2022  Thomas Damon Memorial Scholarship Tournament Results and Prize Fund

Congratulations to all of our winners, cashers, and advancers. We have completed all the double and triple checking of the results from last week’s Thomas Damon Memorial Scholarship Tournament. We are so THANKFUL that you came to bowl in our first big event.  We are also sincerely thankful that your parents put their trust in us to execute a safe tournament under strict and difficult conditions. Hopefully, our future events will not have to be planned around COVID-19 and we can get back to traditional bowling events. 

Junior Gold 2023 Advancers:  We held off finalizing the results, until we could get clarification from the USBC on how to execute the EARP rule properly (see page 8 of the Junior Gold Tournament Guide on Bowl.com for full details). We had a few instances that if we utilized this rule along with the 1:4 ratio and the greatest fraction thereof; we could advance more bowlers. Any shortages for the Junior Gold fees were paid for from the Edwin L. Walters Memorial Scholarship Fund. This fund is run by Erica Walters Zilk on behalf of her family in honor of their father and bowling coach.

Recap:

We had 191 scratch entries, 115 handicap entries, and 68 bowlers advanced to the bracket finals on Sunday.

We used on-site fundraising to give a little extra to the top male and female bowlers (best 10 game series) who bowled multiple squads. Anyone who bowled all 3 squads, the lowest set was dropped to determine the results.

For the scratch (Saturday) and handicap (Saturday), we used a 1 in 4 ratio to determine cashers. The top 8 in each division advanced to Sunday for bracket play. Bowlers accepted their top finish as seeding for Sunday. In cases where bowlers had multiple cashings above the cut line, alternates were advanced to complete the brackets. We used additional funds to double the prize fund for the handicap division.

We advanced 25 bowlers to the 2023 Junior Gold Championships. The total for entries came to $4600, of which $825 was donated by the Zilk/Walters/Popovich/Magnotta family in honor of our father Edwin Walters, to cover shortages and all EARP costs.

The $14000.00 funding for the Sunday Finals was generously donated by Thomas Damon's daughter Debbie Morton and her husband Karl. An additional donation by Woworks was received and used as an additional increase to the prize fund.

Total Scholarships and Awards: $29,729

Thank you to all of our donors, volunteers, Pinboy’s at the Beach staff/management/ownership for your support, time and prayers for a successful tournament. Thank you for helping us provide a safe environment for both the bowlers and families! 

We would like to say a big "Thank you" to Bowler's Performance, LLC and Katie Thornton for supporting Virginia Beach Youth Bowling, Inc. The donation received will be used to continue our organization's youth bowler development endeavors.

Last but not least, Thank you to the college coaches who supported our efforts. We are so hopeful for the future of youth and collegiate bowling. We hope you were able to see some rising stars.

We wish you all a safe and happy summer! Best of luck to those going to Junior Gold and Teen Masters. Remember to have fun, even when it's challenging!

Sincerely,

Erica K. Zilk

VBYBI – Tournament Director

Secretary, VBYBI Board of Directors

Pinboy’s Jr. Gold Coordinator