The Youth
Bowling
Resource Center
Every link, rule, form and answer a youth bowling family actually needs — scholarships, eligibility, college recruiting, coaching, and the parent side of the sport. Free to use whether or not you ever bowl an Elite Youth Tour event.
How Youth Bowlers
Actually Get Paid
Bowling is one of the few youth sports where a teenager can earn college money directly, at ordinary weekend tournaments, without an essay or an application deadline. Most families never find out because nobody explains where the money comes from. So here it is.
Tournament Prize Funds Paid Into SMART
This is the workhorse, and the one most families miss. At a USBC-certified youth tournament, the prize fund is scholarship money — it’s deposited into the bowler’s USBC SMART account instead of being handed over as cash. Every Elite Youth Tour event pays this way, in every division. Place, and you’re funded. There is no form to fill in.
National Championships
Junior Gold, the USBC Youth Open Championships and the Pepsi Championships all award scholarship money at scale, and all of them pay through SMART. These are the events college coaches watch, so they do double duty — money in the account and eyes on your bowler.
State and Local Association Awards
Your state and local USBC associations run their own youth championships and hand out their own scholarships, and the applicant pools are far smaller than the national ones. This is the most under-claimed money in the sport. Find your association and ask what they award.
College Athletic and Academic Aid
A roster spot at an NCAA or NAIA program can carry athletic aid, academic aid, or both stacked together. This is a different pot from SMART entirely — and because it’s negotiated with a coach, it rewards families who start the recruiting conversation early. See College Recruiting below.
Private and Community Scholarships
USBC administers several named scholarships, and there are community, industry and memorial funds across the country that go unclaimed year after year for lack of applicants. These do use applications and deadlines — which is exactly why fewer bowlers bother, and exactly why the odds are good.
The One Thing to Understand: SMART
SMART stands for Scholarship Management and Accounting Reports for Tenpins. It’s the national scholarship fund run by the United States Bowling Congress. When a youth bowler wins scholarship money, the awarding organization deposits it into SMART rather than writing a check — and that is precisely what protects the bowler’s amateur eligibility.
The account belongs to the bowler, not to the tour. Money earned anywhere that awards through SMART pools into the same balance and accumulates across every season. When the bowler enrolls at a college, university or trade school, the funds are released directly to that institution.
Elite Youth Tour is USBC SMART Provider #12370 and has awarded $474,444 through it since 2012. See how EYT scholarships work →
Check a SMART Balance
Log in to the USBC portal to see your bowler’s SMART balance, deposit history and how to request a disbursement to a school. Sign in with the USBC member account.
USBC SMART Explained
USBC’s own documentation on the SMART program — how deposits work, how funds are released to a school, and what happens to money that goes unused.
EYT Scholarships
What Elite Youth Tour awards, in which divisions, at which events — and how the money reaches your bowler’s SMART account.
Junior Gold Championships
The largest youth scholarship event in bowling and the primary showcase for college recruiting. Entry requirements, divisions, dates and the competitor’s guide.
Elite Impact
Free Elite Youth Tour entries for bowlers of color and for families facing financial hardship, so entry cost never decides who gets to earn scholarship money.
Bowlers to Veterans Link
BVL is bowling’s charity for America’s veterans and active-duty military. Youth bowlers and leagues raise funds for it, and BVL service is a genuine differentiator on a scholarship application.
Rules, Divisions
& Amateur Status
The rules that decide which division your bowler enters, what average they carry, and whether they can still bowl in college. Get these wrong and it costs a season.
Amateur Status — The Short Version
A USBC Youth member keeps amateur standing as long as they do not accept cash prizes or merchandise above the permitted value. Winning scholarship money does not threaten eligibility, because the award goes into a SMART account rather than into the bowler’s hands.
Where families get into trouble is accepting a cash prize at an open or adult tournament without checking the rule first. If your bowler is invited to an event that pays cash, confirm with USBC or your local association before they bowl — not after.
Age Divisions
Youth bowling runs on a season of August 1 – July 31, and a bowler’s age is determined as of August 1. That means the division they start the season in is the division they finish it in, even if they have a birthday in the middle.
| Division | Age on August 1 | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| U12 | Under 12 | Elite Youth Tour · Junior Gold — separate Boys and Girls divisions |
| U14 | Under 14 | Elite Youth Tour · Junior Gold — separate Boys and Girls divisions |
| U16 | Under 16 | Elite Youth Tour · Junior Gold — separate Boys and Girls divisions |
| U18 | Under 18 | Elite Youth Tour · Junior Gold — separate Boys and Girls divisions |
| U23 | Under 23 | Elite Youth Tour only — mixed division. Not a USBC division, and it carries no Junior Gold spots. |
Check the exact birth-date cut-offs before you enter. They move forward by a year every season, so we publish the current ones in one place rather than repeat them here — see the Elite Youth Tour Tournament Guide for this season’s dates, and bowl.com for Junior Gold and other national events, which set their own each year.
