The 2017 California Pepsi Yout
h Bowling Championships is one of the longest tournaments held with league-level qualifying competition in November and January; District Finals held in March at eight different locations over two different weekends and then those qualifiers enter the State Finals that were just held this past May. A total of 396 bowlers participated in the U8 & U10 Divisions and 1,613 participated in the U12, U15 & U20 Divisions. The first place finishers in the U8 & U10 Divisions at the District Finals earned a FREE entry into the 2017 Youth State Championships to be held this July at Country Club Bowl in San Rafael and the first place finishers in the U12, U15 & U20 Divisions at the District Finals earned a $50 scholarship plus a spot into the Semi-Finals of the Diddy Watts State Singles Challenge to be held at McHenry Bowl in Modesto August 12-13. Bowlers in the U8 & U10 Divisions would survive through two rounds of qualifying and three rounds of qualifying for the U12, U15 & U20 Divisions (all qualifying levels were based on scratch scores). 55 winners in the U8 & U10 Divisions will earn District Scratch Scholarships totaling $8,005 and $10,763 will be awarded in District Handicap Scholarships to 159 winners in all six divisions.
We had something new this year and teamed up with Down Lane Clothing. They are a local SoCal shirt company and we sold custom sublimated California Pepsi jerseys. The turned out great and best of all, we will receive a percentage from each shirt sales that went directly into this year’s scholarship fund. We will come out with a new design for 2018, but this first style will always be available for purchase directly from their website at DownLaneClothing.com.
The State Finals were held at Classic Bowl on May 6-7. Bowlers in the U12, U15 & U20 divisions qualified to this level based on a ratio of 1:5 from District to State. We had 301 bowlers travel from across the state to attend and bowl in six game blocks. 33 of these bowlers will earn Scratch Scholarships totaling $26,932. We also ran an optional Handicap Division, in which 190 bowlers participated and we will pay out $1,900 to 19 bowlers. Six bowlers: Joshua Abigania, Avery Domaguin, Chris Milne, Ranelle Ulanday, Ricky Pollom and Megan Ober earned the FREE berths into the USBC Junior Gold Finals in Cleveland, OH this July. Each of our six champions (Avery Domaguin, Jennifer Loredo – threepeat champ, Maranda Pattison, Vincent Luong, Chris Milne, and Nick Caner) will receive a travel stipend up to $400 for the Gold Finals along with their state scholarship and a custom embroidered jacket. All scholarship recipients will receive a scholarship packet and all funds will be held with USBC SMART. Full tournament results and scholarship breakdowns can be downloaded online at CalUSBC.com.
We are extremely thankful for our many sponsors this year. For the 17th year in a row, BowlersParadise.com and EliteBowling.com sponsored this event along with Ebonite, Java Lanes Pro Shop, West Valley Pro Shop, Black Oak Lanes Pro Shop, Bowlers Choice (inside Harvest Park Bowl), Back Alley Pro Shop (inside Rancho Bowl), Pins and Needles (inside AMF Hemet Lanes), Professional Approach (inside Keystone Lanes) and Bowler’s Depot (inside Forest Lanes). These sponsors all donated items for our fundraising raffle at the District and State Finals sites to help us raise more scholarship dollars. Thanks to Digital Team Photography for taking great Pepsi pics for District 7, 8 and at the State Finals. They are donating a portion of those sales to our scholarship fund, which is always very much appreciated. Also Special Thanks to Bonaventure Butts for taking great pics for District #5 and to Bruce Shoji for taking pics for District #3.
District Directors will be contacting centers that just participated in Pepsi in regards to hosting this event for March 2018. If you are interested, please contact your respective District Director for more information. Thanks again to all of those that supported this event – it would not be a success without your help! Tournament packets for 2018 will be mailed to all youth programs in Sept/Oct and of course all information will be posted online at CalUSBC.com.