BUTLER TWP - Jim Bowser has a very personal interest in this year's Pennsylvania State Bowling Association Tournament.

The Butler resident and president of the PSBA is seeing the 65th annual tournament in his hometown over the next 11 weekends.

The PSBA Tournament has not taken place in the hometown of the organization's current president since its debut in 1940.

Ed Jefferson was president of the association then and the state tournament debuted in Wilkes Barre.

"They had something like 14 teams that first year," Bowser said. "This tournament has grown a bit since then."

The 2004 PSBA tournament began over the weekend. It will not be held over Easter weekend, but resumes the weekend of April 16-18 and concludes the weekend of June 18-20 at Family Bowlaway and Sherwood Lanes.

Tournament director Frank Delarme said 1,759 teams have already been officially entered into the computer "with another 50 or so sitting on my desk. I'm sure we're going to have more than 1,800 teams.

"As of March 4, we only had 1,300 teams. It's a tribute to the late push of the Butler association to bring that number up," Delarme said.

There were 1,853 teams here when Family Bowlaway and Zelienople's Freeway Lanes hosted the tournament in 1994.

"Our goal when we first landed this tournament was to bring 2,004 teams in 2,004," Butler County Bowling Association president Mike Coyle said. "That was a rather lofty goal.

"In this economic climate, we're very pleased to be where we're at right now."

Bowser said the 88 local teams participating in the tournament "is a disappointing figure, but that's what we've got." There were 114 local teams in the 1994 tourney.

Butler County bowlers have succeeded in this event in past years. The squad of Tom Fry, Wayne Geisler, Ray Henry, Kurt Huff and Dwight "Dee" Crowe won the team event in 1996.

Rich King won scratch singles in 1994, Fry won all events in 1992, Ralph Henry and Bo Ordy won scratch doubles in 1962.

"Local bowlers like to think they have an advantage when the tournament comes to their house," Bowser said. "The really good ones do, I suppose, but the association is strict about lane preparations. They make it fair for everybody."

Danelle Persic sang the national anthem during opening ceremonies Saturday at Family Bowlaway. Jim Hepler, first vice president of the BCBA, served as master of ceremonies.

Members of the PSBA and BCBA boards were introduced and six members of the BCBA Hall of Fame - Bowser, Ralph Henry, Crowe, Geisler, Mike Surkalo and Dave Hutchison - rolled the ceremonial first ball.

"Back in September of 1999, the board of the Butler County Bowling Association made a commitment to bring this tournament back to Butler County, for Butler County," Coyle said.

"Anybody who believes volunteerism is dead, this board proved otherwise. We've worked together over the past five years with a common goal in mind, to make this tournament a huge success."

The BCBA bid for the 2003 tournament, but lost out to Harrisburg. Butler edged out Erie for the 2004 tourney.

"It costs about $7,500 to do it (bidding for the tournament) properly," Bowser said. "Family Bowlaway and Sherwood combined to contribute $5,000 and our local association contributed the rest."

Bowser is also secretary-treasurer of the BCBA. Other vice-presidents are Larry Parenti and Dan Persic.

Other BCBA board members include Rob Thompson, Bob Hiles, Chuck Batykefer, Doug Mason, Dave Hutchison, Larry Griffith, Ed Montgomery, Daryl Switzer, Jim McCune, Dan Manning, Skip Weyand, Don Mahan, George Pakutz and Terry Adams.

"A lot of these people will be putting in long hours during this tournament," Bowser said. "Some will be at the bowling houses at 7 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays and will stay until midnight.

"It takes a lot of dedicated people to host this event."

The prize fund for this year's tournament is $270,000.