NORTH CANTON — When J.C. Heighway decided to return as commissioner of the Stark County High School Bowling Conference, he had two goals in mind.
The first was to preserve the now 22-year-old conference to keep high school bowling alive locally.
The second tied in with his six years as Walsh University’s head bowling coach.
“One of the things I’ve run into over the years at Walsh was what to do about college when the athletes’ high school years are completed,” Heighway said. “Returning the the conference, my focus has shifted to instead of coaching, trying to help kids to get there.
“That’s my next mission and my next goal.”
Although planning is in the early stages, Heighway hopes to establish a tournament series during the Summer of 2024 to help prepare conference athletes for college and provide some scholarship money at the same time.
“We would like to run a college prep tournament series, maybe three to five events, during June, July and August,” Heighway said. “We will give out scholarship money based on standings, but also try to provide visibility for these athletes to be seen by college coaches.”
Heighway plans to run the individual scratch events on various patterns employed in college tournaments. It would be open to high school sophomores through seniors — “Athletes already in high school,” he added — with an entry fee for each event. In addition, classroom instructional time will be provided prior to the events to give parents and athletes the opportunity to ask questions and receive information.
“College club teams can recruit beginning as freshman in high school so we don’t want to break any rules for the coaches. Many are already committed by their senior year, so we want to target sophomores and juniors to be,” Heighway sad. “We want to provide as much information as possible, but we don’t want to break any OHSAA or college rules in the process.
“We want the parents and kids to get an idea of what to expect and invite coaches to observe and scout these players. There are a lot of coaches in Ohio looking for bowlers constantly, and I developed a lot of contacts over my years at Walsh.”
Heighway said he is looking at a format featuring a four-game qualifier followed by match play, but it all is in the planning stages at this point. Tables also will be set up for college coaches to meet with potential recruits.
“The OBC (Ohio Bowling Conference) had four tournaments and a championship, and we’d like to try to simulate that in the summer without team events,” Heighway said. “Our goal here is to develop Stark County into a powerhouse and a factory of kids going to college. We want to give them that opportunity.”
RETURN OF FAMILIAR EVENTS
In addition, Heighway said a pair of familiar conference events will return in 2023. First will be the Alumni Bowling Tournament, set for 9 a.m. Oct. 22 at Park Centre Lanes.
This is open to up to six-player alumni teams representing any school in Ohio. For bowlers who did not attend high school in Ohio, they may bowl for their current residing school district.
This is an adult-only event; no high school or youth players may participate.
“We want to return it to an annual event as a fund-raiser for the conference,” Heighway said.
Entry fee is $170 per team, with bowlers rolling 12 Baker System games before the field is cut to the top eight for match play, based on 32 teams. In addition, teams that do not make the cut can bowl a second-chance event for prize money.
First place, based on 32 teams, will be worth $1,000.
In addition, the conference’s annual Early Bird Tournament to kick off the 2023-24 season is set for Nov. 18 also at Park Centre.
Entry information on both events is available at the conference’s website: https://www.schsbc.org/
The revised website also has been updated with school information, conference histories (including fliers from all past conference banquets), the SCHSBC constitution and schedule as well as other items.
“On some of the items, such as the constitution and rules, I’m still trying to determine what has changed over the two seasons that I’ve been gone,” Heighway said. “But I wanted to at least update to what we know at this point to get it up on the site.”
And there is more to come.
“We are trying to get as much done as possible as quickly as possible before we meet with the coaches later this month,” Heighway said. “We’re making solid progress. “We want to make this website as user-friendly as possible.”