The United States Bowling Congress announced Monday that it would hold a Summer Team USA Trials in July that will be the first chance to qualify for Team USA for 2014.
Two spots for both men and women will be awarded at the inaugural Summer Team USA Trials — inaugural means USBC plans to do this in future years — that will be held July 5-7 at the International Training and Research Center, which is the home of Team USA.
“Holding Team USA Trials exclusively in January creates schedule conflicts for some top bowlers, so we thought it was important and worthwhile to offer another opportunity to compete for a place on the team,” USBC Managing Director of National Governing Body Neil Stremmel said in this news release. “The spots awarded at the Summer Team USA Trials will be in addition to the ones given at the Team USA Trials in January 2014.”
USBC said the field for the Summer Team USA Trials will be limited to 40 men and 40 women. Invitations will first go out to current Team USA and Junior Team USA members, Team USA members from the past three years, and the top 25 men and women at the 2013 Team USA Trials.
An open application process will begin on April 3 for those not on the invited list. Any current USBC member with a 200 or higher average for men or 190 average or higher for women based on the USBC Sport Bowling average adjustment chart will be eligible to apply.
The Summer Trials will feature three games on Friday, six games on Saturday and six games on Sunday with a long, medium and short pattern used.
The 10 men and 10 women selected for Team USA for 2013 are detailed in my blog here after the Team USA Trials in January.
It will be interesting to see how many players compete in the Summer Trials, since historically the selected PBA stars have made up Team USA for the most important events — as they should be.
I think they should just ditch the Trials as a competition, maybe hold some tryouts with invitations and select all members of the team, similar to what the NBA does.
