Parks Family Tourney Makes a "Striking" Impression

By Joe Sowmick, Conributing Writer

On March 24, the SCIT Parks & Recreation Eagles Nest Family Bowling Tournament made a striking impression upon young and old alike. The tourney offers two levels of competition: the community youth enjoyed a first, second and third place trophy division and the adults found themselves vying for a share of $665 in prize money.

“We wanted to give the community another event before spring break weekend and owner Carl Malish and his staff at Chippewa Lanes was happy to host the Tribal tournament,” SCIT Parks Youth Facilities Assistant Chase Owl said. “Even though it was powwow weekend at CMU, we still filled 10 lanes during the afternoon tournament”.

Trophy winners in the youth division saw Jonny Curtis take third place and his sister Rebecca Curtis finished second. SCIT Tribal youth Basil Naganashe rolled away with the best score to garner his first place trophy.
In the doubles adult tournament, the action was fast and furious with plenty of drama. Team league bowlers Diana Grundahl and Val Raphael took the honorable mention cash prize of $100 bazh-wa-bics. SCIT Parks Youth Facilities Assistant Lucas Sprague and teammate Andrew “Bear” Raphael scored $130 for their third place finish. In the process, Sprague just missed rolling a perfect 300 game, finishing with a single game of 296.

The $170 second place cash prize went to the doubles team of league bowlers Sheila Leaureaux and Karen Naganashe. The $265 overall first place team award went to Will Stanley and Jay McLain. McLain received an extra $40 from an anonymous donor for rolling a perfect 300 game during the tournament.
The Tribal community has a lot of excellent bowlers and Luke, Jay, Karen and many others, I have seen them roll some great scores in league competition,” Chippewa Lanes Owner Malish informs. “When your department is ready, I would welcome a chance to have an open invitational for the whole Tribal community later in the year.”

Sprague served as the main coordinator for the event and looks forward to the next tourney.
“This tourney was kind of a last minute deal, and next time we will run it on a weekend where there isn’t so much activity going on,” Sprague said. “We still had some great numbers and no complaints with everyone that came out said they had a great time. I would like to thank those who came out to bowl and the families who came and watched. I look forward for our next effort and it will be bigger!”
Sprague gave a special thanks to photojournalist Carrie Garcia and fellow Parks staffers Chase Owl and event MC Joe Sowmick.