Local bowling teams are set to participate in the 2nd Annual South Central Bank Holiday Showcase, an event hosted by the Kentucky Wesleyan College program to help bring talent from several states to the city of Owensboro.
The teams from Apollo, Daviess County and Owensboro will join a field of more than 20 squads that are competing in the two-day event at the Bowladrome, with team competition on Saturday followed by individuals on Sunday.
The number of teams has grown by more than 10 since last year’s inaugural Showcase, and this year will feature bowlers from Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, South Carolina and Texas.
Tournament manager Scott Thompson, who is the head bowling coach at Wesleyan, said the event was created to help promote the college team but hopes it will grow into a perennial event that high school teams are eager to join.
“As a new college program, the South Central Bank Holiday Showcase was created to bring awareness of (Kentucky Wesleyan’s) bowling teams,” Thompson said. “It was an opportunity to get potential recruits in town to see what Owensboro and KWC had to offer and was a fundraising event to help get program started. Now, we feel like this is going to be a destination event as we grow and now had to make it a two-day event.”
The bowling gets started at 10 a.m. Saturday with girls’ team competition, followed by the boys’ teams around 1:30 p.m. Both the girls’ and boys’ field include 2017 KHSAA state champions (and Holiday Showcase champions) with Pleasure Ridge Park and Boyle County, respectively.
Singles competition starts Sunday at 10 a.m. with the girls, and the boys individuals will start at approximately 2 p.m.
Thompson said he used his contacts from when he was at South Warren to get teams to participate in the tournament. The timing of the Showcase helps with gaining interest, as well.
“Our tournament is at a great time,” Thompson said. “No other high school tournaments are happening during the break. The high school regionals are just a month away and with the caliber of teams, this will have a state tournament feeling.”
The top four boys’ singles and girls’ singles will receive scholarship money deposited into their United States Bowling Congress SMART account to use wherever they attend college.
There will also be a bowling ball raffle at each session, a 50/50 raffle and T-shirts for purchase.
