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Bowling With The Fef!Pod #27/Ep. 209: World on a String/Strings in Your World (with John Law)Chetek Lanes in Chetek, WI has a tournament that draws nearly 3,000 entries every bowling season, and this season, those bowlers will compete on USBC certified string pinsetters for the first time.
Chetek Lanes Proprietor John Law recently ditched his free-fall AMF pinspotters in favor of AMF Qubica Edge String Pinspotters for his six-lane center.
He discussed the conversion, the ways that it has changed his operations and will change the 9-pin Tap Plus tournament in the new bowling season, and the journey he’s had in bowling in World on a String/Strings in Your Wor...2025-07-251h 07Bowling With The Fef!POD #26/Ep. 208: Road to the $ale (with Gene Arentz)When Scott Olson came up to me at the Midwest Senior Classic event in April and told me I NEED to have Gene Arentz on the show, I’ll admit, I didn’t really know what to expect.
What I found in "Geno" was one of the all-time greats from La Crosse, Wisconsin’s USBC association.
As you’ll hear, along with his hall of fame bowling resume, recognized as such three years ago, he is a hunter, a softball player, he is full of positivity and has probably sold more cars than anyone else you know!2025-07-0747 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #25/Ep. 207: Tournament Eve (with Frank Goebel)An off the sheet challenge from Joey Dayer led to this episode with New York’s Frank Goebel.
He had just driven across a good chunk of the country, and had arrived in Nebraska for the Great Plains Paralyzed Veterans of America (https://pva.org/) National tournament.
He and his twin brother Rich ended up winning a doubles championship and taking fourth place in the team event.
But as we discussed in the episode Tournament Eve, sometimes the brothers find themselves in competition against each other in wheelchair bowling.
American Wheelchair Bo...2025-07-0548 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #24/Ep. 206: Bowling & BBQ (with Ryan McDaniel)This past weekend, Ryan McDaniel and his wife, PWBA Touring pro Melanie McDaniel took to the lanes at Bowlero Mount Prospect near Chicago for the PBA LBC National Championship.
They were part of a team that must have been an absolute blast to bowl on.
Ryan may be even more notorious for his grilling than he is for his bowling, but he is now a coach as well as a player on the lanes.
Much like in the episode with Melanie in February, the two had plenty of back-and-forth this time around.
2025-06-2959 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #23/Ep. 205: One of One (with Glenn Gerstner)Nearly everyone who becomes immersed in competitive or even social bowling for a long time ends up hearing about the “Varipapa 300.”
It was even mentioned on the telecast of the 2025 PBA Tour Finals.
A strike string at the end of one game and another at the beginning of the following game that add up to twelve total strikes: thats a "Varipapa 300."
Dig deeper into the eponym, and you may discover Glenn Gerstner’s biography “Andy Varipapa: Bowling’s First Superstar.”
You can find it at McFarlandbooks.com.
The first-ever biography on...2025-06-1650 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #22/Ep. 204: Last MAST? (with Jeff Richgels)The Madison Area Scratch Tour (madisonareascratchtour.com) brings in bowlers from all over Wisconsin for its events.
And those who have competed for titles in the past few decades have likely run into Jeff Richgels, the tour’s career championship leader.
But it may not be that way going forward, as Richgels mentioned when i stopped at the year end event in April.
Jeff owns and runs 11thframe.com, which is a fantastic resource for news and information on our sport. Check it out and support Jeff’s work. #buytheblog
Having him on...2025-06-141h 09Bowling With The Fef!Pod #21/Ep. 203: BELMO (with Jason Belmonte)When Jason Belmonte shoes up for the 2025 PBA Tour Finals this weekend, he’ll do so as the number three seed.
It’s the last national tour event he plans to bowl this season.
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Belmo while he was at home in Australia.
He discussed a noticeable change in his demeanor on television over the years, winning a title with Bill O’Neill and witnessing his PBA Hall of Fame induction, and the controversy at the Players Championship that spilled over onto social media.
...2025-06-0658 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #20/Ep. 202: Up to FULL SPEED (with Kelly Whipple)The 2025 PWBA Tour is off and running with three events in the rearview mirror and a crop of young stars emerging before our eyes.
A Wisconsin native is among those rising stars, and she's received a boost from Bowl Forward to help her along the way!
Kelly Whipple of Sheboygan was recently named Bowl Forward's Future Stars Award winner to the tune of $1,500, the richest prize of the three awarded in late April.
