This NEBA weekend was a special one to remember. On Saturday, friends and family met at Casa Mia at the Hawthorne to celebrate 2023-24 award winners as well as officially welcome the new class of hall-of-fame inductees; Steve Travers, Chris Monroy, Chris Forry and Danny Kaye. Memories were made, stories were told and we were reminded how impactful this club can be and we thank you all for that.
The Rip Callahan Memorial And Hall-of-Fame Classic kicked off with 218 competitors competing across the 3 qualifying squads. Bowlers would find themselves pinned up against the 2024 PBA Monacelli pattern measuring 40ft in length, 28.55mL and a ratio of 5.22:1. Brandon Vallone lead the qualifying portion with a smoking hot 251.4 average (1257/5 games) and gave himself a bye going into the finals along with 15 others who also earned bye’s. 48 total participants would move on to the single-elimination, bracket match play.
Bowlers in the first round will have to win 6 total matches to come out on top of the event and this is where we ran into the 18-seed, Tom Coco. Tom would see his first match against Chris Carlson with Coco coming out on top with a 193-159 win. He went on to warm up his strike shoes against power-house, Pierce Field as he claimed his victory 229-198. Moving on to the round of 16 Tom would find himself up against New England legend and NEBA Hall-of-Famer, John Kirker. While John is known to intimidate wins and bowlers alike, it proved to be no match for Coco as Tom walked away with a comfortable 238-179 win. Up next on the trail of bowlers who fell to Tom’s performance we find Connor LeClaire. Even Connor’s powerful release wasn’t able to keep up with the hyper-dialed Tom Coco as Tom swept LeClaire 266-217. Moving into the semi-finals we are joined by Tom’s opponent, Dennis Bissonnette as well Neba Hall-of-Famer, Alex Aguiar and Jamyson Mathieu. Many times we see tight matches leading into the finals but the eventual championship match contenders showed their will to compete for a title. Tom would send Bissonnette home with a 241-200 win while Aguiar would come out on top against Mathieu 265-174.
This title match would have much on the line with Alex looking to break the 30-title barrier and put himself within 2 titles of the all-time title holder, Michael Lichstein. Tom would be adding a 3rd title to his resume, solidifying himself as a force to be reckoned with. The competitors would both begin the match with strikes with Alex pushing ten back and Tom sending a messenger to clear the deck. Aguiar moved into frame 2 where he was left with a pocket 7-10 and an open frame. It is well known that Alex leaves little room for wiggle and Tom would need to capitalize. A mark in the 2nd and 3rd kept Tom clean but not give him the separation to mark himself safe. Alex returned fire on the right lane with a strike of his own but still found struggles on the left lane with a 2-10 split, only this time converting it. Tom would not let fate hand him the same chance twice without taking advantage so he began a barrage of strikes in frames 4 and 5. Heading into Aguiar’s 5th frame he would prove he is locked in on lane 38 with another no doubter. Another adjustment on 37 kept Alex questioning the lane as he split again and left him with another open frame. Coco’s strike train led him all the way to frame 8 where he would convert a makable to offer himself a lead players dream of when bowling of Alex’s caliber. Tom stepped up to the 9th frame where he’s split but covered his count to essentially lock up the match. After all the formalities of finishing the match, it was concluded with a 212-169 victory for Tom Coco and successfully locked him in to an impressive 3rd title.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAMPION:
“First and foremost, I would like to thank the Callahan family and the staff at Bowl-O-Rama for allowing us NEBA bowlers to compete and continuing to greatly support the organization as a whole!
Secondly, to Justin, Daniel, and the rest of the NEBA staff for once again putting all their hard work into making NEBA one of the most successful running organizations to date!
Thirdly, to Chris, Jesse, and the rest of the buddies crew for providing me with the best drilling services you can ask for!
Thank you to Storm Products for allowing me to throw the best equipment they have to offer!
Words could not express how it feels to win a 3rd NEBA title. NEBA has a ton of amazing, talented bowlers you could ask for, as it continues to grow and I thoroughly enjoy bowling these events. Looking forward to the next one!”
We would like to thank Callahan Family for adding $6,000 to this weekends event and for continuing to be a staple in support for NEBA and it’s members. We would also like to thank the staff at Callahan’s Bowl-O-Rama for their work in helping to make sure everything ran smooth. We can’t emphasize enough that we couldn’t do what we do for New England bowling without people and businesses like you.
UP NEXT
We invite you all to Wonder Bowl in New Bedford, MA for both the KR Strikeforce Non-Champions Classic on April, 5th-6th as well as the
Royal Flush Apparel and JoPo Grips Classic - (Women / Senior / Super Senior) on April 5th.
Thank you to all of our members and sponsors. We could not continue to be one of the best tournament bowling organizations in the country without YOU!
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