Following another successful year of participation, 81 of the 87 eligible SISBA members made their way to the Snake River Bowl in Burley, Idaho, to compete for the $10,480.00 prize fund. Everyone received a prize check of at least $75.00. The Non-Cashers tournament prize fund was $1,400.

  The pins were flying as is normal at Snake River Bowl, however, the scores averaged about 50 pins lower than last year. That didn't stop anyone from having great series, however. Kevin Grupa of Mountain Home, Idaho was top qualifier for the bye spot with a super 1211 score. The second high qualifier, who was conveniently a Super Senior, was Ed Pullman of Boise, Idaho who shot 1160. Low to make the top 18 qualifiers was 1060.

  The match plays were exciting with some of the top eight qualifiers being eliminated. Among those in the lower eight was Orville Edwards of Pocatello, Idaho who dispatched Allen Nelson of Boise, Idaho with a 435 two-game series against Nelson's 394. Edwards went on to win his one-game match with a whopping 289 game against Max Shellabarger's (Roy, Utah) 194. And he didn't stop there as he worked his way through the stepladder finals blanking Ed Hodges of Missoula, Montana 231-153, Bob Bywater, newly moved to Heyburn, Idaho 268-237, and, not running out of steam, relegated the first place Kevin Grupa to second place with a 280 game to Kevin's 225. He received the first place prize check of $1000.

 The SISBA Storm, Inc., 300 Game Pot maintained its equilibrium this year as there were just about as many withdrawals as there were deposits. 300 games posted by Don Winter of Kearns, Utah, John Brodersen of Helena, Montana, Vardell Tait of McCammon, Idaho, and Mark Bennett of Missoula, Montana accounted for $400 of the pot. $50 prizes went to Blaine Yoshimura of Kaysville, Utah for his 279 game, Jeff Foster of Taylorsville, Utah for a 280, Howard Christensen of Kaysville, Utah for a 290 game and Steve Bordley of Roy, Utah for his 279 game. The 2003-2004 season started with $240 in the pot, next season's pot will start at $252. See Grand Finals 2004 for all the tournament results.

  The SISBA also gave away two entries to the PBA Tournament being held at Westy's Lanes in Boise, Idaho April 20 - May 2, 2004. These went to the two top qualifiers over 50 years of age: Don Robinson and Ed Pullman, both of Boise, Idaho. In the STORM Bowling Ball raffle, the XXX Factor was won by George Lahmann of Missoula, Montana, the Trauma Response was won by Mini-Cassia local Cecil Carter and the Football ball went to Ed Shelton of Idaho Falls. 

Membership Meeting

 Discussion was lively at the open membership meeting held at 9 a.m. at Snake River Bowl in Burley, Idaho.

1.  The rising expenses of the SISBA Tournament was discussed, especially the cost of lineage. The expenses of the bowling centers has gone up over the years, but the cost of lineage to the SISBA member has remained constant at $10. We have paid the bowling centers $11 if the qualifying scores exceed 1000. A motion was made to raise the entry fee to $80 with $15 being designated for lineage, $45 for the prize fund, $8 for expenses, and $12 going to the Grand Finals fund.

2. Membership cards were disbursed to those present. Anyone holding a membership in SISBA will be allowed to bowl three games for $1.00 at the bowling center manager's discretion. The Grand Finals for the 2004-2005 season will be held at Tough Guy Lanes in Pocatello, Idaho. There is already $1000 added money to the prize fund.

3. Desert Paradise Lanes proprietor J.D. Merrill has submitted a bid for the Grand Finals to be held at the Elko, Nevada bowling center in 2006. Because the bowling center has 16 lanes, he proposes two squads for qualifying for those who are short of their four squads for Grand Finals with two squads of Grand Final qualifying on Saturday and the two-game, one-game, and championship rolloffs on Sunday. This will be brought up again at the next annual meeting.

4. The proposition of divisioning the tournament by age and gender was proposed again by Ed Strommen of Anaconda, Montana. There would be a division for women, age 45 to 55, age 56-65, and age 66 and over (proposed). This will be tried at the November tournament with the directors setting up divisions. There would have to be at least eight participating in each division for an advancement to the playoffs. A meeting will be held at the December tournament to discuss the outcome of the experiment.

5. Rather than hold doubles tournaments on the Saturday of the regular SISBA tournaments, it was proposed that a Saturday squad to the tournament be held. Howard Christensen of Kaysville, Utah, motioned that this squad be held at 4 p.m. on Saturday. 

6. Dave John brought up lane courtesy and requested it be announced again to the bowlers. NO lane courtesy during the warmup, a ONE lane courtesy during the five-game qualifying, and a TWO lane courtesy during the match-play games. This was approved by the membership.

  END OF SEASON AWARDS

  With all the points added up and all the great bowling in the regular SISBA season behind us, it was time to give out the awards. This year's awards were provided by STORM, Inc. who sold the newest STORM balls at a very attractive price. 

  As only one prize per member is awarded, high series is awarded first with game and average following.

  For the Super Seniors, Dan Rorris of Burley, Idaho, had the high game with 278, Wynn Mortensen of Corinne, Utah, had high series of 1141. High average was achieved by Ron Hendricks of Fort Hall, Idaho, with a 208 average. The Super Senior Bowler of the Year was won by Howard Christensen of Kaysville, Utah, with an average of 205, a high series of 1134 and a high game of 290.

  In the regular "young" Seniors, high game was Bob Bywater of Heyburn, Idaho, with a game of 289. Dave John of Pocatello, Idaho, had high series with 1236. High average went to Don Winter of Kearns, Utah with 224. The SISBA Bowler of the Year for the second year was Max Shellabarger of Roy, Utah, who had a 231 average, rolled a high series of 1283, and had a high game of 289. He takes home the Wayne Siscoe Memorial Award.

  Remember, to qualify for the year-end awards, you must have bowled in six squads during the season. See Statistics for all the year-end numbers.

  We would like to thank the staff of Snake River Bowl for their great hospitality. Wally Studer and his crew always makes us feel welcome.

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