Marvin Overby

Overby, 61, recently served as the Seminoles’ men’s head coach in addition to his duties as the director of Crenshaw Lanes in Oglesby Union. He helped lead Florida State to a runner-up finish at the 2001 Intercollegiate Bowling Championships despite being ranked only 19th heading into the tournament. He also helped lead the Florida State women’s team to a runner-up finish at the 2003 IBC.

Overby’s coaching stints at Florida State date back to 1964. He was one of the first to organize an intercollegiate bowling match in the state when the Seminoles took on the University of Florida.

Overby is survived by two daughters, Melanie Overby Snowden (and husband Corky) of Prattville, Ala., and Kelly Overby Byrd (and husband Alan) of Mobile, Ala.; a son, Matt Overby (and wife Charlee) of Destin, Fla.; two sisters, Kathy Benton (and husband Jeff) of Birmingham, Ala., and Joyce Walker (and husband Ray) of Houston, Miss.; a brother, Bob Overby (and wife Donna) of Little Rock, Ark.; and two grandchildren, Sydney Snowden and Mackenzie Byrd.

Central Florida Junior Repeats, Western Illinois Grad Wins First Title at Junior Gold
University of Central Florida junior Stefanie Nation, Orlando, Fla., successfully defended her title, while recent Western Illinois University graduate Clay Herrbach, Naperville, Ill., took home his first championship at the 2004 USA Junior Gold Bowling National Championships in Dallas in July.

The 2004 USA Junior Gold Bowling National Championships featured 1,307 of the best youth bowlers from across North America and U.S. military zones from around the world competing for more than $75,000 in scholarships, U.S. Junior Amateur titles and berths on Junior Team USA 2005. Each participant advanced to the national championships through local Junior Gold qualifying tournaments and leagues.

Stefanie Nation

Nation, 20, led after the three-day qualifying completed and cruised to the title with a 46-game total of 9,219, including 140 bonus pins thanks to a 14-2 record in the match play finals (a 197.37 average). Nation, who became a three-time Junior Team USA member, is the second individual to win multiple U.S. Junior Amateur titles - joining University of Nebraska senior Shannon Pluhowsky, Phoenix, who won three straight titles from 1999-2001.

“For whatever reason, the nerves are always there regardless how big the lead is,” said Nation, who was 15 years old when she claimed her first spot on Junior Team USA in 2000. “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I just might come back and go for No. 3.”

University of Nebraska sophomore Amanda Burgoyne, Newport, Minn., secured her third straight Junior Team USA berth by finishing third.

Clay Herrbach

“This is so much sweeter,” said Herrbach, who finished 10th at the 2003 USA Junior Gold Bowling National Championships but was added to Junior Team USA by the National Selection Committee. “I wanted to make it myself and prove to everyone that it wasn’t a fluke.”

Fresno State University sophomore P.J. Haggerty, Clovis, Calif., finished third with 9,414.

Junior Team USA 2005 includes other collegiate bowlers: Fresno State’s Michelle Quirk and Brittany Tierney, Fairleigh Dickinson’s Elysia Current, Central Florida’s Shawn Ryan and Nebraska’s Erik Vermilyea.

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Collegiate bowlers display talent, sportsmanship at WTBA World Youth Championships
Collegiate bowlers on Junior Team USA 2004 took home plenty of hardware – and some well-deserved sportsmanlike praise – from the World Tenpin Bowling Association World Youth Championships in Guam in August.

Wichita State’s Olivia Sandham, Wichita, Kan., and Anita Manns, Austin, Texas, along with Central Florida’s Stefanie Nation, Orlando, Fla., helped lead the United States to its first girls team gold medal in the event’s history.

David O'Sullivan

Nation also claimed a pair of silver medals along with Morehead State’s David O’Sullivan, Yonkers, N.Y.; Western Illinois’ Clay Herrbach, Naperville, Ill.; and Fresno State’s P.J. Haggerty, Clovis. Calif.

O’Sullivan also claimed bronze in boys singles in a truly golden way.

O’Sullivan originally had a 1,247 six-game series to earn the silver medal. At the time it was believed that his 276 final game vaulted him into second place. However, prior to the medal ceremony, O’Sullivan discovered that he had been inadvertently credited with six additional pins in his second game -- which would lower his score from 208 to 202.

O’Sullivan immediately reported the error to tournament officials and the score adjustment dropped his total to 1,241 and into third place for the bronze medal. Ireland’s Paul Scott was awarded the silver for his 1,246 total. Jason Belmonte of Australia won the gold with 1,316.

Despite the third-place finish, O’Sullivan’s honesty and sportsmanship had the tournament’s competitors, officials and spectators buzzing.

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United States Dominates Tournament of the Americas with Help from Collegiate Stars
The United States capped off an impressive showing at the 2004 Tournament of the Americas in August in Miami – thanks in large part to a slew of collegiate stars from Team USA and Junior Team USA 2004.

Richard Fairley Jr.

Amanda Burgoyne

Virginia Tech’s Richard Fairley Jr., Lynchburg, Va., and Kansas’ Rhino Page, San Diego, helped lead Team USA to the adult team gold medal. Fairley, the 2004 U.S. Amateur champion, also captured gold in all-events and a pair of bronze medals earlier in the week – one in singles and one in doubles with Page.

Nebraska’s Amanda Burgoyne, Newport, Minn.; Morehead State’s Lindsey Coulles, Centerville, Ohio; and Central Florida’s Jeffrey Mersch, Tampa, Fla., helped Junior Team USA cruise to the junior team gold medal.

Burgoyne, the 2004 Women’s International Bowling Congress Alberta E. Crowe Star of Tomorrow, won the junior women’s all-events gold, while Mersch earned the junior men’s all-events gold. Burgoyne also earned the junior division’s Sportsmanship Award, voted on by her peers.

