Thank you for bowling I can't Bowl because I'm in a wheelchair so thank you for letting me get to watch it I love you guys so much I would support you guys but I don't have the extra money have you have a great Christmas Happy New Year from Indiana
You know, in many locations, there are wheelchair leagues. I've seen them at our center before, although I must admit it's been a while. Thank you for the warm holiday wishes. Remember, this weekend we'll be taping (and next week, you'll be watching) our annual Thanksgiving Turkey Shootout. And this year, my birthday happens to fall on Thanksgiving Day. So stuff yourself full of turkey or ham on my birthday, be thankful you're not as old and fat as I am, and enjoy your holidays! Thank you for watching PRODIGY. -Coach Randy
Something in the water this week? Great job, Randy, and a tremendous amount of effort over the past couple of years. It is a phenomenal service for your youth bowlers and for those of us who enjoy the viewing.
I would like the "silly section" to tone it down a bit. Give the bowlers the respect to be able to bowl...without all the goofiness distracting them. I'm all for whooping it up during the taping, as along as it's properly directed. This past Saturday was borderline disrespectful toward the event itself.
Randy Nice Video Love your editing and happy second anniversary I have been watching scene the summer on 2016 you inspired me to bowl special thanks to you and I started my own TH-cam channel thank you so much and I love the sport
Ian Collis based off the official PBA speed paper for every tenth of a second it takes your ball from releasing to hit the head pin is another 0.5 mph so 3 seconds would be 13.9 mph but I all ready calculated his speed to be around 18 to 19 mph
Toni ("the Tigress") McQuerry, who we just met last Spring, and who came to bowl a couple of times on PRODIGY at the of the 2017-18 season, is very much a friend of the show and a member of our extended PRODIGY family. I luvs me some Toni the Tigress. :-) Unfortunately, we met her just as she was heading off to college. So she's away at school now. I am pursuing trying to gather up some of our PRODIGY alums who have gone off to college to bring them together for a taping over the holidays for a "Home for the Holidays" type episode featuring kids you don't get to see anymore because they went off to college. Cool idea, huh? Well, I just haven't rounded them up yet. And honestly, I don't know with 100% certainty if there's enough interest in doing it. But if there is, I'd love to. Nolan bowls PRODIGY most weeks. If you scan the names when we show the Qualifying Round scores, his name is usually in there. He just hasn't survived the qualifying round yet to make the show. He wil.
love watching Prodigy...………….kind of confused on the scoring after game three of the qualifying round...………..It shows Anthony Smiga in 2nd with a total score of 596, but his scores add up to 626??
Todd Compton - Probably a type-o. I most likely copied the scores wrong when typing them into the video software. Surprising this doesn’t happen far more often than it does.
He doesn't always. Sometimes he walks straight back. Right after I read your comment, I just randomly moved the play head to watch him throw a shot. On the shot I chose, totally at random, he threw the ball and walked straight back.
@@ProdigyBowlersTour lol true I just noticed that Logan was giving him a fist bump when he could, but then he would walk out to the left when hes on the left lane sometimes. I wonder what the reason was, maybe he hes talking to his coach or he sits near that left side or maybe hes really focused. Theres nothing wrong I just randomly saw that.
It's far more complex than what you can do in iMovie. I use a combination of things -- Photoshop, Final Cut Pro X, and in some cases, Apple Motion. And I would never even think of trying to do it on a phone.
Josh Doneghy is off at college now. Last year he was a senior in high school. We knew we'd only have him for a year. I'm hoping to gather some of our alums back together for a "Home for the Holidays" episode. But I don't have but one confirmed just yet. And one does not an episode make, if you know what I mean. :-)
Emmanuel College -- They've built up quite a bowling program there. I wouldn't be surprised if they contended for something big this year. They've got several really good players.
