Imagine you are a nine year old - waiting all day to play a baseball game. The excitement, the build-up... You just know you are going to hit a home run. Then at three o' clock the sky gets black, the light show starts and your mom tells you your game has been canceled for the second time this week. Your lip starts to tremble, but you can't cry because that is not cool. So what do you do?

Go bowling, of course! Bowling never gets rained out, and the excitement of a child when he throws his first spare, or strike or his personal high game is like watching a child blow out his birthday candles. The sense of pride and accomplishment is contagious.

Bowling has been around through the ages but I fear many people do not know what an incredible opportunity it is for youth as an individual and team sport. The sport of bowling reaches out to people of all ages and abilities. You don't have to be the fastest or strongest or even the most coordinated. Handicaps offer a level playing field for people of all averages to compete fairly against each other.

Bowling birthday parties are very popular in today's day and age, but many people do not know that most states offer bowling as a varsity or club sport at the high school and collegiate level. Most local bowling centers offer junior leagues and even adult/youth leagues at different times and days of the week. You get to be a part of a team and trained coaching is part of the program. Bowling as a youth sport is very inexpensive and the rewards are enormous.

One of bowling's best kept secrets, I believe, is the scholarship potential a student can earn just by being a part of a team. Each state and local association offers scholarship programs as well as programs at the national level. For instance, in Louisiana, for a $2 a year investment, every time a youth bowler bowls in a league or a sanctioned tournament they receive points that are distributed at the end of the year that translates directly into scholarship money.

I know a young lady who has been bowling for eight years and will be going to college very shortly. She is an average bowler - she will never make it as a professional bowler - but through bowling, she has her first two years of college paid for at an expensive state school. She has made friends that she will probably have for a lifetime and she certainly would not have met them otherwise.

Sports in general offer youth such an array of benefits that last through their entire life, but with bowling, not only are the benefits far reaching, it is a sport that you can do through your entire life. It is a sport that brings generations together!

Bowling is obviously not for everyone, but I wish more people knew about the many advantages of youth bowling and gave it a chance.