OPERATIONS
Ken and Laurie Yokobosky with their sons and pro Walter Ray Williams, Jr.
shop employee, coach Chip Vincent, going from lane to lane to resurface people’s bowling balls with a ‘surface management station.’ He sanded the balls, from rough all the way to smooth grit so they could see how much their ball reaction would change. I tell people you can have a Lamborghini, but if it has bald tires and you are driving on a slippery surface, it won’t be worth anything. Without that traction, no engine will help you out. Altering the surface of your ball can impact so much more than say moving your pin placement,” recounted Yokobosky. Planning for the three day event starts almost a year in advance, because it’s a tremendous undertaking. First, all the coaches need to be available on the same weekend. That alone is a big challenge, as one of the four gold level coaches is coaching for a national team, so she doesn’t have much flexibility. Once the date is set, Yokobosky negotiates with local hotels to get special rates for the coaches and out-of-town campers. The manuals need to be written and printed: the camp is different every year, therefore, they can not be recycled from year to The pro coaching staff for Bowling Boot Camp.
year. Food preparation for the weekend is necessary as the camp provides breakfast and lunch for all coaches and campers. Arrangements have to be made with the bowling center for lane conditioning, with alternate lanes getting a house shot or sport shot. Yokobosky contacts each of the bowling ball companies to see if they want to be part of the camp in some form. Advertising the weekend with brochures is also a large task, while all past attendees are contacted to give them the first opportunity to sign up. Finally, staff uniform shirts are designed and ordered. During Bowling Boot camp, a sports psychologist and/or a PBA professional comes in and works with the campers. In earlier camps, Dr. Eric Lasser and Dr. Dean Hinitz have had interactive presentations. Pros such as Jason Couch, Ryan Shafer, Pete Weber, Parker Bohn III, Rhino Page, and Walter Ray Williams, Jr. are on hand to answer questions, do some coaching, and participate in a challenge match at the end of the third day with one lucky camper. If a center or pro shop would like to produce its own Bowling Boot Camp, Yokobosky suggests “Start out small. Have one feature coach, one lead instructor and one gold level coach. Put a minimum of one coach on each pair of lanes and no more than six bowlers per pair. This is the most effective.” For Yokobosky, it’s not about selling more equipment; it’s about giving back to the sport he loves. “While I am in the pro shop business and would love to sell equipment, I try to encourage the campers to look into resurfacing their existing bowling balls. For a little under $10 we can help them. All of that leads to loyal, trusting customers. And for $25 we can use specially-made ovens to extract oil from the ball. Of course,” Yokobosky laughs, “if they still want to buy new equipment, who am I to stop them?” Already the planning has begun for the twelfth annual Bowling Boot Camp (June 29-30, July 1, 2012). Thus, Yokobosky and nine coaches, and Rich Mark and his staff at Rockaway Lanes are sacrificing three days once again to give something back to bowling and to their bowlers. And if the existing campers keep returning and new customers are generated, well that’s just icing on the cake! ❖
Joan Taylor is a multi-award winning bowling writer based in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
36
IBI
April 2012