I answered this question at length last week. Here, I'm copying and pasting that answer: Logan has said on his Instagram account that he's not bowling PRODIGY this year. The timing of his announcement was curious. We went to a pre-pay model this year on PRODIGY. In previous years, the kids simply paid for their lineage on the way out the door at the end, and unfortunately, quite a few of them walked off without paying. Some did it again and again. Something had to be done or the bowling center would not be interested in hosting us. So I worked out a deal with the management of the center whereby we could have the kids pay a flat fee of $10, which would not only cover their lineage during qualifying and the stepladder, but would also enable them to stay and bowl on the warm-up pair while the stepladder was being held. I'm not saying whether Logan was one of the kids who repeatedly walked out without paying. But as soon as the pre-pay policy was announced, it got around through the grapevine that he had made it clear he was not intersted in paying to bowl PRODIGY, and his declaration on Instagram that he wasn't bowling PRODIGY this year came just a few days later. You can draw your own conclusion. Personally, I prefer to believe that Logan has decided to focus his attention on getting ready for big tournaments and has concluded, for whatever reason, that bowling in unofficial events like PRODIGY does not serve his purpose. I'm not sure that I agree with that assessment, since bowling match play and simulating pressure situations, I think, is unquestionably good preparation for competitive events. But it's not my call to make; it's his. And I respect his right to make it for whatever reason he chooses, or for no reason at all. It's a free country. We all like and admire Logan, and I support whatever decision he makes. There is no ill will between us, at least as far as I know. But here's something I'm absolutely certain about: Logan Fossum is deeply embedded in PRODIGY's DNA. It was Logan who, for years before PRODIGY even existed, frequently stayed after league to bowl in unofficial, informal and impromptu challenge matches with his buddies that first inspired me to start filming them (with their parents' permission, of course) and put them on TH-cam, which eventually led to me giving the series a name -- PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR -- as a way to promote our youth program at Brunswick Zone Roswell. Logan is well-known in youth bowling circles around the Atlanta area, and I figured why not show him off (and show off our other top players) as a magnet to try and attract other competitive youth bowlers to come join our youth leagues and thereby be on hand to participate in this cool "TV show" that we tape most weeks. That was the genesis of PRODIGY, and Logan was smack dab in the middle of it. It's not an exaggeration to say that PRODIGY wouldn't exist if it weren't for Logan Fossum. So I'm saddened by his decision to skip PRODIGY this year. But it's his decision, and I respect it. He's welcome to bowl on PRODIGY anytime he wants. I think he realizes that. I hope he considers that we have many LOFO fans among the PRODIGY faithful (like you and many others) that he's disappointing by not appearing on the show. For admittedly selfish reasons, I hope he changes his mind. But either way, PRODIGY will keep going and growing with or without him. Three years ago, Logan was THE MAN at Brunswick Zone Roswell. Everyone who was a part of our youth bowling program knew that he was the one guy who seemed destined to become THE hotshot teenage bowler in our program some day, and might even be on a course that would lead to far greater heights once he aged up into college and beyond. The sky was (and still is) the limit for Logan. Would it surprise anyone to see him show up on some future PBA telecasts ten years from now? It sure wouldn't surprise me. But while he was kind of the only one in our program at Brunswick Zone Roswell who was held in that high regard a few years ago, part of the reason he was the only one was that our program was kind of small. One of the things I was tasked with when the bowling center's management handed me the title of Youth Director was to grow the youth bowling program and breathe new life into it. PRODIGY has helped us attract a growing number of highly skilled bowlers to our youth program -- some you've seen on PRODIGY in the last couple of seasons, and some who have still not yet made their PRODIGY debut. (Yeah, there's still more that you haven't yet seen.) So, while Logan Fossum holds and always will hold a special place in our hearts, he's not the only really great youth bowler we have anymore. He's now one of several really great youth bowlers we have in our program. And as we talk about PRODIGY's future, I'm looking beyond our four walls at Brunswick Zone Roswell. I continue trying to attract kids from other centers around the area and from out of state to come bowl with us on PROIDGY. And I still hope to continue opening things up to include the occasional PRODIGY SATELLITE TOUR shows, thereby expanding the show's footprint into other markets across the country so our viewers can see more talented youth bowlers in other cities, too. The show is about youth bowling. It's not about Logan. I would love for Logan to be in that mix going forward. But it's up to him.