Whipple has plenty of other supporters along for the ride, too. One of them, that isn't typically linked to bowling...2025-05-3058 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #19/Ep. 201: 82-30? 10-4! (With Joey Dayer)In a part of New York that's a lot closer to Canada than it is to Manhattan, a teenage bowler often turns heads. The thing is, it's not just for what he does on the lanes, but back behind the masking units as well!
Joey Dayer, the fedora-wearing, Buffalo area YouTuber who has grown a huge following on his youtube.com/@Joethepro181 channel, doesn't just fix out-of-range calls and continuous cycles. He has disassembled and reassembled all 12 machines at the center where he started bowling, now known as Cloverbank Bowling.
When previous guest Yvonne Bennett t...2025-05-1944 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #18/Ep. 200: Seen, Understood, Appreciated (with Roger Dalkin)After working in some of the highest profile positions in the bowling industry and having one of the most successful college careers as a bowler…ever, Roger Dalkin has taken his rightful places in the sport.
First, in the USBC hall of fame, and last month in the USBC Collegiate Hall of Fame.
You’ll hear me discuss a giveaway in this episode, which was only available to live viewers and won by fellow USBC Hall of Famer, Steve Kloempken.
But I like to think the content makes w...2025-05-021h 14Bowling With The Fef!Pod#17/Ep.199: Payton's NEXT Place (with Payton Schwetz)Just before starting this interview at Wagner's Lanes in Eau Claire, WI, Payton Schwetz announced on his Instagram page that he has committed to UW-Whitewater.
The Eau Claire native and North High School senior goes on to thank his family, friends and others who have helped to get him this far in bowling.
Several of them were at Wagner's during the interview and put in their two cents about this big step in Payton's journey!
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SUBSCRIBE (on YouTube): htt...2025-04-2837 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #16/Ep. 198: The Video Vault (with John 'Irishpogi' McLaughlin)The latest of more than 2,200 videos to be uploaded to the Irishpogi YouTube channel was originally recorded in January 1982.
Despite not including the end of the championship match, it has a lot of traction, like many others on the channel.
At the time of this recording, it had north of 900 views.
That’s the kind of thing that keeps John McLaughlin of Staten Island, New York posting classic PBA Tour telecasts to his channel consistently.
He’s been called the King of Old PBA Tour shows, and he starts by discussing what l...2025-04-2142 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #15/Ep. 197: Decade of Dedication (with John Knight)As he said before starting up the show and proved in the middle of it, John Knight of New Hartford, New York does not have much to say about his own bowling.
His USBC member stats show a high average of 192. They don’t show a record of him bowling in a sanctioned league in several years .
But you don’t have to throw 'em really well to drill 'em really well.
Ten years ago, Knight founded John Knight’s Bowlers' Shoppe inside King Pin Lanes in Rome, NY. He has added a second...2025-03-2048 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #14/Ep. 196: She's Back! (with Yvonne Bennett)Seriously, what would the Wisconsin Vintage Alleys Tour be without Yvonne Bennett?
Fortunately, nobody has to find out just yet. The retired Executive Director of the Bowling Centers Association of Wisconsin who created the tour will be leading it. BCAW has taken her on in a consultant role for the event, as well as another vintage alleys tour in Wisconsin later in 2025.
WI Vintage Alleys Tour: https://www.bowlwi.com/bcaw-events/wi...
Bennett, who lives in Milwaukee, held the Executive Director post at BCAW for eight years. Bef...2025-03-071h 16Bowling With The Fef!Pod EXTRA: Recent changes to BowlForward (with Chris Pulliam)After the PWBA made some changes that impacted the players earlier this year, BowlForward made some changes too.
BowlForward is an organization led by Chris Pulliam of Las Vegas. It will award cash to certain PWBA athletes that apply, meet certain criteria and are selected by a volunteer committee.
Chris recently joined the livestream to explain how BowlForward will look moving forward.
BowlForward online: bowlforward.org
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What’s YOUR bowling story all about?
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SUBSCRIBE (on YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/c/bowlingwiththefef?sub_conf...2025-03-0307 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #13/Ep. 195: On to the Postseason (with Melanie McDaniel)It won't be a long road trip to Intercollegiate Sectionals for this coach and her relatively new women's program next month.
Melanie McDaniel of Joliet, IL and her Governors State University Jaguars learned they are headed to Addison, IL on Feb. 19, as their watch party was featured on the USBC's 2025 Sectionals Assignment Show. The school's bowling program is finishing up its first full season of competition.
When she's not coaching, McDaniel is an incredible competitor. She has persevered despite multiple injuries that kept her off the lanes for months and even years during separate stretches i...2025-03-0159 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #12/Ep. 194: Cloud Level (with Patrick Martinez)The last time we caught up with Patrick Martinez, we were literally talking about South Point hot dogs.
