Bowlers Journal International - February 2008 - (Page 44) ALL FOR ONE BY THOMAS MADRECKI FIVE FAST FRIENDS GIVE TEAM BOWLING A LIFT How many squads can claim titles in the ABC, Lilac City and Hoinke tournaments? ASK PRESENT-DAY BOWLERS ABOUT days disband after a few tournament on the lanes whenever needed. team bowling, and the vast majorwins, or don’t win much at all. And, Add to the mix an intense disregard ity will tell you it’s dead. Has been for while LIFT Incorporated has had its for mere “personal achievement” and decades. Found in the gutter. Been share of turnover, there has never been a supremely focused goal of “winning buried. Given last rites. Gotten stuck in a significant break-up. That’s what hapas a team,” and you have a truly formithe great big ball return of existence. pens when all five bowlers on the team dable bunch of bowlers. We could go on and on with the death are the best of friends, and all five live “None of us are really interested in euphemisms — but it wouldn’t be mere minutes from one another. the individual stuff,” Wolf says. “It’s truthful, at least on the whole, to do so. Gehringer works for Wolf. Adam says more fun to win as a team.” Jacques Why, you ask? Largely because there he’s known some of “the guys” since says while each bowler is unique in his exists a team of experienced keglers high school. Davis — the youngest persona, all are committed to the same in the process of proving the exact member, in his thirties — grew up goal: winning for each other. opposite. They bowl under the ban“Don’t get me wrong, everybody ner of “LIFT Incorporated,“ and wants to be the best, but it never they are five men — Kevin Adam, gets in the way,” he says. “You don’t Jacques Jacobson, Steve Gehringer, want to be low, for the team.” Dean Wolf and Eric Davis — who One thing you won’t see the LIFT might well be today’s version of the team do in competition is attempt to Budweiser or Falstaff teams of yore. strategically break down an oil patSuch a statement sounds rather tern, like some teams have become lofty, until you consider what the famous (or infamous) for doing at the LIFT team has done. In 1992 — when USBC Open Championships. they were known as Coor’s Light “More and more, I hear about and featured a lineup of Adam, teams doing that,” Adam says. “But Wolf, Gehringer, Al Hulsizer and quite honestly, we like fresher patJim Stamm — they captured the terns. We all have different games, Team portion of the ABC Tournament and the less you have to move, the in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2004, Doing the heavy LIFTing in national team competition are, more you can strike. And on condithe LIFT team — then composed from the left, Dean Wolf, Eric Davis, Steve Gehringer, Kevin tions today, you don’t always want to of Jacobson, Davis, Wolf, Gehringer Adam and Jacques Jacobson. Can you tell they have fun? break the lanes down.” and Mike Bixler — won the presEach LIFT bowler is talented in his tigious Lilac City Team Tournament watching his older teammates bowl, own right. But this is not an “all-star” in Rochester, N.Y. And, just this past before competing against and with team; rather, it’s a team that works very, year, they snagged both the scratch them as he does now. very well together. They are known for and handicap division team crowns “The chemistry is there,” Wolf says. feeding off each other, for getting on at the 65th annual Hoinke Classic in Davis described the chemistry as a roll, and not stopping until they're at Cincinnati, with a monstrous total of “dynamic.” Jacques notes that the the top of the standings. 3712. Throw in multiple state titles, multime he spends with the others on the “We all struck in the 10th to win by less tiple wins at the Lebanon Dutchman lanes is similar to the time he spends than a mark in the ABC Tournament,” Bowling Tourney, the countless “smallwith them off the lanes: chock-full with Wolf says. “And we’ve done the same time” tournament championships, and jokes, sarcasm and good times. thing to win at other tournaments.” each bowler’s own plentiful personal The close nature of the LIFT members Given the players’ collective mindset, accomplishments, and the comparison does more than form (chemical) bonds. it’s easy to see that replicating the LIFT no longer seems too far-fetched. According to Adam, it also helps in team’s success would be downright Moreover, having that much success terms of reading ball reactions; knowdifficult, if not impossible. Then again, as a team today is, in a word, unprecing each other’s games so well means they used to say the same thing about edented. In many cases, teams these being able to either give or receive aid the Buds. COURTESY HOINKE CLASSIC 44 bowlers journal international FEBRUARY 2008
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