Leanne Barrette has become one of the leading bowlers on the PWBA Tour and is in a position to rival tour leader Carolyn Dorin-Ballard and other TV final regulars Cara Honeychurch, Wendy Macpherson, Lisa Bishop, Dede Davidson, Michelle Feldman, Kelly Kulick, and Liz Johnson for championship titles on every stop.
This group together recently set a record for number of consecutive appearances on TV as the PWBA finalists.
Barrette explained how she worked to achieve her success on the tour.
"When people meet you and they find out that you're a pro bowler, the list of questions is endless," Barrette said. "People are amazed that we can do this and make a living of it. I say that's what I do, and it's very interesting to them. I say it's similar to women pro golfers, but we don't make as much money, and then they understand. I always invite the public to watch us bowl because they would be amazed at the talent of the women with all this athletic ability out here, and they could get a better concept of what we do for a living."
Bowlers who grew up in the Bay Area are among the top leaders of the tour and Barrette is leading them all so far during the fall season. Barrette currently is fourth in earnings with $61,230, ranked third overall, and she is fifth in average with a 210.48. Barrette has won two tournaments this year—the Lady Ebonite Kentucky Classic and the Storm Challenge in Cape Coral, Fla., and was the top seed going into the TV finals the following week at the Jacksonville Open, where she lost the championship match to Carolyn Dorin-Ballard. She also lost the championship match to Wendy Macpherson in the Columbia 300 Open in Lancaster, Ohio.
"Kim Terrell and I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and were in the same tournaments and the same association," Barrette said, "and now we travel on the tour, which is very stressful at times."
Barrette and Terrell tied in the vote last year for the Robbie Sportsmanship Award, which Barrette ultimately lost in a tiebreaker. Barrette won this award twice previously. "Boomer" Barrette, as she is known on the tour, said there were two huge challenges every bowler needs to meet.
"At the beginning of the year, we had a 700-mile trip followed by a 1,000-mile trip," she said. "One of the toughest things about the tour is the grueling trips. The other stressful thing is spending $800 a week, and if I don't make the cut, then I lose that money, and you can't call in sick, either. I tell people who ask how would they like it if they went to work and didn't make any money, and most say they wouldn't tolerate it. I still wouldn't trade it for anything, but I would like to see the prize fund go up."
When Barrette, 34—the most typical age of the PWBA competitors since a large number of them were born in 1967—started her career 15 years ago, the bowlers were earning $5,000 per victory. Now, they earn an average of $10,000.
"We have to be athletes to compete on the tour and in good shape because the finalists bowl 70 games a week, and it's tough," said Barrette, who exercises regularly on and off the tour to stay fit. "Anybody who thinks you can grab a ball and compete without training is wrong. I've been bowling since I was eight years old, and it's been tough on my body. I have been working out in the gym because I've had recent injuries, so I need to strengthen those areas. I've been working with a gold medal coach because I've had hip problems all year, so he recommended I bend my knees in my stance more radically, and that did relieve my pain in the hips."
The bowling programs from California have contributed more of the best bowlers to the PWBA than any other locale.
"I bowled in the best program in the country with the region tour in Northern California with Kim Terrell, Dede Davidson, Tish Johnson, Nikki Gianulius, and Wendy Macpherson, and those six women on the PWBA Tour grew up with me in the same association. We had a quality group, and we won region tournaments before we joined the national tour. Wendy and I won a doubles region tournament in 1978, so we've been winning for a long time, and I always wanted to be a pro bowler. Anne Marie Duggan and Stacey Rider were competing in Southern California against us at that time, so we had a huge contingency from California on tour. I actually was encouraged to join the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour when I moved from California to Oklahoma and bowled with Carol Norman, who inspired me as my catalyst."
Leanne wishes the new PBA Tour well with its current ownership.
"I think they are off to a good start and, hopefully, it will bring good things for all of pro bowling. I'm a big fan of the pro bowlers tour, and I always have been. When I was a little girl, I went home after bowling in my league and watched the men bowl on TV. I was inspired by them, and I wish them all the best. I know a lot of the men on the tour, and they've helped me with my game, so a boost for them is a boost for us."
Barrette would welcome an investor or sponsor to pump a huge amount of money into their tour and increase their prize fund.
"What better way for bowling to go than to have the men and the women in the same venue every week." she said. "They could do that with their new format."
Barrette tends to tremble when she's standing at the line and about to start her motion, but once she takes a step to the line, the shaking stops.
"I'm always nervous and it makes me shake, but if I smooth it out as I start my approach, that situation tells me I should start my approach earlier so I won't be so nervous. It could improve my bowling."
It was Barrette's preference not to compete during the week of 9/11/01, but PWBA officials told her and the rest of the bowlers they needed to continue because unlike any other regularly televised sport, it was the choice of the PWBA officials to continue.
"It was a tough call, but I think I really would have rather stopped and gone home, but since we were not allowed to stop, I had no choice. It was a really horrible week for us starting on Sept. 11 because we would watch TV while we were on our breaks, and it was really scary to see the disasters unfold while we were away from home. It seemed like we were going through the motions and not maintaining our focus even the following week on tour in Cape Coral after Davie. The bad games weren't as bad for me because there were definitely much worse places and situations to be in our country. You really have a priority checklist to go through, and it was something we had never experienced on that kind of scale of actually feeling under attack. I think our bowling was therapeutic, and it would take your mind off of our world situation. It's better than just sitting around doing nothing but focusing on the news reports of the disastrous events from the TV set."
Some of the PWBA touring women felt they needed to make a contribution to the cause from the desecrations of Sept. 11. When Storm offered their $5,000 contribution based on the strikes shot by the competitors in the top five TV finals in the Storm Cape Coral (Fla.) Open, Boomer was elated by the move.
"When Storm agreed to give us the big $5,000 bonus to the Red Cross and the United Way, I felt it was the best way for the bowlers to contribute by bowling strikes to directly benefit the cause of those killed trying to save lives."
An autographed Storm ball was auctioned by the PWBA at the South Carolina stop, which added monetary contributions to the $5,000 bonus.
Barrette feels the petition signed by her bowling colleagues on the PWBA demanding equal treatment for women in the U.S. Open by the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America and the PBA Tour and the threat of the PWBA bowlers to boycott the U.S. Open which caused them to get their own U.S. Open was a great victory for the women's tour. She felt this victory was unique in PWBA history because they forced the men's tour and the proprietors to compromise on their stand concerning the women competing in the U.S. Open tournament.
"Concerning the U.S. Open, we have a great tournament to look forward to because we all stuck together and signed our petition to that effect. We all feel very strongly about having an equal tournament with the men because we're bowling the same amount of games, so we'll have two great tournaments. I wish we had it at the same bowling center. We had meetings about it and signed our petition demanding our rights for the Open, but when it came to bowling in Davie the week of Sept. 11, we discussed it but had no meetings, and the decision was made to proceed by the people who run our tour. We were in the middle of our tournament that week, and that was the PWBA's tough call. If we had not started, it may have been different."
Barrette, who has shot 36 career 300 games on the tour and currently ranks six places higher than her ninth place ranking from last year, hopes to bowl one on TV—preferably in the U.S. Open coming December 9 to be telecast on ESPN immediately following the PBA's U.S. Open. Barrette's friends, relatives, many fans from her hometown of Fremont and her current home in Pleasanton, Calif., and her fans nationwide will tune in for this televised grand finale of pro bowling's Fall Tours.
Richard Kolb is a member of the Bowling Writers Association of America.