With all the chaos this summer: losing our manager, having no manager for six weeks, and lingering doubts about the building lease, I really wasn't sure how the fall season would turn out at the center. Our first week was okay, but far from blockbuster, on Saturday. The Sunday adult/junior league seemed to show some promise--way up from summer, and even up from the previous spring. Then we got to the second weekend. Not everyone shows up the first week, because with the start of school it just seems that we get a lot of people who opt to start the second week. Saturday brought us several new additions, and the house is filling nicely. There's a mix of brand new families along with the returning families that make Rocket "home." I walked into league on Sunday, assuming I'd have one amount of teams, and was blown away by several more that had shown up. We have one blind, that one of the dads thinks he can fill by next week. We'd be at 22 teams. That's probably the second largest the league has been--ever.
It really goes to show that a bowling center is not just a restaurant, a bar, a pro shop, and some lanes, rather it's a community. The people bowling there are bowling, but they come back for the people. I have several "clans" on Sunday that I can point to, where if one family bowls, literally three or four more teams bowl as well. Sometimes it's a sibling and a spouse that join the next season, but other times, it's friends from baseball, temple, church, school, or friends from other activities that these families recruit to share the experience.
I'm really fortunate to have such phenomenal families involved in my program. As they continue to bring in the bowlers, I promise to bring on the best junior bowling program in the San Fernando Valley.
Posted by Angel Zobel-Rodriguez at September 17, 2006 09:13 PM