Back then, and I say that in air quotes because it wasn’t even a year ago, Patrick may have been best known for his Patty Cam on BowlTV.
At the beginning of 2025 he announced that he was starting a video production company. The Cloud Media Productions Inc. took a lot of time and a lot of thought to get off the ground, pardon the pun.
Now that he is off the ground with it we...2025-02-1358 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #11/Ep. 193: A New Path Forward (with Joe Grondin)The 2025 PBA Tour has lots of talented stars and players looking to make their mark for the first time.
What it doesn't have is Joe Grondin.
The San Pedro, CA native who is now living near Lansing, MI announced at the end of last year that he was trading tour life for the working world...and mentioned some great personal things that have him excited for A New Path Forward!
You may remember Grondin from his televised finals appearance at the 2023 PBA Cheetah Championship in Wauwatosa. He defeated AJ Johnson, but lost to...2025-02-0657 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #10/Ep. 192: A NEW Association Tournament (with Barb Hanson and Randy Schenk)At the time this is distributed to your favorite podcast platform, Eau Claire area USBC adult members have a little more than a week to register for their association tournament.
And they should! There are incentives upon incentives to bowl this tournament in Eau Claire, WI, and you don’t have to bowl like a champion to walk away a winner.
Go to bit.ly/2025ecusbc (all lower case letters...it is case-sensitive) to find a registration form and all the rules.
As you listen to this episode, keep in mind, I am a vo...2025-01-2827 minBowling With The Fef!Pod#9/Ep. 191: Masen & Me (with Brian Hirsch)Sometimes things just come into our lives for whatever reason and have a big, honkin' impact.
For Brian Hirsch of Salem, WI that was bowling.
Nowadays, he’s passing on all his knowledge to his son, who is a regular at youth tournaments across Wisconsin.
It’s Masen and me…the bowling story of Brian Hirsch.
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Email bo...2025-01-271h 00Bowling With The Fef!Pod #8/Ep. 190: Top of the Mountain (with EJ Tackett)It goes without saying that EJ Tackett is leading Team MOTIV at the upcoming PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands.
In a social media prank that was well executed, MOTIV guys Ronnie Russell and Brett Spangler claimed that Ronnie’s brother in law would be replacing EJ on the team.
EJ took that joke like a champ, and a discussion about the real Team MOTIV is where we started the episode Top of the Mountain.
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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell u...2025-01-0957 minBowling With The Fef!Pod#7/Ep. 189: Bowling's Swiss Army Knife (with Simon Kimber)I’m a big fan of finding and trying new social media platforms.
When I first heard about Bluesky several weeks ago, I didn’t see it as a substitute for any other platform or away to signal my political leaning. The former would probably fly in the face of what I’m trying to do with the marketing of Bowling With The Fef!, and the latter is something that almost always has nothing to do with Bowling With The Fef!
At that point there weren’t many bowling related accounts on Bluesky, but after about a da...2025-01-0249 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #6/Ep. 188: ROY24 (with Nate Purches)Did Nate Purches just have his best week EVER?
Maybe for now...but, if his current trajectory in bowling continues into 2025 and beyond, he will probably top it soon!
Purches, of Fond du Lac, WI, combined a runner-up finish at the PBA Regional Players Invitational in Reno, NV on Sunday (Dec. 15, 2024) with receiving the 2024 Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year award a few days prior.
And Purches is also exempt for the 2025 PBA Tour season because of his fourth-place finish at the PBA Tour Trials in August.
What does this...2024-12-2345 minBowling With The Fef!FLASHBACK - Ep. 20: Shimmy Shimmy Ya (with Nate Purches and Shawn Wochner)Nate Purches of Fond du Lac, WI had a rookie season on the PBA Tour in 2024 that was outstanding.
Before all that, he was a talented junior bowler who got a taste of the bright lights of TV during the PBA Junior Finals in March 2021.
At the time, he was 17-years-old and a few months away from starting college at UW-Whitewater.
He discussed that on the show along with Shawn Wochner in this flashback episode: Shimmy Shimmy Ya.
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What’s YOUR bowling story all about?
T...2024-12-1758 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #5/Ep.187: The Air Up There (with Alex Bandli)For the first time in several years, UW-Eau Claire's club bowling program has both mens and womens teams.
Our guest is the coach who guides them all toward success!
In October, the club announced that Alex Bandli would be at the helm of both teams.
The Blugolds have had some great teams dating back to the early and mid 1990s and are working toward creating more magic in the 2024-25 season.
