The East's Most Read Bowling Weekly
Sports Reporter
Our 81st
Anniversary
Year
The Nation's Leading Bowling Tournament Newspaper Since 1940
Vol. 81 No. 12
More COVID-19 Updates from Our Bowling Family
* What has made the reopening process so frustrating for
so many proprietors is the lack of consistency in the
“phases” from state to state. For instance, we know that in
Georgia, bowling centers were allowed to reopen early, at
the same time as nail salons and tattoo parlors. But in
Montana, centers were forced to remain closed even as
gyms, fitness studios, movie theaters and museums were
allowed to open. It’s perplexing to proprietors in Big Sky
Country, who already have developed protocols to keep
their centers cleaner than ever. “It’s not our business to
make people sick,” said Norman Carey, co-owner of
Westside Lanes & Fun Center in Missoula. “If we do that,
we’re not going to be in business.” Read more about the
situation in Montana here:
https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/bowling-center-own-
ers-frustrated-over-continued-closure
* The Disney Springs area at the Walt Disney World
Resort in Orlando, Fla., is scheduled to begin a phased
reopening on May 20. Following the guidance of govern-
ment and health officials, a limited number of shopping
and dining experiences that are owned by third-party oper-
ating participants will begin to open during this initial
phase. The rest of Walt Disney World Resort will remain
closed, including theme parks and Disney Resort hotels.
Disney Springs will begin to reopen in a way that incor-
porates enhanced safety measures, including increased
cleaning procedures, the use of appropriate face coverings
by both cast members and guests, limited-contact guest
services and additional safety training for cast members.
Disney Springs — home to a Splitsville bowling enter-
tainment center — will initially have limitations on capac-
ity, parking and operating hours. Disney did not list spe-
cific businesses that would be included in the reopening,
but Splitsville would seem to be an ideal candidate given
that its lanes are spread out in small clusters throughout
the building, rather than in a straight-across configuration.
* The coronavirus has claimed another major summer-
time bowling event. The 2020 TAT Amateur Classic,
May 21, 2020
which had been scheduled for June 29-July 5 at The
Orleans Bowling Center in Las Vegas, has been post-
poned. Since all bowling centers in Las Vegas are housed
in casinos, and since all casinos remain closed by the order
of Governor Steve Sisolak, there presently is no bowling
in Sin City. “We do plan on running the TAT’s 20th
Anniversary event sometime this summer or early fall, and
are working to secure dates in August or September,” said
TAT Director Jamie McWilliams. “However, with the
casinos and bowling centers closed, it is making it difficult
to secure exact dates at this time.”
* For the record, as part of the governor’s “Roadmap to
Recovery,” bowling centers in Nevada are included in the
same reopening group as strip clubs and brothels.
* On a more hopeful note, there is growing evidence of
a pent-up demand for bowling, at least among the sport’s
higher-average players. Consider what happened with the
New Mexico Open, which saw entries skyrocket to a
record 232 following a recent social-media campaign over
a three-week period. The 17th annual tournament is sched-
uled for Aug. 14-16 at Tenpins & More in Rio Rancho.
"We're planning a prize fund of more than $55,000 and a
full field of 240,” said tournament organizer Steve
Mackie. 900 Global and 3G are presenting sponsors.
* The 2020 BetVictor Weber Cup has been rescheduled,
subject to government policy, to Oct. 23-25 at
Morningside Arena in Leicester, England. Bowling’s
annual transatlantic tenpin tussle was postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, having originally been scheduled
for June. News on player selection will be announced
shortly. Matchroom Multi Sport said it would continue to
monitor the situation to ensure the event can be staged in
a manner that is safe for players, spectators and staff.
