Sunday, March 25, 2012
Prior to the start of the B-squad qualifier for last Saturday’s PBA Hubbard Open, Bobby Jackel, the regional tournament manager out of Chicago, was inspecting the lanes.
Jackel, all 6-foot-7 of him, walked across each lane at Bell-Wick Bowl, making sure they were clean as well as making sure the Viper pattern looked uniform.
Most importantly, he made sure the back end — the last 23 feet of a 37-foot pattern — was clean.
A day later, Rhino Page beat Ryan Ciminelli for the title and $2,600 following a one-game match.
Jackel, the PBA Central Region manager, talked about the prospects of the Hubbard Open for a third straight year.
“We’re already talking about coming back next year, so that’s encouraging,” Jackel said of the event that includes both the PBA Central and East regions.
“I don’t see why not,” he added. “In fact, next year we’re going to try to make it even bigger and better, whether it’s sponsorship money or something else we may do, like changing the format to make it a little bit better for the players.”
He also gave a passing grade to Bell-Wick as a venue.
“They’re doing everything right for us to come back,” said Jackel, who was impressed with the pro-am participation that kicks off the mid-March stop’s weekend.
Quality of field is another component in the Hubbard Open’s favor.
“There are plenty of exempt players and high-caliber regional bowlers,” Jackel said of Rhino Page, Ryan Ciminelli, Joe Ciccone, Brian Kretzer, Ryan Shafer and Mike Machuga. “There are a lot of good bowlers, in general, from both the Central and East regions.”
Tournament date selection requires input from several sources.
“It’s kind of a working relationship between me and Jim Bryant, who raised a lot of the sponsorship money, as well as the bowling center,” Jackel said of Bryant, the Hubbard Open organizer, along with Bell-Wick proprietor Francis Zitnik.
“This date worked well last year (2011), worked well this year (2012) and will probably work well next year (2013), depending on whether there’s nothing going on with the PBA national tour,” Jackel said. “If you were to have this [Hubbard Open] on a weekend when there would be a national tour event going on then it could definitely weaken the field.”
Last weekend’s field of 100 was similar to the inaugural Hubbard Open.
“That’s good, considering that we’re in the process of fighting the economy,” Jackel said. “We’re trying to give the best product we can with the means that we have. In that aspect, it’s been a hugely successful last two years.”
Although the Cleveland area holds a few regionals, Hubbard’s location is ideal.
“The funny thing is, if you drive three miles, you’re in Pennsylvania, which is in the East Region, not the Central Region,” Jackel said. “So that’s why it works out well to have this a combined event, which brings guys [draw from both regions] together.”