Youth Eligibility & Rules
The official USBC page on youth membership, age eligibility, amateur status and what a youth bowler may and may not accept as a prize.
EYT Tournament Guide
How an Elite Youth Tour event actually runs — formats, squad times, oil patterns, cashing ratios, what to bring and what to expect on the day.
Find Your Local Association
Your local and state USBC associations run their own youth championships and scholarships. This is where you find yours — and the least-competed money in the sport.
USBC Youth Membership
Required for the USBC youth divisions at Elite Youth Tour and for every certified youth event. Joining is also what creates the SMART account the scholarship money is paid into.
Averages & How They’re Verified
Elite Youth Tour divides bowlers by age, not average — there is no minimum average and no tryout. But plenty of other tournaments do use averages to seed, to split divisions or to apply handicap, and that is where families get caught out.
It Comes From Certified League Play
Averages used by tournaments come from USBC-certified league play, which is on record and can be looked up. An average you report on an entry form is a number that can be checked against that record — so it should always be the real one.
Every Tournament Sets Its Own Rule
Which season counts, how many games you need, and what happens if your bowler has no established average all vary from event to event. There is no single national answer, which is exactly why guessing is risky.
Read the Entry Rules, Then Ask
Before you enter, read that tournament’s stated average rule — and if anything is unclear, ask the tournament director in writing before you pay. Misreporting an average, even innocently, can mean disqualification and forfeited scholarship money after the fact.
Getting Recruited
College bowling is real, it’s funded, and there are far more programs than most families realize — across NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA and junior college. The bowlers who get recruited are rarely the best bowlers. They’re the ones whose information a coach could actually find.
Recruiting profiles powered by
The Recruiting Timeline, By Grade
Grades start counting now, and they never stop counting. Start a simple record of every tournament, average and honor score — you will not remember them in three years. Bowl outside your home center so your bowler learns different oil patterns.
Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center and confirm your high school’s core-course list matches what the NCAA requires. Get a recruiting profile live with real video. Bowl at least one national event where coaches are physically present.
This is the year coaches make decisions. Email programs directly — a short note with a profile link, average, class year and tournament schedule. Take the SAT or ACT. Bowl Junior Gold. Visit campuses, even unofficially. Reply to every coach who contacts you, including the ones you think you’re not interested in.
Complete the FAFSA as early as it opens. Narrow to a realistic list across divisions rather than five reaches. Compare offers as total cost after aid, not headline scholarship value. Confirm final NCAA eligibility certification before you sign anything.
NCAA Eligibility Center
Every athlete competing at NCAA Division I or II must register here and be certified. Create the account, enter your school and courses, and request final certification in your senior year. Start in 10th grade — not the week before signing.
Colleges With Bowling Programs
NCAA’s official collegiate bowling hub — championship information and the sponsoring institutions. Pair it with NAIA and junior college programs, which recruit heavily and are often the better first offer.
Striking Showcase
A recruiting profile built for bowling specifically: averages, high games and series, rev rate, ball speed, spare conversion, video and class year — on one link a coach can open in ten seconds. Coaches use it free.
Striking Showcase for Programs
College coaches and program pages — free, always. If you coach a program and want your roster and recruiting needs visible to youth bowlers, this is where you set it up.
Physical Game.
Mental Game.
A youth bowler needs two coaches, and most only ever get one. A certified technical coach builds the shot. Someone else has to build the head that has to deliver it under pressure at 9am on a Sunday in a strange center.
Elite Youth Tour’s founder, Diandra Asbaty, is a World Champion, a USBC and World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame inductee and a 15-year member of Team USA. Her mindset coaching brand, Beyond the Lanes, is where the second half of that gets taught.
Find a Certified Coach
USBC Certified Coach Finder
Search USBC’s official directory for certified coaches near you, filtered by certification level. This is the only authoritative list — anyone can call themselves a coach.
What the Levels Mean
Level I — entry certification, typically league and youth program coaches. Bronze — trained to develop competitive bowlers. Silver — advanced, works with high-level competitors. Gold — the highest USBC certification, a small group nationally. For a serious junior, look for Bronze and above.
Mental Game — Beyond the Lanes
All the Mental Mistakes I’ve Made
Diandra’s free guide to the mental errors that cost her matches, titles and years — written so a young bowler can recognize them before they pay the same price. Start here.
