source: PWBA
2019 PWBA US Open Champion - Danielle McEwan
Better late than never. But it's Danielle.
Last month as the #2 seed coming into stepladder finals of the 2019 PWBA US Open, Danielle defeated #3 seed Shannon O'Keefe and top seed/tour roommate Tannya Roumimper to win her first green jacket and second major championship. Grace under pressure, Danielle needed to bowl consecutive strikes in her semi-final and final matches to win.
I watched the entire broadcast live on the edge of my seat screaming at the TV. I have since watched it 2 more times on my DVR.
source: PBA.com
eligible bowlers for 2018 League Draft
Two days ago, the PBA held their league draft. For 8 PBA League teams, they have to declare 3 bowlers from their 2017 roster that will not be included in the draft.
This leaves team managers to select 2 players to complete their roster.
On the left are the 51 eligible PBA bowlers for 2018's draft. Only 16 of them will be selected. Last week's PBA Tournament of Champions winner Matt O'Grady was the first bowler drafted.
Among the 35 bowlers that were eligible for 2018 but not drafted were PWBA members Danielle McEwan and Liz Johnson. They both bowled on teams in 2016 and 2017.
In my opinion, 35 bowlers not selected is too many. Based on the popularity the league has had since moving it to Portland, Maine, I'd like to see 2 more teams added to the league. And make one of them from the San Francisco Bay Area.
source: PWBA
2017 PWBA Orlando finalists
L to R: Birgit Poppler, Danielle McEwan, Liz Johnson, Stefanie Johnson
Earlier this month, finalists for PWBA's Orlando Open were announced. The stepladder finals will air on CBS Sports Network Tuesday, August 15, 5:30 pm Eastern Time (8:30 pm Pacific Time).
Like basketball, tennis, volleyball and swimming, it's great to see women competing at the college and professional levels get recognition for athletic skills and abilities once given exclusively to men.
A recent example is University of Oklahoma softball pitcher Paige Parker. Last month, a video that went viral demonstrated how much respect she got from Kansas City Royals catcher Drew Butera when she threw a few warmup pitches to him.
While not quite the power Paige had in her pitches, professional women bowlers can throw it fast too. Below is the PWBA Orlando Open group stepladder finals. The slowest speed was 14 mph. Most ball speeds were in the high 15 mph range, some as high as 17 mph.
Keep in mind the women shown bowling likely weigh no more than 150 pounds and throw a 15-pound ball - same as the men. The heaviest allowable weight for a bowling ball is 16 pounds.
source: PWBA
Liz Johnson, 2016 PWBA US Open Champion
source: Weber Cup
L to R: Jesper Svensson, captain Dom Barrett, Stu Williams, Martin Larsen
Big day of bowling in Addison (Chicago area), Illinois and Manchester, England.
CBS Sports broadcasted live this morning the PWBA US Open Championship Finals.
Kudos to CBS Sports Network for bringing in Dave Lamont for the play-by-play call. He's very articulate and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the game. Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear very much due to poor audio throughout the entire match.
Liz Johnson began as the #4 seed to step up the ladder to capture her 5th US Open title over longtime Team USA member Shannon Pluhowsky.
Special recognition to Singapore's Shayna Ng (2nd seed, 3rd place finish), New Hui Fen (3rd seed, 4th place finish) and Jazreel Tan (10th) for their strong Top 10 finish.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, Team Europe for the 4th consecutive year won Weber Cup 19-11 over Team USA. As it was last year, Team Europe was the much stronger, more experienced team.
In my humblest of opinions, if Team USA is going to remain competitive in Weber Cup, they need to reassess the team selection. Maybe even bold enough to include a woman. And for those of you who regularly read this blog, you know I'm talking about Marshall Kent's girlfriend, Danielle McEwan.
Why? She's 24, got tons of international experience and has shown she's bowled well with men in PBA League and tournaments outside the United States. Without pointing fingers, let's just say the frequent flier miles for Team Europe are a lot higher than Team USA's.
Below is one of many Weber Cup matches from this past weekend. Big thanks to The European Bowling Channel for getting the videos so quickly to YouTube.
I'll close with the PWBA US Open semi-final match between Liz Johnson and Shayna Ng. I show this match because it was her third match in the stepladder to get her to the finals. She overcame a foul in the 10th frame and still won.
Thanks again to bowlingvideos4all for your tireless work to get these matches to YouTube as fast as you do.
If you follow my blog posts regularly, I write about these bowlers often. They've been my favorite bowlers in the PBA and PWBA for some time now.
Young, poised, modest, and for the past year, bowling extremely well. So well they finished in the top 3 in the World Bowling Tour point standings.
Dom Barrett, 1st seed, men's division.
Danielle McEwen, 2nd seed, women's division.
The games were bowled in a new World Bowling Tour format. Very easy to follow. Each strike is 30 pins. Spares are 10 pins + number of pins thrown on first ball. Splits and opens are the total pin count after 2 balls thrown. A conventional 300 game is 12 consecutive strikes. In the modified format, 10 consecutive strikes is a 300 game.
Today, the dynamic D's won their respective matches. Dom earned an additional $10,000 dollars for his perfect game. Thanks to YouTube's bowlingvideos4all quick work, they're already available to view.
source: Bowl.com
L to R: Shannon O'Keefe, Stefanie Johnson, Danielle McEwen, Shannon Pluhowsky, Kelly Kulick, Liz Johnson
Congratulations to Team USA on your gold medal against Korea in the World Women's Championships in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). Special congrats to anchor bowler Liz Johnson for her perfect 300 game in the match.
