During this COVID period, “help wanted” signs have become part of the business landscape.
It’s also part of recreational activities, with some participation numbers down as the world attempts to move past pandemic times and back to what will be considered the new normal.
Bowling, in some ways, is no exception.
The Ellsworth Auto Body-Budweiser Senior Traveling league had hoped to avoid the post-pandemic problem. But one of its 12 five-man teams still is minus a full roster six weeks into the 2021-22 season.
Meanwhile, a pair of Summit County-based senior traveling leagues continue to flourish.
“We need one bowler really badly,” Jose Rante, president of the now 30-year-old league, said. “Coming into the season, we knew we needed two bowlers, but we thought that wouldn’t be a problem.
“But we have about four guys on our sub list and none of them want to bowl full time.”
The league bowls at noon on Thursdays and travels to five centers during the season, including Park Centre, Eastbury, AMF Hall of Fame, Strike Zone and Spins Bowl Akron and has fees of $17 per week. The league day changes to noon Tuesdays when it bowls at Eastbury.
The league has three sponsors, including the two title sponsors and one “anonymous” donor, according to Rante, adding up to $1,900 added money. Each of the centers also sponsors teams and there are three outside sponsors — Pizza Oven, Rossi Funeral Home and Stahlhebers — with each paying a $150 fee.
But, according to the league officers, COVID is not the only reason for its difficulties in finding players.
“The biggest problem is our players are getting older, and there are not younger people to step up and take their places,” said league vice president Joe Norcia about the league which is for players ages 55 and older. “People are still working until age 65 now.”
Rante and secretary-treasurer Ray Bourquin agree.
“COVID was part of the problem,” Bourquin said, “but that’s not all of it.”
“The bowlers we lost are either too old or they’re just not going to come back at all after this,” Rante said.
Summit leagues remain strong
Jim Mitchell, a Plain Township resident who serves as secretary-treasurer of Summit County’s two senior traveling leagues, agrees that aging players plays a factor in rosters.
The Summit-based leagues — the Monday Tri-County Senior Traveling and Wednesday’s Senior All-Star Traveling — also are down teams this season.
The Tri-County had 20 teams pre-COVID, dropped to 14 last season, and now is at 19 for 2021-22. The All-Star, considered the stronger of the two leagues by Mitchell, was at 24 teams pre-COVID, dropped to 16 last season and is at 21 this season.
“I don’t contribute this all to COVID,” Mitchell said of the now 28-year-old leagues. “Some guys just get to that age where they feel they can’t compete. There also are guys who haven’t touched a bowling ball in two years.”
The leagues also had to endure the loss of a center prior to the season with the closing of Sto-Kent, so Roseland Lanes was added. But only on Mondays.
“Because of their own leagues, they couldn’t take us on Wednesdays,” Mitchell said. “So we had to double up on houses to fill the holes.”
Starting times are the same as in Stark County, fees are $17 and $18, respectively, and age limits are identical. But there are two major differences: the Summit-based leagues use four-bowler teams and allow women on the rosters.
“We have about eight-to-10 women in each league. We have one team that is all women in the Wednesday league,” Mitchell said. “I have a list of people, kind of a rollodex as they say. I’m a promoter kind of guy who gets on the phone and talks to people.
“People want to be asked to play. You just can’t put out a notice and hope they show up. You have to treat them right and gave fun with them.”
There are several Stark league players who also participate in either one or both of the Summit leagues.
Although the Summit leagues have no title sponsors (Monday used to be sponsored by the Summit County Bowling Proprietors), each team plays a $100 sponsor fee.
Stark changes?
Has the Stark travel league considered changes?
“We had talked about (four-man teams) when COVID hit,” said Norcia after the league went on hiatus for the remainder of the 2020-21 season in December 2020. “But most of the teams came back with five players.
“If we went to four, some teams who have five guys said, ‘OK, we will just rotate players and stay with our roster instead of dividing.’ ”
“With the 12 teams, we hated to go to four when we only needed two bowlers at the time of our meeting,” Rante said.
As for adding women, Rante said it hasn’t been discussed.
“We would have to talk about it, but it really has never been brought up,” he added.
Players also have tossed out the idea of stopping travel and bowling as a single-house league. That’s not going to happen, according to the officers.
“We are still going to travel. I think most of the guys still want to travel a bit,” Rante added.
Rante says there are no plans to add more centers. Spins Bowl Akron was added following the closing of 77 Colonial.
“We are going to stay at the five we have. We have older bowlers and some just don’t want to travel that far,” Rante said about adding additional centers in Summit County. “If we happen to lose another center, we may have to re-examine it.”
At its peak, the Stark league was at 14 teams. Now, it hopes to stay at 12.
“We could go to four-man teams or even a trio if we have to to,” Norcia added.
“We’re not going anywhere as a league,” Rante said. “We have one team that has expressed interest in getting back in next year.”
It’s all part of the post-pandemic new norm, even in bowling.