Afterwards, the AAXS Bowling Club came up with
additional activities other than just overseeing the annual alumni league. We
hosted the 2002 Inter-Alumni Association Bowling League at the recently opened
Playdium Bowling Center at Araneta Avenue in Quezon City, where the alumni
associations from different schools were invited to send teams to play in
friendly bowling competition. Xavier sent two teams composed of players from
different batches. Other schools whose alumni associations also sent teams were
Chiang Kai Shek, St. Jude, Uno High School, Grace Christian High School, ICA,
and eventual champions St. Stephen.
Later on in November of 2002, the AAXS Bowling Club
once more elected a new set of officers for the next season: myself as
President; Edgar Gatchalian ('86), Vice President; Bryan Ang ('92), Secretary;
Kelly Salvador ('78), Treasurer; Ferdie Co ('85), PRO; and Edward Chan ('70),
Tournament Director.
For 2003, the Bowling Club has new projects lined up
that we hope will maintain or even increase bowling interest for everyone in the
Xavier family. First of all, once the annual alumni league has concluded, we
plan to hold a bowling clinic for the youth to be held during the summer. This
clinic aims to introduce youngsters to the game, teach them the fundamentals of
bowling (such as grip, stance, aim, scoring, etiquette, etc.) and bring them
their first taste of friendly competition by ending the clinic with a
mini-league just before the school year starts in June.
After this, we also plan to hold the first mixed
3-person league exclusively for Xavier alumni and ICA alumnae. Some ICA
graduates have expressed to us their interest in developing a bowling league and
club for their school similar to what Xavier now has. We feel that starting out
with a joint league might help attract players and gain some support and
participation from the ICAns who play the game.
Tentatively, a four-day tournament is also being
planned exclusively for Xavier graduates only. Nothing is set in stone yet, but
we hope that we can thresh out the rules and format of the tournament soon, and
with a little bit of luck we may be able to push through with this tournament
sometime during the year.
Lastly, for those of you who didn't know, there is an AAXS Bowling Club website at members.fortunecity.com/aaxsbowl. It has been revived since the original website was shutdown due to a change in the server. The site will provide information about the Club; past, ongoing, and future projects; news and other highlights; and Club sponsored league and tournament scores. Ferdie Co ('85), the PRO, has taken charge of this project, and we are all looking forward to see the new, redesigned and fully functional AAXS Bowling Club website.
The future of AAXS bowling looks positive despite all
that we have gone through since 1996, and also despite the current economic
downturn the Philippines -- and, I might add, the rest of the world -- is
experiencing. The older alumni have maintained their participation, while the
younger alumni (especially those graduates from the 1990's) have increased
theirs. All the Xavier bowlers have gotten to know each other quite well, and
every year I see both familiar and new faces show up to participate. The league
averages about fifteen or sixteen teams each year, not bad from when we started
with thirteen. Hopefully there will be more teams from more batches who will
join future leagues so we can see even higher participation.
What I find most heartening is a proliferation of new
bowling centers in Metro Manila. There is Playdium along Araneta Avenue in
Quezon City, Pearl Bowling Center in Parañaque, and E-lanes along Ortigas
Avenue, very near Xavier. These centers started operating all within the last
four years or so. I take this as a sign that bowling is increasing in popularity
among Filipinos. Perhaps this popularity will trickle down to other Xaverians
besides those of us who are already playing, most especially to the ones who are
still studying at Xavier, as well as to the younger graduates who are still in
college or who have just entered the work force. I can thus look forward to a
time when I will see teams composed of Xavier graduates of the 21st Century.
That will tell me that bowling, this game that we have come to love and enjoy,
has successfully reached our younger Xavier brothers, and their participation in
the annual league and the other Bowling Club projects will augur well for the
future of AAXS bowling.
Who knows? Perhaps a future Philippine, Southeast Asian, Asian, or even World Bowling Champion may someday be a graduate of Xavier and a product of the efforts of the AAXS Bowling Club.