Coulles, the 2003 WIBC Alberta E. Crowe Star of Tomorrow, took the junior women’s all-events silver. Earlier in the week, Coulles earned gold in singles and in doubles with Burgoyne, who was the singles silver medalist and mixed doubles silver medalist.

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Pluhowsky, Asbaty named to BJI All-America team
Three-time U.S. Amateur Champion and four-time Team USA member Shannon Pluhowsky, Phoenix, and 1999 U.S. Amateur Champion and six-time Team USA member Diandra Asbaty, Chicago, were the only amateurs selected to the 2003-04 Bowlers Journal International All-America team announced in the publication’s August issue.

Shannon Pluhowsky.

Pluhowsky, a senior on the University of Nebraska bowling team, enjoyed one of the most remarkable runs during 2003-04. She led the Huskers to the first NCAA title in April, earning MVP honors, while also capturing the Collegiate Singles Championship title. She also won her third consecutive U.S. Amateur title, placed second at the 2003 Bowling World Cup and finished seventh at the Women’s International Bowling Congress Queens, in addition to her gold medal at the 2003 Pan American Games.

Pluhowsky is joined on the five-member squad by professional bowlers Michelle Feldman, Marianne DiRupo, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard and Tennelle Milligan. She is one of only a few select amateurs named to BJI’s first team over the last 40 years.

Diandra Asbaty.

Asbaty, who competed at Nebraska from 1999-2003, enjoyed a strong 2003-04 season, bringing home four medals at the FIQ World Championships last fall.

She won a gold medal in the Women’s Masters and established a six-game tournament scoring record with a 1,496 in the women’s doubles event.

Asbaty joined Dede Davidson, Tiffany Stanbrough, Liz Johnson and Kendra Gaines on the publication’s second team. Asbaty was the only amateur on the second team.

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Vadakin Part of Elite Charter Class Inducted into Wichita Hall of Fame
Longtime Wichita State head coach Gordon Vadakin was inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame when its charter class was honored on July 17.

After a successful career as a collegiate bowler at Wichita State, Vadakin joined the Shockers as head coach in 1977. Vadakin has coached 11 of the program’s 13 national championship teams and his teams are consistently ranked among the best in the nation.

Vadakin is a member of Team USA’s coaching staff and leads a series of successful summer youth bowling camps that attract young bowlers from across the country and overseas. He also prides himself on developing collegiate bowlers who are successful on the lanes and in the classroom. In 2003-04, 12 Wichita State bowlers were honored as Academic All-Americans, earning a 3.5 grade-point average or higher.

Nationally recognized as one of the top collegiate bowling programs, Vadakin’s program has produced such Professional Bowling Association stars as Rick Steelsmith, Justin Hromek, Lonnie Waliczek, Chris Barnes and Patrick Healey Jr.

Vadakin joined 20 others as the charter class of inductees, including NFL Hall of Famer Barry Sanders, legendary Wichita State baseball coach Gene Stephenson, former NBA player Antoine Carr and Lynette Woodard, a member of the gold-medal winning 1984 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team.

Earlier in the year, Wichita State assistant coach Mark Lewis was inducted into the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame.

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Wichita State’s Sandham Shines at WIBC Queens
Wichita State junior Olivia Sandham finished third at the Women’s International Bowling Congress Queens Tournament in Wichita, Kan., in May.

Olivia Sandham.

Sandham, a Team USA 2004 member and 2002 U.S. Junior Amateur Champion, was seeded second entering the ESPN2-televised stepladder finals. She was defeated in the third game by 2002 Professional Women’s Bowling Association Player of the Year Michelle Feldman, 245-159.

Feldman went on to lose to seven-time PWBA winner Marianne DiRupo in the championship. Sandham earned $7,500 for her third-place finish out of a field of 258 competitors.

More than 20 participants were current or former Wichita State bowlers. Notables included: Colombian national team members Clara Guerrero and Sara Vargas; 2004 National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association All-Americans Anita Manns and Maggie Smith; and two-time Team USA member Kristal Scott.

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Women’s Bowling Programs Gain NCAA Varsity Status Beginning in 2004-05
Membership in the NCAA women’s bowling family continues to get more crowded as Vanderbilt University, Louisiana Tech University, Arkansas State University and Minnesota State University-Mankato have added women’s intercollegiate bowling to their athletic programs.

Their membership pushes the total number of NCAA institutions sponsoring women’s bowling to 46 for the 2004-05 season.

John Williamson

Vanderbilt tabbed John Williamson as the Commodores’ head coach. He had spent the last two years serving as Vanderbilt’s director of baseball operations Bowling becomes Vanderbilt’s 16th varsity program.
Shawn Jackson, a former Louisiana Tech track star, was named the first women’s bowling head coach at his alma mater. The 33-year-old Buffalo, N.Y., native also is in his 10th year as an assistant track coach.

Minnesota State-Mankato club bowling coach George Cejka was selected as the Mavericks’ first women’s bowling head coach. Cejka, coordinator of indoor recreation at MSU’s Centennial Student Union, has guided the Mavericks’ club program since 1999. A 1985 Florida State graduate, Cejka served as the head coach of the Florida State bowling teams from 1986-1998.

Arkansas State tabbed Chris James, league and public relations coordinator at the Jonesboro (Ark.) Bowling Center, as its first head coach. The 32-year-old James, who has been at the center since 1992, has rolled seven perfect games and is a Professional Bowlers Association member. He also was a key contributor to the Arkansas state high school bowling program, which was granted varsity recognition by the Arkansas Activities Association beginning with the 2004-05 season.

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