* QubicaAMF has introduced a series of webinars and
interviews with industry leaders, including chats this week
with Strike Ten Entertainment President John Harbuck
25 cents
and BPAA President Randy Thompson. Also archived are
numerous presentations featuring helpful information for
reopening. You can access QubicaAMF’s “Beyond the
Frame” presentations at: https://www.qubicaamf.com/sup-
port/beyond-the-frame
* Twelve-time PBA Tour champion Bill O'Neill suspects
the COVID-19 pandemic might bring a change in per-
spective to his fellow PBA Tour competitors. In his expe-
rience, bowling PBA competition for the past 15 years,
gripes often have been more abundant than gratitude
among his fellow players. With the Tour being taken away
from all of them temporarily by forces beyond anyone's
control, complaints about cash ratios or formats or oil pat-
terns might seem a bit less consequential. He speaks about
that, what it has been like to wait out this pandemic at
home with two small children, how his wife Christi is
holding up as a first-grade school teacher in the throes of
an abrupt transition from in-class to online education, and
much more in this edition of The Bowlers Journal Podcast:
https://soundcloud.com/user-658733792/podcast-bill-
oneill-on-the-importance-of-family-and-perspective-
amid-the-pbas-hiatus
* While PWBA Tour champion Daria Pajak already had
planned to return to her native Poland in March, she was-
n't planning on staying there as long as she has. The pan-
demic intensified throughout the world, particularly in
Europe and the United States, in the weeks following her
early March return to Poland, where she now is waiting it
out with her family while eagerly awaiting news of the
PWBA's resumption. On this episode of The Bowlers
Journal Podcast, she talks about how she is filling that
unexpected stretch of downtime, the hobbies she has taken
up along the way, the role her retired body-builder dad has
played in keeping her physically sharp while she cannot
bowl or go to a gym, and much more:
https://soundcloud.com/user-658733792/podcast-daria-
pajak-on-waiting-out-the-pandemic-in-her-native-poland
2 SPORTS REPORTER May 21, 2020

ROCKAWAY LANES
To our valued customers,
Rockaway Lanes will be closed due to
the government limitations in place to
slow the spread of the Coronavirus.
We will resume our normal operations
once the Governor lifts the ban.
Please stay safe and healthy during
this time!

Sincerely,
The Management and Staff
Rockaway Lanes
May 21, 2020 SPORTS REPORTER 3

Jib Lanes~Flushing (718) 591 - 0600 www.JibLanes.com

Maple Lanes RVC~Rockville Centre (516) 678 - 3010 www.RVCLanes.com
Farmingdale Lanes~Farmingdale (631) 249 - 4300 www.FarmingdaleLanes.com
Coram Country Lanes~Coram (631) 732 - 2022 www.CoramCountryLanes.com
Countryside Lanes~Clearwater, FL (727) 796 - 8100 www.CountrysideLanes.net
4 SPORTS REPORTER May 21, 2020
May 21, 2020 SPORTS REPORTER 5
6 SPORTS REPORTER
Remember......
You never get a second chance
to make a First Impression
COVID-19 Strikes Down Bowl Expo
There is good news on the coronavirus front: Death toll estimates in
the U.S. may be lower than previously predicted.
Meanwhile, however, time ran out on International Bowl Expo.
BPAA leaders waited as long as they could in hopes of going forward
with the 2020 Expo, which was to have taken place July 2-6 in
Aurora, Colo. But with virtually every state asking people to stay at
home, and with airlines substantially cutting their flight schedules,
there was no other choice but to cancel Bowl Expo for this year.
May 21, 2020
We will be closing temporarily as a
proactive precaution against the
coronavirus pandemic. Our first day
closed will be Saturday, March 14,
with no current planned reopening
date. This is of course a very fluid sit-
uation and can change, so we will
update with changes as they occur.
We wish everyone and their families
good health and will see you all soon.
$5,000 Pezzano Scholarship
Deadline is April 30
Do you know of a young person who loves bowling
and loves writing?
The International Bowling Media Association
is working to help create the next generation of
bowling journalists through the Chuck Pezzano Media
Scholarship, which is valued at $5,000.
To learn more about the scholarship, or to direct a
young person you know to the application form,
use this link in your browser: :
https://www.bowlingmedia.org/Portals/0/Documents/
CRITERIA%20WEB.pdf
The final application deadline is April 30, but interested students
should begin the pre-application process immediately.
