Foundation Games VI

August 2001 PBA Central Regional  Detroit, MI  ( At Bowl One )

1.  David Traber, Bull Valley, Illinois
2.  Jack Jurek, Lackawanna, New York
3.  Kurt Pilon, Warren, Michigan

Troy, Michigan: David Traber proved to everyone how good that he really is by performing in the clutch in the most recent Foundation Games tournament at historic Bowl One Lanes, the former home of two U.S. Open championships. The talented Traber from Bull Valley, Illinois needed to win 2-matches in the step-ladder finals, and that he did.

In qualifying (the day before), Traber tossed the first ever "perfect game" (300) in Foundation Games history. This unique format features 2-separate and distinctly different oil patterns to challenge the players; one being short to 32-feet, and the other going to 41-feet. The hard-throwing right-hander accomplished the feat on the short pattern in his last game of that 5-game block. He was playing the extreme outside angle and just drilled the 2-board on each and every shot. Upon completion of the perfecto , 12 to 15 players rushed over to congratulate him on his awesome accomplishment. The crowd cheered and gave him a standing "O", as they had previously been informed of the strict Foundation Games standards regarding the lane conditions, which are even more stringent than the ABC/WIBC sport bowling rules.

The purpose of these tournaments is to bring integrity and credibility back to the sport of bowling. Once "that" is accomplished, we are hopeful that commercial sponsors will once again climb aboard to increase the much needed prize funds for the top athletes in our sport.

The entire field of 74-pro's started on Saturday with the short pattern. Young Chris Sand, skilled beyond his years, led the field with a 5-game total of: 1143, a 228-average. Ironically, Sand came out of the Junior Program at Bowl One. His plans include competing on Pro-Bowlers Tour in September with The Greatest Bowlers In The World. If this performance was any indication of his talents, we will be seeing him again.

The lanes were then cleaned and re-oiled with the long pattern, and the field bowled 5-more games. Taking the lead was former Touring Player and one-time national champion, Jack Jurek. He came all the way from New York to compete in this prestigious event. He proceeded to knock down 1134-pins to add to his earlier total of 1086 and became the qualifying leader, averaging an impressive 224 for the 10-games.

On Sunday, the top-12 advanced to 12-more games of head-to-head match-play competition on both the short and the long patterns. Half of the lanes were dressed with the short, and the other half were the long. Based on the position that you qualified, it was the luck of the draw who you faced where and when during the finals round. After 11-games (every finalist bowling each other once), a position round was held. In this scenario, qualifier #1 bowled #2, #3 faced #4, #5 bowled #6 and so forth and so on, down the line. When this game was over, the field was then cut to the top-5 for the step-ladder finals. Jurek remained in first, Traber was second, Mike Eaton, Jr. was third, Joe Ciccone was fourth and Kurt Pilon was fifth. Match #1 featured Ciccone against Pilon, and the crowd was in for another thrill. Pilon, like Sand grew up bowling at Bowl One, and appeared to be the crowd favorite. Ciccone, the higher qualifier, picked the pair.

Ciccone decided to bowl on the long pattern and it turned out to be a huge mistake as Pilon rolled the 2nd 300-game of the tournament in a remarkable performance. Ciccone finished 5th and received $800.00.

In match #2, Eaton moved the red-hot Pilon over to a short pattern, but he too was unsuccessful as Pilon rolled 235 to the young Eaton's 172. Eaton (also a Tour player), earned $900.00 for his efforts.

Match #3 was to be a classic duel with the 2-players who rolled the only 300-games in the tournament. Traber, the higher qualifier of the two had the choice of patterns (and lanes) to bowl the match on. To the surprise of everyone, he indicated that he would bowl Pilon on the same pair that Pilon had just bowled on. In a high scoring affair, Traber won the match: 268-258. Pilon collected $1000.00 for 3rd place.

Tournament leader Jurek wanted no part of Traber on that short pattern, so he selected the long one on lanes 15 & 16. For most of the game it was a see-saw battle with Traber finally edging Jurek out with a score of 226-200. Jurek received a check for $1300.00 for being runner-up. Traber, a 4-time PBA Tour champion, pocketed $2500.00 and his 14th Regional Championship. Proprietor, Ron Wenglikowski, also added a bonus of $300.00 for the 300-game that Traber rolled. Regional Director, Dan Ottman then gave a check for $300.00 to Pilon for his honor score.

Closing ceremonies saw the usual Foundation Games Medal presentation to these top-3 finalist. Pilon won Bronze, Jurek was awarded Silver, and Traber captured the Gold. Asked if the Championship Match was a lot a pressure, Traber said, "No, I just wanted to be in the top-3 so that I could go to the Netherlands to be in the International Foundation Games Championships. I fell a little short in the last Foundation tournament that I bowled in. It wasn't going to happen again." That tournament will be at a later date, possibly next year.

These events are designed to challenge the players on a variety of patterns and distances. The feeling is that versatility is what separates the great bowlers from the very good ones. It puts emphasis on shot-making, power and accuracy. It also makes ball choices and mental preparedness very important as well as knowledge and patience. It took a score of plus 65 to make the 12-man finals field, and a score of minus 57 for 25th place, low-in-the-money.

There are a lot of people who worked very hard to make the tournament the success that it was. Dan Ottman brought the idea to Proprietor Ron Wenglikowski. To both staffs (Ottman's Regional staff and Ron's Bowl One staff), a BIG thank you to them. To all of the players who participated and helped The Foundation to gain more information and data, we thank you. To the entire staff at Kegel for the hours and hours of research that goes into these tournaments, especially John Forst and Larry Vezina.

The next Foundation Games will be with the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA). It is scheduled for the first week in September 2001, at the Kegel Training Center in Sebring, Florida. It will be the 2nd year in-a-row that the lady professionals will take part in a Foundation Games event. Lisa Bishop will be defending her title. Other winners of Foundation Games tournaments are: Steve Jaros, Jason Queen, and Pete Dohan.