After a 10-year absence, one of Butler County's unique bowling events is back in business.

Bowl with Butler's Best, a tournament allowing youth bowlers to bowl with some of the county's best male bowlers, was revived Feb. 20 at Family Bowlaway.

Longtime bowler and youth coach Bill Fay, who is currently averaging 210 while competing in four leagues, revived the program, which fizzled in 1995 because of unforeseen expenses.

"It fell apart when a director wanted to bid the tournament to other (bowling) houses and all of those games had to be paid for," Fay said. "Nobody took the initiative to start it up again since.

"I decided to take that initiative this year and, with the help of some wonderful assistants, we were able to revive the tournament with just two months to prepare."

Butler County's Young American Bowling Alliance has about 500 bowlers and 92 participated in the event.

Rick Reeder, director of the Butler County YABA, assisted Fay in putting the tournament together, as did Butler County Bowling Association board members Dan Manning, Jim Hepler and Brian Marcellus.

Each YABA bowler rolled three games - one each with a different Butler County bowling legend - with the youth's three-game total combining with that of the veteran bowlers he or she bowled with to determine the official score.

The YABA bowlers competed in four categories - bantam (ages 8-and-under), prep (9 to 11), junior (12 to 15) and senior (16 to 21) - for scholarships.

"This is the first time this tournament involved scholarship money," Reeder said. "They used to just do it for trophies."

BCBA Hall of Fame members Dwight "Dee" Crowe and Jack "Bo" Ordy participated in the event along with Bob Cupp, Perry Chepelsky, Skip Weyand, Hepler, Marcellus, Brian Bruce, Rick McKain, Adam Ishman, Steve Doerr and Carl Vinroe.

The BCBA donated $500 to the event's scholarship fund.

"The board voted to do that," BCBA president Larry Parenti said. "This is a great thing those guys have done, bringing back this tournament, especially linking it to a scholarship program."

Fifteen YABA bowlers were awarded between $33 and $100 in scholarship money.

This is now an annual event, with next year's Bowl with Butler's Best scheduled for Jan. 29 at Family Bowlaway.

"That's the week before the Super Bowl," Fay said. "This year's event fell on the same day as the Daytona 500, and that hurt us a little bit."

"With a full year to plan, we're anticipating an increase in the scholarship fund and I'm hoping we can get 150 youth bowlers to participate," Reeder said.

Fay said the young bowlers improved their performances while bowling with the veterans.

"The guys worked with them and the kids paid attention," Fay said. "They respect those guys. My grandson (Austin Gagliardi) won his division and never bowled better. The kids were concentrating a lot more."

Reeder agreed the interaction between YABA bowlers and the local greats of the sport is important.

"Before the tournament, the bios of these bowling legends were read and the kids were impressed," Reeder said. "They look up to these guys. This gives these kids an idea of what they can accomplish if they stick with the sport and work at it.

"It puts attainable goals in front of them and that can only be good for bowling."

The following 15 Young American Bowling Alliance members won scholarships at the Bowl with Butler’s Best tournament Feb. 20:<B>Bantam (8-and-under)</B>First — Austin GagliardiSecond — Billy RichardsThird — Brandt Fleming<B>Prep (9-11)</B>First — Ben HoffmanSecond — Chance ReottThird — Bobby RichardsFourth — D.J. Wiles<B>Junior (12-15)</B>First — Justin HevesySecond — Tyler SauersThird — Hope GriffithFourth — Courtney Baird<B>Senior (16-21)</B>First — Derrick ClarkSecond — Misty DavisThird — Nathan HilliardFourth — April Baird