GREENFIELD — Some of the best young bowlers in the United States will be spending the next week in Greenfield vying to win a national championship in their age group.
Strike Force Lanes is one of six Indianapolis area venues to be used for the 2021 Junior Gold Championships. Along with Championship Lanes in Anderson, the tournament will have matches at four Indianapolis locations, All Star Bowl, Woodland Bowl, Expo Bowl and Western Bowl.
The tournament for youth bowlers runs from July 9-17. Bowling at Strike Force Lanes began today and will finish up on Friday, July 16.
The annual national tournament is for the top male and female youth bowlers in the United States. The tournament has eight divisions – U12 Boys, U12 Girls, U15 Boys, U15 Girls, U18 Boys, U18 Girls, U20 Boys, and U20 Girls.
Bowlers began practicing today and will continue pre-tournament prep through the weekend.
The center’s general manager, Rob Barnhart, said they previously held a national deaf bowling tournament, but this event will be the largest they’ve hosted.
“There will be about 4,000 kids coming to central Indiana and we’ll probably have about 1,200 of them through Strike Force Lanes,” he said. “My hope is that our whole town can benefit from this with the influx of people coming in, the restaurants and hotels. I just think it’s going to be good for the city.”
Through a bidding process, Indianapolis was selected as the host city. It has been a previous host, but this is the first Strike Force Lanes has been used.
Open bowling and leagues have temporarily been shut down. They will resume on Tuesday, July 20.
“The public has been awesome,” Barnhart said. “(Our regulars) understand. We’ve been busy this summer and the public has been very receptive of us hosting (the national tournament). They’re kind of cheering us on, so to speak. We’ve had a lot of folks from the area offering to volunteer and help any way we need it. We have a great community here.”
The tournament portion begins Monday. The U15 Boys Round 1 qualifying starts Monday morning at 7 a.m., while the U18 Girls will get underway at 11:30 a.m. A second session of qualifying for the girls gets started at 4 p.m. The second boys qualifying segment begins at 8:30 p.m.
They’ll have Round 2, 3 and 4 qualifying sessions from Tuesday-Thursday with the same start times.
Barnhart said there will be around 150 bowlers in each session.
On Friday, Strike Force Lanes will be the host site for the U12 Boys and U12 Girls Match Play finals.
The final session at the local center will be 5:30 p.m., Friday, July 16.
There will be some local bowlers participating including recent Greenfield-Central grad Tandess O’Neal, who recently won the United States Bowling Congress Indiana State Youth Championship — called the Masters and Queens Tournament — and the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star tournament title.
Incoming G-C freshmen Alyssa Cash will be another local representative. She finished 10th in the state event and joined O’Neal on the Indiana All-Star team.
To prepare for such a large event, the center has had to have a makeover
“We’re going to be on the national stage, so we want Greenfield to look the part,” Barnhart added.
Along with masking units and additional national advertisement signage, the high top tables and chairs have had to be removed for cameras. The tournament will be live streamed and available for viewing at www.bowl.com. A complete schedule of all the tournaments is also available on the web site.
Barnhart added they are grateful to be able to use bleachers from the Greenfield Boys and Girls Club for tournament seating.
“I’m proud of this thing,” Barnhart said. “I can’t emphasize enough how I want the whole town to benefit from this. We’ll not only have the people here that are bowling at our place, but there may be people bowling in Anderson or Indianapolis that may end up staying in Greenfield, depending on the hotel situation. I think we can all benefit from this. There will be 3,000-plus people coming to Greenfield over the week.
“It’s not just Strike Force Lanes, it’s a community deal. I was born and raised here and this community means a lot to me.”
