After seven strikes in a row, a stubborn number seven pin that would not go down ended the opportunity of what could have been a perfect 300 bowling game for Mario Oliva. “That should have been a strike,” says a disappointed Mario, who then misses the chance of at least getting the spare. “It’s not lucky number seven for left-handers."
While years before his left hand was knocking opponents out when he was a golden gloves boxing champion, today this competitor by nature, is knocking down pins at the local bowling alley. Like a fighter training the weeks following up to a big fight, Mario is putting his hours of practice at Miller Time Billiards in Davenport which this year hosts the 44th Annual Iowa Mexican-American Bowling Tournament, a traveling tournament that is hosted in Fort Madison, Mason City, Council Bluffs, Des Moines and this time around in Davenport on May 3 and 4.
The tournament coincides with the celebration of another famous Mexican battle, the Battle of Puebla, better known as Cinco de Mayo. The tournament takes place on that weekend every year. The first day of the tournament will feature singles and doubles action in the men’s and women’s divisions beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Then team tournament action takes place on Sunday, also starting at 11 a.m., and usually brings out much larger crowds. The tournament rules state that at least two individuals on a team must be of Mexican descent of a five person team.
Frank Sierra of Silvis, Ill. is president of the tournament and is organizing this year’s tournament. He started out involved with the tournament about 15 years ago as a secretary and in recent years he has served as the president. This is his last year serving as president and at this tournament in Davenport a new tournament president may be elected. Frank says that things have gotten a lot simpler to organize the event. “All the names and addresses are on a (computer) disk, so it’s not that hard (to update their database), when you are bowling it is all electronic and the bowling alley takes care of it all, it’s not a big task,” he says.
In the past three years the tournament has averaged 120 participants per year, each host city has a director who steps forward to organize the event in their home city. “Basically is setting up the bowling lanes, getting the applications out, and running the tournament, the hardest part of it is when everybody arrives is giving them their documentation,” explains Frank. “There is the hard part there, when they come through the door, getting them signed in.”
It has been five years since the tournament was hosted in the Quad Cities and Mario feels very excited and confident like a boxer fighting in front of his hometown crowd. Mario, who averages 211 per game, has been practicing just about every other day lately because he wants the winning trophy to stay with a local team. At this practice game he scored a 244. The prior game he scored a 243 and before that he scored a 216 for a total of 704 point in 3 games. Not bad at all.
Mario has been bowling in this tournament for about 15 years on and off, and now he is one of the best Hispanic bowlers in the Quad Cities. He is quick to say that his friend Lucio Acosta is probably the best Hispanic bowler in the area and he hopes to eventually be just as good. Together they have participated in tournaments and are regulars at the local bowling leagues.
This year Mario will be joined by Patrick Lynch, with bowling average 213, Jaimes Tremaine who averages 197, Miguel Alvarez averaging 132, and Jeremiah J. Finch averaging 121 as part of the Hola America-Reynold’s Ford Team.
Frank says that for guys like Mario bowling seems to come naturally. “It’s depending how much natural talent you have compared to how much you want to work at the game to make up for the talent you don’t have.”
Just like any other sport you have to learn the fundamentals of bowling first Frank says. “It all depends how much you love what you are doing for fun. It depend how good you want to be.”
With the advantage of having the tournament in Davenport this year and being able to practice in the lanes that host it, Mario and his team are looking for a big win, defending their home turf, just like Mexico did in that battle on Cinco de Mayo.
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