What a year it was.
The end of the season hasn't officially hit the North Battleford Youth Bowling Club, but they have already had a career year.
For the first time, not only did the local club have enough bowlers to qualify for the combo team event at provincials, but the boys' combo team earned silver medals.
The Four Steps to Stardom Provincial Tournament was held in Saskatoon March 4 and, through a combination of a bantam, junior and senior bowler from North Battleford, the local club earned it's first medal in the event.
The veteran on the team was senior Cole Pozdrowski, 18, who has been bowling for nearly five years. The junior bowler on the team was Keagan Kellar, who is 13 and has bowled for just five months. The youngest member on the team was Jared Marjoram, an eight-year-old in his second year of involvement in the sport.
Scoring and qualifying for the event works through a pins-over-average formula. Throughout the season each player develops an average score and the team members who most exceeds their averages during the qualification period and the four games at provincials are crowned the winners. The North Battleford team finished 276 pins over their average and edged out the Regina team by one point to earn silver.
The combo team along, with the nearly 30 other youth bowlers, is coached by Kelly Halter, who has been mentoring the youth bowlers in the Battlefords for five seasons. Halter said because of the number of members in the club this season they were able to qualify for provincials on their own in the combo team event instead of combining with other centres from the zone. That made for the best year the club has had since he started coaching.
Along with the team's success, AJ Kramm of North Battleford earned an individual silver medal in the senior boys' division. Kramm earned the silver after an impressive fifth game where he bowled a tournament high 368. Kramm averaged 234.6 on the weekend to help claim a silver medal.
In the senior girls' division, Renae Rentz bowled extremely well with an average of 224.2, but was 25 points away from earning a provincial medal.
In recent years , the North Battleford club had representatives bowl in the team events combining with bowlers from other centres in the zone including Swift Current, Rosetown and Maidstone.
The local youth club, which bowls Mondays, will wrap up the season in April with a fun tournament at the North Battleford Bowlarena as well as a year end banquet.