A few days earlier, hotter than Hades Danielle McEwen and partner Kelly Kulick captured gold in doubles.
Wanna see how The Golden Girls did it? Here's video of both gold medal winning matches:
As Danielle McEwan begins bowling with Team USA in the 2015 Women's World Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, I thought it'd be fun to see Danielle bowl from her youth and college bowling days.
From 2009 Teen Masters (with a 5-step approach and stronger New York accent when interviewed):
And, as the anchor bowler when she was a junior at Fairleigh Dickinson University:
In case you missed my blog entry from last month, here's the link from November 1.
Good luck to you, Kelly, Shannon O, Shannon P, Liz and Stefanie in Abu Dhabi.
Ryan Ciminelli, 2015 Bowlmor AMF US Open winner source: Bowl.com
Congratulations to lefty Ryan Ciminelli on winning the 2015 Bowlmor AMF US Open today. He defeated 4th seed and this author's favorite bowler Dom Barrett. Dom defeated defending champion Wes Malott, longtime greats Norm Duke and Pete Weber in the stepladder finals before losing to Ryan, 236-223.
Special recognition to Danielle McEwan, who bowled well enough to qualify for match play, cashed out and finished in a tie for 23rd place with Dom's Weber Cup teammate, Stuart Williams.
If you didn't see the finals today, wait 1-3 weeks and it should be available for viewing on YouTube. As it is with major bowling tournaments, it was an exciting match to watch. So glad CBS Sports got Dave Lamont and PBA legend Marshall Holman to call the action.
I'll close with a slow motion video from the US Open featuring Ryan and my Storm Nation favorites featured right after each other: Marshall Kent, Danielle and Dom.
- Three gold medals (trios, team, Masters) and one bronze medal (doubles) at 2014 PABCON Championships
- Fourth at 2012 and 2013 QubicaAMF World Cup
- One gold medal (team) at 2012 WTBA World Youth Championships
- One gold medal (team) at 2011 PABCON Youth Championships
- Four gold medals (all-events, doubles, team, national all-events) and two silver medals (singles, mixed doubles) at 2011 Tournament of the Americas
Other
- 2012 and 2013 USBC Team USA Trials champion
- Runner-up at 2015 USBC Team USA Trials
- Third at 2013 U.S. Women's Open (see my July 20, 2013 blog entry)
- Bowled collegiately at Fairleigh Dickinson
- NCAA Player of the Year in 2012 and 2013
- First-team Collegiate All-American and Academic All-American in 2011, 2012 and 2013
- FDU Female Athlete of the Year in 2012 and 2013
- 2011, 2012 and 2013 Northeast Conference Bowler of the Year
- 2010 Collegiate Masters champion
- 2010 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player and member of National Championship team
This is all very impressive. The long list continues to grow. For the past 2 months, Danielle's been on another planet.
-Wins PWBA Tour Championship
-Invited to 2015 World Women's Championships for Team USA
-Wins South Point PBA West Challenge
-Wins PBA Team Challenge with her team, Dead Money
What's inspiring about Danielle is her poise at such a young age. Her game should be shown on all bowling instructional videos, as her form is fundamentally sound.
You can see it here in the PWBA Southfield Open (Women's Tour Championship):
And as the only female on a team that bowled against the heavily favored 4 Majors and 100 at 1 (Bill O'Neill, Tommy Jones, Tom Daugherty, Wes Malott and Jason Belmonte), it was team work and calm under pressure which enabled them to win the 2-game Baker System match. For me, a big plus to see 2015 Weber Cup captain Dom Barrett appear as a guest analyst.
As I'm sticky, tired and listless from the heat today (86F in San Francisco, 99F in the Peninsula), I'm all about posting something easy. Below is video from last weekend's PWBA tournament in Topeka, Kansas.
Former Nebraska standout Liz Kuhlkin came in as the #3 seed. Liz defeated Clara Guerrero, Liz Johnson and top seed Danielle McEwan to claim her first PWBA title.
What wasn't mentioned but very visible on the jerseys the finalists wore: 7 of the 8 bowlers are sponsored by Storm Bowling. The only non-Storm bowler, Wes Malott, is sponsored by Roto Grip and a member of Storm Nation. Storm Bowling purchased the Roto Grip brand name in 1997.
As I wrote in my August 26, 2012 blog entry "Bowlers in the Family", the bowling community is very closely connected. Some facts about the finalists in this year's tournament confirm their closeness:
Liz Johnson (Women's Division) and Wes Malott (Men's Division), today's champions, each earned $50,000. The Battle of Sexes match that followed after their championship matches was a PBA semi-final rematch from the 2005 Banquet Open. Liz defeated Wes, but lost in the final match to Tommy Jones. Liz earned an additional $10,000 for defeating Wes a second time.
Pete Weber, son of Dick Weber.
Jason Belmonte and Diandra Asbaty are 2 of the 3 founders of the bowling experience group - International Art of Bowling.
Marshall Kent and Danielle McEwan are Team U.S.A. members and entered the U.S. Open as amateurs. Marshall is a student at Robert Morris University and Danielle attends Fairleigh Dickinson University. The romantic in me thinks it's very sweet that they are also boyfriend and girlfriend. Both of their Twitter profiles show pictures of them together.
@Danielle_McEwan
@MarshallKent299
To me, it's beyond awesome that Danielle and Marshall made the U.S. Open finals at the same time. I've become a fan. Danielle is 21, Marshall is 20 and excited to know they will be a big part of professional bowling's future.
