A contingent of lakecity bowlers came away with awards and trophies from the third and final round of the Central Interior Youth Classic (CIYC) in Quesnel earlier this month.
Held Feb. 2, nine Williams Lake bowlers took part in the tournament, which is hosted by at least three different city’s bowling centres on three different days stretching from early November until early February. At each event, held in Williams Lake (Nov. 3), Prince George (Nov. 10) and Quesnel (Feb. 2), participants bowled five games.
From Williams Lake Lila-Dawn McAlpine, Journey Carlson-Campbell, Piper Kosolofski, Kara-Lynn McAlpine, Caleb Cebuliak, Lily Stewart, Jayden-James McAlpine and, missing from photo, Meakin Carlson-Campbell and Jaidynn McCulloch took part in their respective bantam, junior and senior divisions.
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“The centres that send kids to this tournament are chosen by their average, not names, to mix up the teams so that the teams can be formed discreetly without knowing who they get on their teams,” said Williams Lake coach Travis McAlpine.
“These are chose by the team captains, who are also typically the higher average bowlers. The team captains also take a responsibility and mentoring role and they end up being their team’s coach.”
Travis said the coaching is interesting to watch because it is, in a sense, youth teaching youth to bowl by providing instruction.
“We experience in this tournament the team captains teaching the younger kids that we try as coaches to teach, and the younger kids listening to their pointers. Youth bowlers, teaching youth bowlers, kids teaching other kids, and it seems to work very well.”
Travis noted it’s nice to see the bowlers supporting each other, and helping each other out.
“They’re cheering each other on, and it’s just a lot of fun,” he said. “As coaches and co-ordinators it’s kind of nice. We got to sit back and watch, and enjoy.”
Awards are presented at the end of the third round for gold, silver- and bronze-place teams, as well as most sportsmanlike awards for each division, and a mentorship award.
READ MORE: Lakecity bowlers bring home medals from Prince George
Lakecity bowlers came away with the following hardware from the final round of the CICY:
• Lily Stewart, 9, along with her team from various cities, capture the bronze trophies
• Kara-Lynn McAlpine, 10, and Journey Carlson-Campbell, 12, along with their team, captured silver trophies
• Lila-Dawn McAlpine, 11, won the most sportsmanlike award in her division at the tournament
• Jayden-James McAlpine, 10, won the most sportsmanlike award in his division at the tournament.