Beyond the Lanes for Athletes
The mindset resources built specifically for competitive youth and collegiate bowlers — pressure, self-talk, routine, and recovering from a bad frame instead of a bad block.
Mindset Reset
Ongoing mental-game membership with a 30-day free trial — short, repeatable work a bowler can actually keep up with during a competitive season.
12 Frames to a Stronger Mental Game
Diandra’s twelve-session individual coaching curriculum, one lesson per frame — the full build of a competitive mental game, taught one to one.
Private Mindset Coaching
One-to-one work with Diandra for a bowler who has the physical game and keeps losing to the occasion. By inquiry.
Team & Program Workshops
Mental-game workshops for junior programs, high school and collegiate teams and bowling centers. Built to run around an existing practice schedule.
The Job From
The Seats
Nobody teaches parents how to do this. You are six feet from your child on the worst day of their season, you can see exactly what’s going wrong, and the single most useful thing you can do is not say it.
Support Without Coaching From the Bench
Your bowler already has a coach, and if they don’t, you are not going to become one between frames. What they do not have is one person in the building whose approval isn’t attached to the score. That job is yours, and no one else can do it.
- Before the block, say one sentence, and make it about effort or enjoyment — never a target score.
- Between games, offer food, water and quiet. Not a technical note.
- If they look over, give them a nod. Not a hand signal about their release.
- After the block, ask “how did that feel?” before you ask what they shot.
- Let the car ride be theirs. If they want to talk about it, they’ll start.
- Never critique a shot, a coach or an opponent in front of them. It teaches them to blame.
Out of the Settee — The Parent Playbook
Diandra wrote an 80+ page digital playbook for exactly this: what to say, what not to say, how to handle your own nerves, and how to help your bowler love the game rather than just perform in it. It comes with quick-reference script cards you can save to your phone for the moments you’ll actually need them.
Tournament Day Checklist
The Night Before
- Bag packed by the bowler, not by you
- Shoes, tape, towel, rosin, spare wrist support
- USBC card or membership number
- Entry confirmation and squad time
- Address and drive time checked
- Proper sleep — the single biggest performance variable
The Bag
- Refillable water bottle, already full
- Real food, not just the snack bar
- Phone charger and headphones
- Tape for grip changes as hands swell
At the Center
- Arrive early enough to not be rushed
- Bowler checks in themselves
- Find the pattern sheet and read it together
- Warm the body up before the first ball
- Know where you’ll sit — and sit there
- Leave the coaching to the coach
Fuel for a Six-Hour Day
A tournament block is a long, low-intensity day with short bursts of precision under pressure — which is exactly the profile that a blood-sugar crash ruins. Most youth bowlers turn up under-hydrated and eat nothing until they’re already struggling.
Hydration
Start drinking the night before, not at the center. Water throughout, steadily — a bottle they can see is a bottle they’ll drink. Energy drinks spike and crash, and the jitters they cause show up in the release first.
Eating
A real breakfast with protein, not just carbohydrate. Then small amounts often rather than one big meal between squads — heavy food mid-block makes bowlers sluggish. Pack it; center food is unreliable and expensive.
Focus
Concentration fades with dehydration long before the legs do. If your bowler gets scratchy and careless late in a block, the answer is usually water and food, not a technical fix.
Protecting Wrists and the Whole Body
Youth bowling injuries are almost entirely overuse injuries. Bowling loads the wrist and shoulder, but it also loads the lower back, hips and knees every single shot — and it all builds quietly over a season of heavy volume on a growing body.
Warm Up First
Five minutes of movement before the first ball — arm circles, gentle wrist mobility, hips and legs, and a walk. A cold body is where the season-ending problems start, and the approach loads far more than just the arm.
Watch the Volume
Multiple leagues, a school team and weekend tournaments stack up fast. Build in genuine rest days. More games is not more development if the arm is fatigued.
Fit the Equipment
A ball that’s too heavy or drilled to an outgrown span is the most common cause of wrist pain in juniors. Hands grow. Get the fit rechecked at least once a season.
Don’t Bowl Through It
Pain that persists after a block, or that comes back every time they bowl, is not something to push through. Stop and get it looked at.
Build the Support
General strength work for the core, hips, legs, upper back and shoulder protects every joint doing the repeating — a bowler slides, brakes and rotates on every shot. A qualified trainer can build something age-appropriate.
Ask a Professional
This page is general guidance, not medical advice. For any persistent pain, injury or nutrition question specific to your child, speak to a doctor or a qualified sports medicine professional.
Gear & Pro Shops
The right ball fitted properly matters more for a junior than the right ball. A good pro shop operator is a long-term relationship — they’ll watch your bowler grow and adjust the fit as they do.
