Manville duo accumulates scholarship funds
By: Mary Ellen Zangara
Jeff Szabo took part in the New Jersey Elks Youth Sports Tournament again this year taking a $250 scholarship for his sport of bowling. Szabo was sponsored by the Somerville Elks Lodge No. 1068 for the second year in a row and competed against some of the best youth bowlers in the state.
The tournament, sponsored by the New Jersey State Elks Association was held July 23-25 at the Fernwood Resort in Bushkill Falls, Pa. Participants were able to compete against others from the state in golf, bowling and tennis with $6,000 in scholarships available to win.
Szabo competed and won a $250 scholarship for taking first place for the senior male in bowling. This was the third year he participated in the tournament winning scholarships the past two years in bowling. Last year, Szabo took the top honor and scholarship of the tournament.
"It was a good time," Szabo said. "I was 84-plus or minus-200 through five games. Then I really thought I was out if it, but I wasn’t because everyone was bowling that bad. So in the last game, I just moved left and threw the ball harder and I shot 239 so that kind of put me back in the mixture of everything. I finished the first day averaging 190 and I was in second place of the senior division.
"The second day I started out 220, 200 and 220 and the person in first place bowled bad so I beat him by a lot and I won the senior division," Szabo continued. "Now it is my second straight win. I lost the overall scholarship of $750 by 20 pins to a junior. I was second overall."
There were a few of the same competitors that Szabo had faced from last year again at this year’s tournament.
"There were about five or six and a bunch of new kids from down South Jersey. I met a lot of new people and I have to go visit them when I go down to Seaside," he said.
Szabo came home for a few days and continued traveling with his bowling. He and his friend Ernie Lukacs, along with their dads, traveled almost 3,000 miles to Las Vegas to compete in a junior bowling tournament, the Las Vegas Open. They left Aug. 2 and returned Aug. 7. Getting to Vegas was an experience for Szabo as this was the first real time he flew and when he arrived at the airport in Las Vegas, his luggage was missing.
"We went to baggage claim and a bag was missing," Szabo said. "It was the two balls that they left in Newark. I was pretty sad because I knew I needed those two balls. I had sent four out through UPS before I left. The balls came the next morning to our hotel at like seven in the morning. They were my spare balls and I figured I would need them. I took six balls total."
They bowled in the early birds and Szabo was ahead of Lukacs and at the last game by nine pins. Lukacs shot 250 while Szabo shot 220 with a 700 set. Szabo came in sixth overall in the early birds and won $90 from that. After the first day, Szabo was in 41st place and the cut was plus-97 and they took 28 bowlers for the cut.
"I bowled six games on Saturday and I got to use the ‘Big One,’ my favorite ball. I bowled a lot better I finished plus-76 for those six games and I finished the tournament plus-115 and I thought I was out of it. The cut was 97 the first day and I thought it would be 150.
"Everyone said that I had a chance," Szabo continued. "We went to the strip that day and when we came back for the cut, they were announcing all the 20 names in order and I was counting places. Then they got to the 26th place and I realized I finished 29th, one spot over the 28th. I wasn’t happy, but I came all the way out here but I bowled well."
Overall Szabo won $222.00 in scholarships there.
Lukacs enjoyed his Vegas trip, too.
"I bowled great for the two rounds of qualifying. On the first day, I was 90 over and the second day I was 130 over and I was 14th going into the next round. In the last match, I went six and two finishing 12th overall in the whole tournament. On Thursday, I came in second place when I shot 728 and made $200 for that. I missed first place by 22 pins.
"I didn’t do good in Friday’s extra tournament. Saturday in the tournament, I came in second again doing match play facing five kids, one game matches. I made $200 in that too. So overall I made $750 in scholarships. I bowled good."
While in Vegas, both young men also took in some of the sights like the lights, the shows and Fremont Street. Unfortunately, they are too young to gamble. They noted that most of the tournaments in Las Vegas were won by East Coast bowlers and jokingly said the those bolwers were better than the western guys. The pair planned to travel again on weekends to more tournaments in Connecticut and other places before school started adding to their college scholarship fund.
Szabo is a senior at Immaculata High School and is planning to attend college majoring in business. For the past two years, he has about $2,200 in scholarships so far from winning bowling tournaments. Lukacs is a sophomore at Raritan Valley Community College.