Even more imminent is the deadline for the
2019 IBMA Writing Competition.
Entries must be received by March 15.
Information is available by using this link in your browser:
https://www.bowlingmedia.org/Portals/0/Documents/Writi
ngCompetition/2019/2019_Writing_Comp_Application.pdf
May 21, 2020 SPORTS REPORTER
DO NOT READ THIS
You didn’t listen did you?
Proof the ads in the Sports Reporter get read!
Need bowlers for your league?
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
Email: sportrsreporter1940@aol.com
Or Call 201-865-5363
Dear Bowlers, while we know that all of the
leagues would love to continue bowling, we feel it
is in everyone's best interest to close Lodi Lanes.
We will reevaluate the coronavirus situation and
tentatively reopen on March 30th.
This is an unfortunate situation, but we want
everyone to be safe so we can get through this
together.
Thank you all for your understanding. We will
keep you updated.
Lodi Lanes
7
Kevin Chernoff, Kenny Sanders,
Diana Cazzalino Burned 300
At Farmingdale Lanes
FARMINGDALE, NY - Kevin Chernoff, Kenny Sanders and Diana
Cazzalino each blasted a 300 game in the Monday Epic/Edge Maple
Foursome League at Farmingdale Lanes.
Eric Ivarson rolled 288, Rob Grexer, Jr 279, Lou Getzelman 276, Bob
Valentino and Rob Valentino 269, Bryce Ingram, Steve Warren and
Steve Buckman 268, and Robert Meehan and Kenny Augusto 267.
Jason Hollenstein Rolled 300
At Majestic Lanes
HOPELAWN, NJ - Jason Hollenstein fired a 300 game in the
Wednesday Night Trios League at Majestic Lanes.
Phil Okner rolled 252-244-258-754, Ken Yonker 290-237-226-753, Joe
Defini 248-264-201-713, Bill Venezia 254-255-700, Erick Kerekes 257-
215-213-685.
As a precautionary measure we
will be closed until further notice.
We will post on our Website and
Facebook page
when we are open again.
Everyone be safe.
8 SPORTS REPORTER May 21, 2020

COVID-19, AND BEYOND

by Dave Williams
Earlier this year I penned an article for BCM Magazine entitled Crisis Management and solidified our team. What followed was a record year for both revenue and profits at
(January, 2020), in which we went back to the year 2001 and relived my experiences of the ARC. Once again, I like to think that it was due to my marketing expertise, but there’s no
September 11th attack upon our nation. Looking back on that article today, just a few months question that the earthquake provided for an event that made both customers and employees
before the COVID-19 pandemic began, was almost prophetic in its recapitulation of the appreciate the bowling experience.
steps that were taken by Nationwide Bowling Corporation to begin the long road back to
normalcy after 911. When ARC was gobbled up by AMF in the next decade, I could see the handwriting on the
wall and elected to seek another position, this time with Nationwide Bowling Corporation in
BCM, short for Bowling Center Management, a publication of the Bowling Proprietors Jersey City, New Jersey. One day as I was traveling to work on the New Jersey Turnpike and
Association of America (BPAA), have asked me to once again address the COVID-19 catas- enjoying a new compact disc from Vertical Horizon, a popular group from that era, a number
trophe in the upcoming June issue, with some possible steps that could be taken to bounce of unmarked police cars came roaring past me on both the left and right shoulders of the road.
back from a bowling center perspective.
My immediate reaction was that there must be a major accident up ahead, as I removed the
While writing the article, I began to see a pattern that had been developing in my career, compact disc and turned toward Manhattan on the Casciano Bridge. That’s when I noticed
as early as 1980, when AMF had sent me to promote bowling parties and summer sign-ups that the World Trade Center was on fire as I tuned in the radio to see what had happened. I
for their three properties in Portland, Oregon. While rumblings were being seen and felt looked at my watch and it was 8:55AM, as a report came on the radio saying that a plane had
from Mount St. Helens, a composite volcano approximately 50 miles northeast of Portland, hit the north tower of the World Trade Center.