@@Tenpinmaster just asked. Mines a 205 and ive been two handing got about a year and a half. Ive bowled junior gold and have been invited to numerous championships. So I mean ig I'm up there for where Jason belmo was when he was 16
I like watching these kids bowl and stuff but if you want more people and others to come back you should have the winner win scholarship money. Not a Damn pin😂
@Jkushman -- For starters, they don't win the "damn pin." They only get to sign it. They win it if they sign it, and then come back at the end of the season and win our PRODIGY Tournament of Champions. But I get your point. It's a valid point. A little harsh the way you made it, but valid. But now, if you're really intested in hearing my thoughts on it, read on. Because this has been discussed at length...by me, with friends and supporters of PRODIGY, and you might be surprised to learn that such an idea is very much on the table. It's just that there are a few obstacles to making it happen. Let me explain a few things to you, some of it for background: First, this series was originally conceived as nothing more than a way for me to promote our youth bowling program. In the beginning, there was no prize. Just bragging rights. One of our viewers suggested we come up with some sort of prize for the kids to win, and I thought that was a good idea. But since the show is produced on a budget of exactly $0 (zero), I knew I wasn't going to be spending money each week to purchase anything of value. So I came up with the idea of getting a pin that the kids could sign, and then hold a tournament at the end of the season for all the winner (players who signed it) to have a chance to compete to win it as a permanent keepsake. Now, would I like to see PRODIGY put up some significant scholarship money each week? Boy, let me tell you, nothing would make me happier than that. But since I'm not in a position to fund such a thing, let me ask: Are you? Since you think it's such a good idea, may I surmise from your suggestion that you intend to fund this scholarship idea? Because if so, man oh man, you will be my favorite person. And if not, then let me just say this: I have had numerous conversations in the past year with friends of the show about ways to grow it. And we keep coming back to the same thing: Turn it into a real deal, USBC sanctioned scholarship money tournament. Just a few problems with that idea: First, if I were going to allow the PRODIGY brand to be associated with such a thing, I'd want it done right. No half-ass tournament. I'd want it run as well as, say, the Storm Youth Championships are run, at least to the extent that I could, given than I'm just a guy, not the biggest ball manufacturer in the business. Second, you have to remember that PRODIGY is, first and foremost, an entertainment (made-for-TH-cam) "television" show. It's not a tournament. It's an entertainment enterprise, meant to entertain our viewers. For it to continue having success and to grow that success in attracting viewers, you've gotta feed the beast. In other words, you have to crank out a new show at least every week. There is no way in hell I, or anyone I know of, could possibly sustain doing a major, for-scholarship-money tournament 52, or even 36, weeks a year, the number necessary to feed the TH-cam beast. I'd be burned out after about the first two weeks of it. If it didn't kill me. Third, a weekly scholarship money tournament would likely lose its appeal after the first couple of weeks. Look around most areas: Bowling tournaments that are held on a weekly basis dont' survive. They burn out. People will only enter so many tournaments a year. So, here's what I've discussed with friends: Keep PRODIGY what it is -- namely, a made-for-TH-cam "TV" entertainment show that promotes our youth bowling program at Brunswick Zone Roswell. Focus mostly (but not exclusively) on straightforward competitive formats, like what we've done MOST of this season (save for the Halloween special), where kids bowl a 2- or 3- game qualifier, then cut to one stepladder, and if there are enough "littles" to hold their own stepladder (or at least a championship match), then that, too. Keep the competition as legit as possible. (Meaning, cutting back on those silly formats that can result in someone throwing one ball and getting bounced. Too risky for people who drive any distance to come bowl. I get it.) Then, in the near term, work toward holding one, maybe two, maybe three, real-deal PRODIGY tournaments -- scholarship money tournaments -- that could attract a sizeable field (75 to 100) from all over the Southeast, and who knows? Maybe even farther. I mean, the PRODIGY brand is familiar to bowlers all over the country, and indeed, all around the world. It's reasonable to assume that if the prize money (scholarship money) was attractive enough, PRODIGY might be able to attract some of the top youth bowlers in the country, if only for the opportunity to get on the show. But it's the scholarship money that would make it worth their while to travel across state lines to come bowl in it. Being on TH-cam alone is not enough of a draw. Yes, I get that, too. But it's a lot of work, and a tournament on that scale is not something I could do alone. It would take a team of people, and it would take an investment of money that I'm simply not prepared to make at this time. But if you are, and if you're intersted in helping to make this happen, by all means, speak up. Because I would love nothing more than to grow PRODIGY. And making it -- even if only 2 or 3 times a year -- a real deal, USBC sanctioned for-SMART-Scholarship-money tournament (we could refer to those events as PRODIGY "majors" -- that's how we've talked about it amongst ourselves), I'm all in. But to do it would require a level of seed money that I'm not willing to invest. When the Patreon thing was first launched, this is something I had in mind. But response thus far has been luke warm at best. If that were to change, and if more PRODIGY viewers were to step up and become Patrons, donating $1, $5, $10 or $20 a month to support the show, ideas like this would very much come into play. Absolutely. But without the funding, it's just pie-in-the-sky talk....unless YOU would like to fund it.
