Bowling for Scholorships!

Bowling for scholars
Money for college makes league's fun even sweeterBy Robin RoenkerSPECIAL TO THE HERALD-LEADER
L. Curtis Hammond is a born teacher. Weekdays, the Morehead State University associate professor of music finds himself teaching French horn and music history to college students. On Saturdays, though, Hammond's classroom is a different sort altogether. His students are much younger. And the instrument of choice isn't a horn, but a bowling ball. Since last summer, Hammond has coached in and directed the youth bowling league at Mount Sterling's Sterling Lanes Family Fun Center. Under his leadership, the league has successfully transitioned from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning play and has grown to include 40 players, ages 6 through 13. Turns out, teaching French horn and coaching youth bowling have a lot in common, Hammond said. "There are so many similarities with both of them. ... It's all about getting them to have really strong fundamentals. And then letting them progress and go with them as they kind of develop their own individual styles," said Hammond, who has taught at Morehead State since 1993. Recently, Hammond and the league's other coaches -- Hammond's wife, Cathy, and Eric Spurlock, manager of Sterling Lanes -- incorporated a scholarship tournament component within the fall league, which runs September through April. At the first tournament, held April 21, $1,300 in college scholarship money was awarded to the top three boy and girl finishers.
The league held a raffle, sold T-shirts and held "split-the-pot" drawings at the bowling lanes to raise money for the scholarship prizes. Through similar events and business sponsorships, Hammond hopes to raise even more funds for future tournaments. "There are tournaments that kids can bowl in at the state or national level and earn scholarship money, and we thought that was a great idea. We wanted to do something on our own to get more kids a chance to earn scholarship money, and maybe higher amounts of scholarships," he said. The scholarship money goes into a SMART (Scholarship Management and Accounting Reports for Tenpins) account managed by the U.S. Bowling Congress until the student is ready to enroll in college or technical school, Hammond said. Daughter got professor back in the alley Hammond enjoys that, through bowling, his two young daughters, Abby, 9, and Meghan, 7, are already thinking about and saving for college. "When Abby goes to college, my guess is she'll have $2,000, $3,000 or $4,000" in bowling scholarship money, Hammond said. "She'll have a year of college paid for, just from doing bowling." Like her older sister, Meghan Hammond has become an active and accomplished young bowler. Both girls have placed highly at state tournaments. And the sport is something the family enjoys doing together often, Hammond said. "One of the things about bowling that's nice, is that not every kid is built to play football, and not every kid is built to play soccer. Not every kid is going to be able to shoot a basketball or hit a baseball, so here's another sport where they can develop self-discipline, and hand-eye coordination, athletic ability and those things," Hammond said. Bowling provides "good clean fun," to kids, said Connie Willoughby, whose stepdaughter, Judy, 9, participates in the league. "It's brought out social skills and abilities she never knew she had, and the scholarship component encourages the kids to continue their education, which is wonderful. "Judy absolutely loves it. She would stay at the bowling lanes 24/7 if we let her, because of her love of the game, and the excellent coaching she's received there." From 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Saturday during the summer and fall leagues, Hammond can be found helping kids perfect their play. Hammond said working around shorter attention spans is one of the biggest hurdles in coaching young bowlers. He likes to pull kids back to the carpet during down time between their turns to work on fundamentals. And he mixes in a lot of high-fiving and pats on the back to encourage them, even when the strikes may not be coming so easily. Hammond feels bowling is on the cusp of becoming a much more mainstream option for kids. "One of the reasons that bowling is not one of the things that parents think about with their kids is that long misconception of what bowling is," Hammond said. "You think of the old days, with the beer-drinking guys that are on league and all the cigarette smoking and stuff. But bowling has really taken off in this country, and there's a lot of interest with the youth."