no one really took it that seriously because the explosive volcano had a long history of erup-
tion catalogued by the native Northwest Indians, who referred to it as “Smoking Mountain.” Traffic came to a virtual halt, as unmarked police cars continued to pass on the shoulders of
the road. As I continued toward New York City, my car
Then on May 18, 1980, the mountain literally blew its top, send- was eerily pointed directly at the twin towers. A flash of
ing ash into the air and blanketing Portland with debris for a peri- light caught my eye as I approached the top of the steel
od of months. I remember that when it rained, which it often does arch bridge. The second tower had been hit by yet another
in that part of the country, we experienced a new term from the plane. It was 9:03AM, and the world had forever changed.
weather forecasters, when they began reporting “muddy” on their Two jet airliners striking the two different towers could not
telecasts. Even during daylight hours it was often a requirement to be a coincidence, as the radio announcers began speculat-
turn on car headlights to penetrate the raining mud, an excessive ing that it was terrorism.
blend of ash, pumice and water falling from the sky.
By the time that I had reached the Bayonne exit, I wit-
In spite of the eruption, and subsequent earthquakes and minor nessed the first of the towers to collapse, at 9:59AM. The
eruptions that continued through 1986, our business could not second tower came down at 10:28AM, as our corporate
have been better that summer and fall at our three locations. While office staff listened to reports on the radio, and fear of
I like to think that our success was due to my marketing skills, more attacks. I remained at the corporate office until early
there’s no question that the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was afternoon, when I instructed my two office interns to go
a major factor in obtaining new customers anxious to escape the home, as the office would be closing. There was still one
pyroclastic debris that permeated the Portland atmosphere. surface road that had remained open and I was able to
Williams photo
eventually get back to the Turnpike and head south for
When I left AMF to join American Recreation Centers (ARC) in The Day The World Changed Edison.
1989, it was a tremendous opportunity for me to return to my After fundraisers were complete, the owner of Nationwide Bowling
Centers donated the entire amount to the American Red Cross.
beloved California, and to join a company that was known among The scene was like a war zone along the Turnpike, as the
bowling integers as a dynamic publicly held company, willing to try just about any crazy pro- only traffic that I spotted were banks of ambulances, police cars, armored cars and military
motion that I could concoct. One particularly mild autumn day, as I sat in my office at the vehicles headed toward New York City, with virtually no traffic in the southbound lanes.
Sacramento headquarters for ARC, I was looking forward to getting home to watch the third Proof of the devastating effect that this event had upon my life is the fact that although I live
game of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics that only 25 miles from New York City, I have visited Manhattan only once, for business rea-
evening. The date was October 17th, 1989. sons, in the past nineteen years. Prior to the 911 attack, I loved visiting The Big Apple when-
ever I had a free weekend, to investigate all of the historical buildings and museums. It’s a
What followed at 5:04PM was the Loma Prieta Earthquake, that reached a magnitude of dream come true for someone with a degree in Geography!
close to 7.0 on the Richter Scale. By the time that I got home, the baseball game had been
canceled, and we had lost all communication with our thirteen San Francisco Bay Area bowl- Once again, bowling came through all of the turmoil and we experienced a record year at
ing locations. The next day we were able to make contact with Jim Wangeman, our District Nationwide Bowling Centers in casual, or non league bowling. People had a desire to do
Manager for that region; and he reported only slight structural damage at two locations, and something to take their mind off of the shock of the terrorist attack, and bowling provided a
that no employees were injured. Ironically, Jim happened to be at the World Series game on perfect venue. Now we have the Coronavirus that comes with the added trepidation of the
the 17th, and he later gave me his ticket stub and said, “Hold onto that. It will be worth some- unknown. Just like the aforementioned disasters, we don’t know much about this hidden
thing someday.” enemy; although aside from the apparent high contagion, it may only turn out to be analo-
gous to the flu, which surprisingly accounted for 80,000 deaths in the United States last year.
In an effort to get everyone back into the bowling centers, we held Earthquake Relief Events
at all of the chains locations in California and Texas. The disaster brought everyone together, One can only hope.