This story was provided by Taylor Booth, a bowler who participated in the tournament. The Chairman of the Eagles was contacted, but did not respond to inquiry.
Pots, brackets and side action are a part of most every tournament you join these days. Many people won't even join tournaments that don't have some type of side action available. Unfortunately, this side action is sometimes mishandled or taken advantage of by bowlers and Tournament Directions alike.
Such was the case this past weekend at the Ohio State Eagles Tournament at Sunrise Bowling Center in Zanesville, OH. Taylor Booth, a bowler who has joined the tournament for the past few years, decided, as usual, to participate in this year's tournament. The Team Event of the tournament was held this past Saturday at 1PM. Booth decided beforehand that he was going to partake in some side action, so he joined $110 worth of side pots, $100 in scratch brackets (20 brackets), a $5 scratch jackpot and $5 mystery doubles.
After finishing the 3-game set, the bracket runner (a man named Ron who works with the Eagles Tournament) made an announcement that bracket would not be ready for payout until the following day and for everyone to return back the next day for their money. Booth went over to the bracket table to get further clarification, but was told there were no further updates and the only paper that was printed out (after the 3-game set was over) were the first game matchups. Sensing something was amiss, Booth took a picture of the alive sheet (below).
The next day, Booth arrived back at the alley at around 10AM to collect any money he may have won. When he arrived at the bracket table, "Ron" told him he had been blanked and won nothing. As he didn't shoot that bad, he asked to see the alive sheet from the previous day but was told it had been deleted and that the program was having issues so they weren't sure if they would even be running brackets for the other squads. Booth again requested an alive sheet, commenting that they had to have an alive sheet because each bracket had been printed out. This time the bracket runner said he couldn't find it. The bracket runner said to give him some time and he'd try to restore it.
Booth went over to watch his friend bowl the Sunday morning squad. As he was watching, another gentleman named Jim who had been helping with the running of the action signaled for him to come back to the bracket table. Booth went over and was told that they found the alive sheet on the computer but that the printer was slow and would take a while to print. Booth said he would wait, replying that even if he lost, there were thousands of dollars at stake from other people joining and that those other participants would want to see the results. "Jim" seemed to stall but agreed to print out the sheet. The printer, however, was incredibly slow and so Booth just asked to see his alive sheet from the previous day on the computer. When Jim showed him the alive sheet, Booth saw that he was in a completely different set of brackets bowling all different people. When he questioned this, he was told that the brackets had been re-drawn (image below) because someone dropped out. When he asked who, the bracket runner refused to tell him. Getting visibly annoyed, Booth responded that it was absurd that he was told to return the next day only to find out that the brackets were re-drawn without telling anyone and requested a refund, which was denied. Booth accepted defeat and walked away.
The bracket runner decided to run brackets in the afternoon squad on Sunday, however in the middle of game 2, he made an announcement that the bracket program was having an issue and all brackets for that squad would be refunded. When asked what had happened, the bracket runner said all of the scores from the Saturday squad had populated in the program, the same ones they couldn't find previously. No further brackets were run.
On Sunday, someone made a post in the Eagles Facebook page offering their resignation, saying that the lack of respect from the Chairman coupled with failure to make payouts to teams from the previous year's tournament, were their reasons for resigning.
The Chairman of the Eagles Tournament was contacted but unavailable for comment.
