Junior Gold Canceled, Team USA Program Suspended

Junior Gold Canceled, Team USA Program Suspended

The 2020 Junior Gold Championships have been canceled and Team USA has suspended the program through the end of the year.

Apr 16, 2020 by Lucas Wiseman
Junior Gold Canceled, Team USA Program Suspended

A day after pushing the USBC Open and Women’s Championships to the fall, the International Bowling Campus made more news Thursday when it announced the cancelation of the Junior Gold Championships and suspension of the Team USA program.

The Junior Gold Championships, the largest youth event in the country, had been scheduled for July 8-26 in Las Vegas with more than 4,000 participants. The cancelation of the USA Bowling National Championships, the Bowling.com Youth Open Championships and the Survivor tournament were also announced.

“All of us at IBC Youth understand and share in the disappointment, as July is our time to celebrate youth bowling with the athletes, families, coaches, and volunteers,” said Gary Brown, IBC Youth Managing Director, in a release. “But this summer is the time to ensure the focus is on the safety and welfare of our bowling families.”

The moves come as USBC and the International Bowling Campus are working to deal with the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the nation. On Wednesday, USBC announced the USBC Open and Women’s Championships would start in September.

Postponing the Junior Gold Championships to a later date would have been a daunting and uncertain task. With so many competitors, too many unknowns around the pandemic and the inability to realistically postpone it into the school year, USBC was forced to cancel the event.

More information on refunds related to the youth events can be found in this release.

As for the Team USA program, USBC has elected to suspend Team USA and Junior Team USA activities through the end of the year due to the pandemic.

USBC reported in its release that World Bowling has pushed its world championships events to 2021 and that it appears clear there will be no international events for Team USA in 2020.

“We know this is disappointing for our Team USA athletes who worked hard to earn the honor of representing our country in competition,” Team USA Head Coach Rod Ross said about suspending Team USA operations in 2020. “Unfortunately, we do not see any possibility of Team USA competing this calendar year. We look forward to 2021, with a stronger expanded team that includes current team members and those who make the squad at the 2021 (USBC) Team USA Trials.”

Those who are members of 2020 Team USA and Junior Team USA, if they remain age eligible, will be given automatic spots on the 2021 teams. Giving those spots to 2020 team members will impact the 2021 Team USA Trials, however.

At the trials, the top four men and four women will be given Team USA spots based on performance along with the U.S. Amateur champions and two men and two women selected at large. Junior Team USA will add the top four boys and four girls along with two boys and two girls at large. Specific details are included in this release.

Members of Team USA in 2020 included Andrew Anderson, Jakob Butturff, Cameron Crowe, AJ Johnson, Marshall Kent, Michael Martell, Nick Pate, Kris Prather, Matt Russo, Kyle Sherman, EJ Tackett, Kyle Troup, Josie Barnes, Julia Bond, Sydney Brummett, Breanna Clemmer, Bryanna Cote, Stefanie Johnson, Liz Kuhlkin, Kelly Kulick, Gazmine Mason, Danielle McEwan, Shannon O’Keefe, Missy Parkin, Lauren Pate, Shannon Pluhowsky and Jordan Richard. For a full list of Junior Team USA members, click here.