August 28, 2009
By: Mark Martin
SAM
GREAVES
Bowling
is much more than a sport and there’s no better example of this than the story
of Janet Greaves of
As
a native of
In
the mid 1970’s she joined her first sanctioned league at North Hill Lanes in
From that experience her passion for the sport grew. Soon she purchased her first bowling ball, drilled by Bill Srock Sr. at North Hill Lanes. Then she took her first lesson from Ted Rabaja at Bowerman’s Peach Pit in Romeo.
She joined the Rochester Women’s Tuesday Night League at North Hill Lanes and continued to improve her skills. Her first 600 series was bowled in that league.
Around the same time I first was introduced to her, as she would come to the lanes during various high average leagues and keep score at a time before automatic scorers.
In the early 1980’s, while tending bar at North Hill Lanes, she got her first taste of professional women’s bowling when the Professional Women’s Bowling Association came to North Hill Lanes. She bowled in the pro-am both years the event was held at North Hill Lanes and met several of the women professional bowlers. Some of them encouraged Sam to try her hand at it and she did.
Among the professional women bowlers who gave her encouragement were Virginia Norton and Nikki Gianulias.
By her own admission she was only a part time player on the women’s tour, but did manage to participate in two U.S. Women’s Opens among her tournaments. During her short professional career she did manage to pick up the 5-7 split while on television as part of a professional team event.
After a few of years she decided to regain her amateur status.
In 1984 she married Nelson Greaves and this past February they celebrated 25 years of wedded bliss.
During
her career she has bowled one 300 game, two 299 games, a high series of 792 and
carried a high average of 214. She won four Pontiac Women’s Bowling
Association titles and two Michigan Women’s Bowling Association crowns. One of
the local bowlers she has looked up to is Carol Davis of
One
of her proudest moments as a competitor was to win the Michigan State Amateur
title in 1997. As a result she advanced to the national amateur in
While she never served on the Pontiac Women’s Bowling Association board of directors, she always was ready willing and able to volunteer to help the association and Jan Willson, long time secretary-treasurer of the organization. Sam considers Willson a great leader.
She served as a league officer in several leagues over the years including stints as league secretary and league president.
In
2008 when
With
the advancement of high school bowling in
Working with the high school bowlers, keeping the stats, writing the weekly press release and constantly pestering the sports department of the Oakland Press to run the information fueled her passion.
She’s so thankful for all of the lessons she has learned from the sport of bowling, specifically diplomacy, patience, learning people skills and the importance of having an inner circle of friends.
Unfortunately she is suffering from abdominal cancer, after beating bladder cancer. Her time is now short, but her attitude is great and looks back on a very full life she has experienced as a result of bowling.
She has received countless cards and phone calls of encouragement during her struggles. The one she shared with me was a large handmade card from her former and current high school bowlers, of which she was so proud.
She now knows the thrill that she has “made a difference in someone’s life”.
Sam Greaves is the perfect example of how to balance bowling and give back to the sport that she had come to love so much.
God Bless and Godspeed Sam from all of your friends.
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GAVIE TOURNAMENT RESULTS
A
sold out total of 112 teams competed for three divisional crowns at the 73rd
Annual John P. Gavie Tournament at Thunderbowl Lanes in
Pacing
the Open Division was the Royal Lanes team with a three-game total of 3,531.
Their set included team games of 1,255; 1,121 and 1,155. Dwayne Clark of
In
the Women’s Division the One Shot at a Time team won with a handicap total of
3,452. The team included Pamela Wilson of
Rounding
out the top three were First Time Round with 3,366 and Sweet Cherry Pie with
3,303.
Team
Dan Mayer won the Senior Division with a handicap score of 3,531. Sam Girgenti
of
NSBA
1 finished second with 3,527 and Royal Lanes was third with 3,503.
This
event officially kicked off the bowling season in
A
companion youth scholarship event was also held with 115 youth bowlers
competing.
In
the boy’s handicap division Zachary Colosimo of
Bridget
Moricz of
Evan
Luff of Riverview won the boy’s scratch division. He qualified fourth with a
six-game total of 1,364 and proceeded to win in match play. Daniel Jordan of
For
further information on the 73rd Annual John P. Gavie Tournament
contact Thunderbowl Lanes at (313) 928-4688.
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BUDWEISER
Pete Brown of Holt won the Budweiser Michigan Majors at Galaxy Lanes in Grand Blanc with an overtime 59-49 victory over Dale Hofmeister of Essexville.
In the championship match Brown and Hofmeister tied with 226 forcing the tiebreaker.
Brown was the top qualifier for the stepladder finals and took home the top prize of $1,000.
Hofmeister
qualified second and beat Ken Wyatt of
Earlier
Wyatt beat Eddie Grace of Howell 239-210 and Mike Calhoun of
Wyatt settled for $400, Calhoun $350 and Grace $300.
The
next Budweiser Michigan Majors event will be Sept. 19 at Royal Scot Lanes in
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HONOR SCORES
300
Games
Date,
Name, Hometown, Center, League
Aug.
17, Ed Austreng,
800
Series
Mark Martin writes a weekly bowling column for The Daily Oakland Press and is the association manager of the Metro Detroit USBC Association. He can be reached at (248) 443-2695, faxed at (248) 443-2690 or e-mailed at mark.martin@mdusbc.com.