Find a Certified Center
USBC’s directory of certified bowling centers. Most centers with a junior program have a pro shop attached or a recommended operator nearby.
What to Ask For When Fitting a Junior
Bring your bowler with you — a ball should never be bought to a number on a chart. Ask the operator to measure the span and pitch to their hand, not an adult’s, and to check the weight against how the bowler actually carries it through the swing. Say out loud that they are still growing, and ask when to come back for a re-check.
Results, Photos
& Membership
Where to find your bowler’s results, the photos from the day, the livestream, and the answers to the questions we get asked most about membership.
2026 Champions
Every Elite Youth Tour champion crowned this season, by event and division. The current record as it happens.
Past Champions, 2012–Present
The full Elite Youth Tour history — every season, every champion, since the tour began in 2012. Fourteen seasons of the record.
Photo Gallery
Event photography on SmugMug, organized by tournament. Browse, download and order prints of your bowler from every event we shoot.
Elite Youth Tour on YouTube
Full event broadcasts, qualifying and eliminator finals, champion interviews and bowler spotlights — for the grandparents who can’t be in the building, and for anyone who wants to rewatch the shot.
Tour News & Announcements
Schedule changes, event recaps, scholarship announcements and everything else worth knowing during the season.
Media & Press
Press coverage, media inquiries and the tour’s photo and video archive in one place.
Membership
Season membership, what it includes, what it costs and how to register a bowler. Also where you manage a child membership you already hold.
Create an EYT Profile
Set up your bowler’s Elite Youth Tour profile — the account you’ll use to enter events and manage a child membership.
Tournament Schedule
Every Elite Youth Tour event this season with dates, host centers, formats and entry links across Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Looking for points standings or the refund policy? Standings are published through the season on the champions pages, and our entry, transfer and refund terms are in the Tournament Guide and Terms of Service. Can’t find something? Ask us directly — if you’re looking for it, so is somebody else.
Youth Bowling FAQs
How do youth bowlers earn college scholarship money through bowling?
Through five main routes: tournament prize funds paid into a USBC SMART account, national championships such as Junior Gold, state and local association awards, athletic or academic aid from a college bowling program, and private or community scholarships. At Elite Youth Tour the prize fund itself is scholarship money — place in your division and it is deposited into your SMART account with no application required.
How do I check my child’s USBC SMART account balance?
Log in at smart.bowl.com with your USBC member account to see the balance, the deposit history from every organization that has awarded to your bowler, and how to request a disbursement to a school.
Does winning bowling scholarship money affect amateur or NCAA eligibility?
No. Because the award is deposited into a managed USBC SMART account rather than paid to the bowler directly, earning it does not affect amateur standing or the ability to compete at college level. Accepting cash prizes at open or adult events is a different matter — check with USBC before your bowler enters one.
What age division will my bowler be in?
A bowler’s age is determined as of August 1, and their division holds for the whole season regardless of a mid-season birthday. Elite Youth Tour runs U12, U14, U16 and U18 with separate Boys and Girls divisions, plus a mixed U23. Junior Gold uses U12, U14, U16 and U18, also split by gender. Exact birth-date cut-offs move each season — check the Tournament Guide for the current ones.
When should a bowler start the college recruiting process?
Ninth grade for grades and record-keeping, tenth grade for NCAA Eligibility Center registration and a live recruiting profile, and eleventh grade for direct contact with coaches — that is the year most decisions get made. Waiting until senior year means competing for whatever is left.
How is a tournament average verified?
Elite Youth Tour divides by age rather than average, so there is no minimum average to enter. Where other tournaments do use averages, the figure comes from USBC-certified league play, which is on record and can be checked. Each tournament sets its own rule for which season counts and how many games are required, so read that event’s entry rules and ask the director before you pay — misreporting an average can mean disqualification and forfeited scholarship money.
How do I find a certified bowling coach near me?
Use USBC’s certified coach directory. Certification runs Level I, Bronze, Silver and Gold — for a serious competitive junior, look for Bronze certification and above.
What if we can’t afford entry fees?
Apply to Elite Impact, which provides free Elite Youth Tour entries to bowlers of color and to families facing financial hardship, so the cost of entry isn’t what decides who gets to earn scholarship money.
Your Mark
Knowing how it all works is the first half. The second half is bowling the events. Come earn yours.
Elite Youth Tour is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN 46-3943092. Scholarships are administered through the USBC SMART program, Provider #12370. This page links to third-party organizations for convenience and is not affiliated with or endorsed by them; always confirm rules, dates and eligibility with the governing body before entering an event. Health and nutrition guidance here is general information, not medical advice. Support the scholarship fund by becoming a sponsor.