Thank you for bowling I can't Bowl because I'm in a wheelchair so thank you for letting me get to watch it I love you guys so much I would support you guys but I don't have the extra money have you have a great Christmas Happy New Year from Indiana
You know, in many locations, there are wheelchair leagues. I've seen them at our center before, although I must admit it's been a while. Thank you for the warm holiday wishes. Remember, this weekend we'll be taping (and next week, you'll be watching) our annual Thanksgiving Turkey Shootout. And this year, my birthday happens to fall on Thanksgiving Day. So stuff yourself full of turkey or ham on my birthday, be thankful you're not as old and fat as I am, and enjoy your holidays! Thank you for watching PRODIGY. -Coach Randy
Something in the water this week? Great job, Randy, and a tremendous amount of effort over the past couple of years. It is a phenomenal service for your youth bowlers and for those of us who enjoy the viewing.
These are so much fun. Glad to be a part of the silly section too.... Also, congrats again on 12k
I would like the "silly section" to tone it down a bit. Give the bowlers the respect to be able to bowl...without all the goofiness distracting them. I'm all for whooping it up during the taping, as along as it's properly directed. This past Saturday was borderline disrespectful toward the event itself.
I love how honest and straightforward this commentator is
Thank you. Oh, and you forgot "goofy." I'm that, too.
1:12:53 can we talk about that pin carry 😂😂😂😂
Also love the show
He scatters 'em, don't he?
Randy Nice Video Love your editing and happy second anniversary I have been watching scene the summer on 2016 you inspired me to bowl special thanks to you and I started my own TH-cam channel thank you so much and I love the sport
I have watched every episode happy 2nd anniversary
Now you are a true PRODIGYHEAD.
love your show! keep up the great work for these kids!
Thank you.
Who else was impressed by Logan's Last amazing strike haha
Also - my favorite part is the final interview. :)
Good channel getting better myself #roadto100thousand
29:56 look at lane 31
Game 3 reminds me of “one of those nights” at league.
Suprised that when Big Logan three a gutter he didn't throw his hat... Good work on the control
I can tell Christian has been working on his swing. His back swing is still high’ but he’s not pulling it down and ripping it like he used to.
Big Logan’s ball takes 2 seconds to go across the one covering 30 feet a second, how fast is his ball???
Ian Collis based off the official PBA speed paper for every tenth of a second it takes your ball from releasing to hit the head pin is another 0.5 mph so 3 seconds would be 13.9 mph but I all ready calculated his speed to be around 18 to 19 mph
I like bowling
You have come to the right place.
Can we bring our prodigy to Atlanta and get her into a bracket?
BMA BMA - Yes, of course. Join our Facebook group and let me know when you think you’re coming.
BrownswickBowling I don’t use social media but if you have another way for me to schedule it
BMA BMA - e mail me:
randyATprodigybowlerstourDOTcom
BrownswickBowling will do
B
Hi randy!
The Dick Ritger commercial!!!
Hey coach Randy what happened to toni and Nolan havent seen Nolan on the broadcasts this season. And toni is one of my favorites
Toni ("the Tigress") McQuerry, who we just met last Spring, and who came to bowl a couple of times on PRODIGY at the of the 2017-18 season, is very much a friend of the show and a member of our extended PRODIGY family. I luvs me some Toni the Tigress. :-) Unfortunately, we met her just as she was heading off to college. So she's away at school now. I am pursuing trying to gather up some of our PRODIGY alums who have gone off to college to bring them together for a taping over the holidays for a "Home for the Holidays" type episode featuring kids you don't get to see anymore because they went off to college. Cool idea, huh? Well, I just haven't rounded them up yet. And honestly, I don't know with 100% certainty if there's enough interest in doing it. But if there is, I'd love to.