Bandli is originally from the Madison area and, when he's not with the Blugolds, competing on the lanes, or at...2024-12-1252 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #4/Ep. 186: Help for Heroes (with Jessica Abel)In July of this year, a new Executive Director came on board to lead one of the most well-known charitable organizations in the bowling community.
Jessica Abel of Broadalbin, NY started in the role at Bowlers to Veterans Link (https://bvl.org/) after two years of work at the International Bowling Campus and a successful run as a competitor at Wichita State University that included a national championship.
"She taught me how to turn my computer on, she'll tell you that!" Luis Benavides said while challenging Abel to appear on the show in Ep. 180.
2024-12-0552 minBowling With The Fef!FLASHBACK - Ep. 78: No Coaster Left Behind (with SerbskE$ Club)Every year around this time of November, people in the bowling community and beyond ask 'What’s up with this “Feftacular?”'
Well, to truly know what The Feftacular is all about, you have to know about SerbskE$ Club.
It was during this episode of Bowling With The Fef! in June 2022 that the team asked if I would sub with them.
Because I typically bowl on Thursday nights, and they bowl on Wednesdays, we decided that the night before Thanksgiving is the perfect night for it.
...2024-11-231h 22Bowling With The Fef!Pod #3/Ep. 185: The Way We Were (with Joe Firpo)In each of the past two years, the PBA has stopped at FireLake Lanes in Shawnee, OK. One was a national tour stop in 2023. The other, a Southwest Region event this past May.
But the rosters for these events had something in common: both included PBA Tour champion Joe Firpo.
It was June 1987 when Firpo and doubles partner Del Warren took the title at the Showboat Doubles Classic. He appeared on televised PBA Tour finals many times after that in the late 80s and 90s.
Firpo bowled around the Atlanta area after leaving...2024-11-211h 47Bowling With The Fef!FLASHBACK - Ep. 46: Life Lessons (with Del Warren)PBA Tour champ Joe Firpo reached out to me recently about a Bowling With The Fef episode he watched.
He said that there is nothing funnier that the stories from a couple of those guests.
Of course, I had to ask him if he would come on the show. He will on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 live on the YouTube channel and shortly after here on the podcast.
Firpo’s win on the national tour was a doubles title in 1987 with Del Warren.
Del was a guest on the show for episode 46: Life Le...2024-11-191h 37Bowling With The Fef!Pod #2/Ep. 184: It's Not for Someone Like Me to Bowl (with Christine Rebstock)When we last heard from Christine Rebstock of Middletown, CT on the show more than three years ago, she was looking forward to improving on the lanes and winning another New England Bowlers Association tournament.
Times have changed, and so have some of Christine's priorities. "...my eyes have been opened about gender ideology..." Christine said in a message exchange last month.
She's taken some steps toward bringing that ideology to bowling, including in the "It" in the title of this episode.
We're catching up with Christine about her journey to regain the wave...2024-11-1546 minBowling With The Fef!FLASHBACK - Ep. 30: What's in a name? (with Christine Rebstock)Christine Rebstock is returning to the show this week in an episode called It’s not for someone like me to bowl.
We’ll get to the “it” on Wednesday November 13 2024 at 8 p.m. central live on the Bowling With The Fef YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/live/IrNKsAQ4RyQ) and soon after on this podcast.
For now, a flashback to Ep. 30 on the show: What’s in a name, from June of 2021. That's when Christine had publicly identified as...Christine for less than a year and was looking forward to improvement on the lanes.
...2024-11-1055 minBowling With The Fef!BONUS BALLS: Ambassadors, strings and a memorable tournament at Elsie's (with Katey Haflund)Along with the premiere Bowling With The Fef podcast All She Knows So Far, Katey Haflund and I recorded another, shorter, conversation.
We talked about bringing non-bowlers into the sport and taking on the role of an ambassador, string pins, and a day back in the early 1990s in Minneapolis that I will never forget.
"Bonus Balls" is a podcast exclusive and will not appear on the YouTube channel in video form.
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SUBSCRIBE(on YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/c...2024-11-0731 minBowling With The Fef!Pod #1/Ep. 183: All She Knows...So Far (with Katey Haflund)This guest loves great music, time with friends and Minnesota, but bowling has always been her passion.
Katey Haflund of Coon Rapids, MN caught the bowling bug early, and quickly found success in competitive youth bowling. As one of the standouts in the North Metro Traveling League in the Twin Cities, she has improved consistently through the years, competing with Minnesota's best on adult tournament teams.
Recently, she has worked her way back to form after an injury forced her to take time off, then bowl left-handed and work relentlessly with lighter equipment.
...2024-11-071h 24
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