BATON ROUGE - It seems only right that a long-standing tradition of the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships was broken before a ball was rolled in the 2025 event at the Raising Canes River Center in downtown Baton Rouge.

It was a typical opening ceremony featuring local and bowling officials welcoming the first group of bowlers as well as a Louisiana brass band and the famed Mass Ball Shot where a member of each team rolls a ball down the tournament lanes together. It’s an annual huge photo op.

One of the traditions of the event is the selection of “Joe Bowler” which started in 1951 to give a member of one team to represent all the bowlers and throw the ceremonial shot. This year Shellie Camarate of Chino Hills, California was chosen which meant for the first time “Joe Bowler” became “Josephine Bowler.”

“This is our first year bowling the opening squad, and our organizer let us know there was a good chance of someone from our group getting picked as ‘Joe Bowler’ since we had so many teams bowling,” said Camarata, who made her 16th tournament appearance. “I never thought I was going to be the one.

“I was just in complete shock but really excited. It’s an honor to know that I am the first woman in the history of this tournament and hope for more women to get picked in the future.”

Even more special was that along side for the moment was her father she was bowling with, Martin Camarata.

One thing is that Joe or Josephine Bowler is given a cape to wear to throw the first shot. It took a second try before how to wear the cape and throw a bowling ball was figured out but she got nine on the shot which is very good.

A total of 28 teams bowled on the opening shift, the first of more than 11,600 five-player teams. Included in that opening shift was USBC and PBA Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli who rolled a 606 series (202 average). 

The hall of famers on Sunday's squad included Mike Aulby, Monacelli and Bryan Goebel. All three are in the PBA Hall of Fame, and Goebel will join Aulby and Monacelli in the USBC Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class. Monacelli (680) and his partner Andres Molinary (640) were able to get to a 1,320 total in Regular Doubles, while Goebel is the clubhouse leader for Regular Singles (695) as well as Regular All-Events with 1,991.

Long way to go but a good score has been posted quickly.

The opening weekend was the climax of a great opening week that included two days of the Special Olympics National Unified Tournament which returned for its 33rd edition alongside the USBC Open to give more than 375 athletes and unified partners representing 22 states and Curaçao the chance to compete on the national level.

Heard from some people that there were some good scores in the tournament, including a 700 and a high 600 set.

Friday night, more than $35,000 was raised in the Mayor’s Celebrity Charity Benefit on the tournament lanes. This has been held at all three Opens in Baton Rouge with great success and it was quite a fun-filled night.

So now we settle in for some serious days and nights of bowling along with some early mornings the way things go. Once the full shifts begin in a couple of weeks, bowling will start at 7 a.m. and the last shift will finish sometime around 2:30 a.m. each day.

Let the Downtown Bowling Games Begin!

High School Update

              There is no prep bowling this week because of the Mardi Gras break which allows us to get updated a little bit on individual numbers. Here are a few of the season highs in Baton Rouge:

              Boys – Braiden Torres (Dutchtown) 268-749 (second best average 218.86); Luke Chapman (East Ascension) 279-739 (top average 225.95); Sam Battaglia (Prairieville) 290-730; Anthony Authement (East Ascension) 269-713; Colton Karisny (Catholic) 269; Ian Surla (Dutchtown) 268.

              Girls – Ava Doucet (St. Joseph’s) 276-735; Gracie Dawson (Denham Springs) 279-707 (top average 215.54); Sydney Lee (Dutchtown) 760 (second best average 198.84); Parker Blanchard 254-652; Brooke Hernandez (St Amant)256; Annie Laurence (Denham Springs) 255.

              With both the Open and High School, coverage will be a little bit split up, but next week we’ll update the power rankings and what’s ahead for the final two weeks of the regular season.

A Final Thought

I appreciate the response we received last Monday when we debuted the bowling column in our new home. Tell all your bowling friends and remember WBRZ.com is a free site and we will be here now every week on Monday evenings and more frequently when special events happen. So until next Monday, especially if you are in town bowling the Open, good luck and good bowling!

    - Kent Lowe