Nolan bowls PRODIGY most weeks. If you scan the names when we show the Qualifying Round scores, his name is usually in there. He just hasn't survived the qualifying round yet to make the show. He wil.
love watching Prodigy...………….kind of confused on the scoring after game three of the qualifying round...………..It shows Anthony Smiga in 2nd with a total score of 596, but his scores add up to 626??
Todd Compton - Probably a type-o. I most likely copied the scores wrong when typing them into the video software. Surprising this doesn’t happen far more often than it does.
Yay
Is Charlie not bowling on Prodigy bowlers tour anymore?
alex formosa he bowls in many out of state tournaments and is rarely in town when recording for prodigy, but when he is he usually bowls prodigy then
Is Big Logan bowling with the Idol?
Eric Wassum Yes, that is an Idol.
Thought so cause I have that same ball too
Hey coach randy why does Tristan walk out to the left once hes done throwing the ball? Like he walks off camera everytime
He doesn't always. Sometimes he walks straight back. Right after I read your comment, I just randomly moved the play head to watch him throw a shot. On the shot I chose, totally at random, he threw the ball and walked straight back.
@@ProdigyBowlersTour lol true I just noticed that Logan was giving him a fist bump when he could, but then he would walk out to the left when hes on the left lane sometimes. I wonder what the reason was, maybe he hes talking to his coach or he sits near that left side or maybe hes really focused. Theres nothing wrong I just randomly saw that.
Mannerisms.
how do you create the score card if there is a video out there for i movie can you send it to me
It's far more complex than what you can do in iMovie. I use a combination of things -- Photoshop, Final Cut Pro X, and in some cases, Apple Motion. And I would never even think of trying to do it on a phone.
BrownswickBowling thank you
any1 hoping on lane 35 that one pin would fall at 29:40 :)
Has Josh Doneghy decided to stop bowling prodigy? If so for what reason?
Josh Doneghy is off at college now. Last year he was a senior in high school. We knew we'd only have him for a year. I'm hoping to gather some of our alums back together for a "Home for the Holidays" episode. But I don't have but one confirmed just yet. And one does not an episode make, if you know what I mean. :-)
BrownswickBowling absolutely! Still love the upload, what college is he bowling at?
Emmanuel College -- They've built up quite a bowling program there. I wouldn't be surprised if they contended for something big this year. They've got several really good players.
what happened to logan fossum ?
M7XGAMER on his Instagram earlier this year, he said he wasn’t prodigy this year
I answered this question at length last week. Here, I'm copying and pasting that answer:
Logan has said on his Instagram account that he's not bowling PRODIGY this year. The timing of his announcement was curious.
We went to a pre-pay model this year on PRODIGY. In previous years, the kids simply paid for their lineage on the way out the door at the end, and unfortunately, quite a few of them walked off without paying. Some did it again and again. Something had to be done or the bowling center would not be interested in hosting us. So I worked out a deal with the management of the center whereby we could have the kids pay a flat fee of $10, which would not only cover their lineage during qualifying and the stepladder, but would also enable them to stay and bowl on the warm-up pair while the stepladder was being held. I'm not saying whether Logan was one of the kids who repeatedly walked out without paying. But as soon as the pre-pay policy was announced, it got around through the grapevine that he had made it clear he was not intersted in paying to bowl PRODIGY, and his declaration on Instagram that he wasn't bowling PRODIGY this year came just a few days later. You can draw your own conclusion.
Personally, I prefer to believe that Logan has decided to focus his attention on getting ready for big tournaments and has concluded, for whatever reason, that bowling in unofficial events like PRODIGY does not serve his purpose. I'm not sure that I agree with that assessment, since bowling match play and simulating pressure situations, I think, is unquestionably good preparation for competitive events. But it's not my call to make; it's his. And I respect his right to make it for whatever reason he chooses, or for no reason at all. It's a free country. We all like and admire Logan, and I support whatever decision he makes. There is no ill will between us, at least as far as I know.
But here's something I'm absolutely certain about: Logan Fossum is deeply embedded in PRODIGY's DNA. It was Logan who, for years before PRODIGY even existed, frequently stayed after league to bowl in unofficial, informal and impromptu challenge matches with his buddies that first inspired me to start filming them (with their parents' permission, of course) and put them on TH-cam, which eventually led to me giving the series a name -- PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR -- as a way to promote our youth program at Brunswick Zone Roswell. Logan is well-known in youth bowling circles around the Atlanta area, and I figured why not show him off (and show off our other top players) as a magnet to try and attract other competitive youth bowlers to come join our youth leagues and thereby be on hand to participate in this cool "TV show" that we tape most weeks. That was the genesis of PRODIGY, and Logan was smack dab in the middle of it.
It's not an exaggeration to say that PRODIGY wouldn't exist if it weren't for Logan Fossum. So I'm saddened by his decision to skip PRODIGY this year. But it's his decision, and I respect it. He's welcome to bowl on PRODIGY anytime he wants. I think he realizes that. I hope he considers that we have many LOFO fans among the PRODIGY faithful (like you and many others) that he's disappointing by not appearing on the show. For admittedly selfish reasons, I hope he changes his mind. But either way, PRODIGY will keep going and growing with or without him.
Three years ago, Logan was THE MAN at Brunswick Zone Roswell. Everyone who was a part of our youth bowling program knew that he was the one guy who seemed destined to become THE hotshot teenage bowler in our program some day, and might even be on a course that would lead to far greater heights once he aged up into college and beyond. The sky was (and still is) the limit for Logan. Would it surprise anyone to see him show up on some future PBA telecasts ten years from now? It sure wouldn't surprise me. But while he was kind of the only one in our program at Brunswick Zone Roswell who was held in that high regard a few years ago, part of the reason he was the only one was that our program was kind of small. One of the things I was tasked with when the bowling center's management handed me the title of Youth Director was to grow the youth bowling program and breathe new life into it. PRODIGY has helped us attract a growing number of highly skilled bowlers to our youth program -- some you've seen on PRODIGY in the last couple of seasons, and some who have still not yet made their PRODIGY debut. (Yeah, there's still more that you haven't yet seen.) So, while Logan Fossum holds and always will hold a special place in our hearts, he's not the only really great youth bowler we have anymore. He's now one of several really great youth bowlers we have in our program. And as we talk about PRODIGY's future, I'm looking beyond our four walls at Brunswick Zone Roswell. I continue trying to attract kids from other centers around the area and from out of state to come bowl with us on PROIDGY. And I still hope to continue opening things up to include the occasional PRODIGY SATELLITE TOUR shows, thereby expanding the show's footprint into other markets across the country so our viewers can see more talented youth bowlers in other cities, too. The show is about youth bowling. It's not about Logan.
I would love for Logan to be in that mix going forward. But it's up to him.
Why aren't you guys throwing straight at your single pin spares with a plastic ball on a sport shot?
Michael Dietzen - Some do. Some prefer to use urethane. Still others gave different preferences.
Well, I'm familiar with Swiss cheese anyway...😂
Whenever I buy a cheeseburger, I always specify Swiss cheese. Much better. Try it.
gotta love those wannabe jason belmontes (dont take it too serious, i bowl 2 handed as well xD)
What's your best average in a league?
@@AussieLeBrown 184 for 52 Games last season. As i said, dont take it too serious.
@@Tenpinmaster just asked. Mines a 205 and ive been two handing got about a year and a half. Ive bowled junior gold and have been invited to numerous championships. So I mean ig I'm up there for where Jason belmo was when he was 16
Poodle ball that's funny lol. I'm going to start sayin that when I see someone gutter.
I like watching these kids bowl and stuff but if you want more people and others to come back you should have the winner win scholarship money. Not a Damn pin😂
@Jkushman -- For starters, they don't win the "damn pin." They only get to sign it. They win it if they sign it, and then come back at the end of the season and win our PRODIGY Tournament of Champions.
But I get your point. It's a valid point. A little harsh the way you made it, but valid. But now, if you're really intested in hearing my thoughts on it, read on. Because this has been discussed at length...by me, with friends and supporters of PRODIGY, and you might be surprised to learn that such an idea is very much on the table. It's just that there are a few obstacles to making it happen. Let me explain a few things to you, some of it for background:
First, this series was originally conceived as nothing more than a way for me to promote our youth bowling program. In the beginning, there was no prize. Just bragging rights. One of our viewers suggested we come up with some sort of prize for the kids to win, and I thought that was a good idea. But since the show is produced on a budget of exactly $0 (zero), I knew I wasn't going to be spending money each week to purchase anything of value. So I came up with the idea of getting a pin that the kids could sign, and then hold a tournament at the end of the season for all the winner (players who signed it) to have a chance to compete to win it as a permanent keepsake.
Now, would I like to see PRODIGY put up some significant scholarship money each week? Boy, let me tell you, nothing would make me happier than that. But since I'm not in a position to fund such a thing, let me ask: Are you? Since you think it's such a good idea, may I surmise from your suggestion that you intend to fund this scholarship idea? Because if so, man oh man, you will be my favorite person.
And if not, then let me just say this:
I have had numerous conversations in the past year with friends of the show about ways to grow it. And we keep coming back to the same thing: Turn it into a real deal, USBC sanctioned scholarship money tournament.
Just a few problems with that idea:
First, if I were going to allow the PRODIGY brand to be associated with such a thing, I'd want it done right. No half-ass tournament. I'd want it run as well as, say, the Storm Youth Championships are run, at least to the extent that I could, given than I'm just a guy, not the biggest ball manufacturer in the business.
Second, you have to remember that PRODIGY is, first and foremost, an entertainment (made-for-TH-cam) "television" show. It's not a tournament. It's an entertainment enterprise, meant to entertain our viewers. For it to continue having success and to grow that success in attracting viewers, you've gotta feed the beast. In other words, you have to crank out a new show at least every week. There is no way in hell I, or anyone I know of, could possibly sustain doing a major, for-scholarship-money tournament 52, or even 36, weeks a year, the number necessary to feed the TH-cam beast. I'd be burned out after about the first two weeks of it. If it didn't kill me.
Third, a weekly scholarship money tournament would likely lose its appeal after the first couple of weeks. Look around most areas: Bowling tournaments that are held on a weekly basis dont' survive. They burn out. People will only enter so many tournaments a year.
So, here's what I've discussed with friends:
Keep PRODIGY what it is -- namely, a made-for-TH-cam "TV" entertainment show that promotes our youth bowling program at Brunswick Zone Roswell. Focus mostly (but not exclusively) on straightforward competitive formats, like what we've done MOST of this season (save for the Halloween special), where kids bowl a 2- or 3- game qualifier, then cut to one stepladder, and if there are enough "littles" to hold their own stepladder (or at least a championship match), then that, too. Keep the competition as legit as possible. (Meaning, cutting back on those silly formats that can result in someone throwing one ball and getting bounced. Too risky for people who drive any distance to come bowl. I get it.)
Then, in the near term, work toward holding one, maybe two, maybe three, real-deal PRODIGY tournaments -- scholarship money tournaments -- that could attract a sizeable field (75 to 100) from all over the Southeast, and who knows? Maybe even farther. I mean, the PRODIGY brand is familiar to bowlers all over the country, and indeed, all around the world. It's reasonable to assume that if the prize money (scholarship money) was attractive enough, PRODIGY might be able to attract some of the top youth bowlers in the country, if only for the opportunity to get on the show. But it's the scholarship money that would make it worth their while to travel across state lines to come bowl in it. Being on TH-cam alone is not enough of a draw. Yes, I get that, too.
But it's a lot of work, and a tournament on that scale is not something I could do alone. It would take a team of people, and it would take an investment of money that I'm simply not prepared to make at this time.
But if you are, and if you're intersted in helping to make this happen, by all means, speak up. Because I would love nothing more than to grow PRODIGY. And making it -- even if only 2 or 3 times a year -- a real deal, USBC sanctioned for-SMART-Scholarship-money tournament (we could refer to those events as PRODIGY "majors" -- that's how we've talked about it amongst ourselves), I'm all in.
But to do it would require a level of seed money that I'm not willing to invest. When the Patreon thing was first launched, this is something I had in mind. But response thus far has been luke warm at best. If that were to change, and if more PRODIGY viewers were to step up and become Patrons, donating $1, $5, $10 or $20 a month to support the show, ideas like this would very much come into play. Absolutely.
But without the funding, it's just pie-in-the-sky talk....unless YOU would like to fund it.
Open your checkbook. Money doesn't just grow on trees to give away.