Team USA players selected for international events

Team USA 2008 bios

Team USA will send what is arguably the best group of players it has ever assembled to take on the world in international competition this year.

Selected to compete for Team USA at the Men's World Championships, scheduled for Aug. 20-31 in Bangkok, Thailand, are Denny's PBA Tour stars Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, S.C., Patrick Allen of Wesley Chapel, Fla., and Rhino Page of Topeka, Kan., as well as veteran amateur Bill Hoffman of Columbus, Ohio, who helped lead Team USA to the team gold medal at the 2006 event with a 300 game.

On the women's side, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard of North Richland Hills, Texas, Wendy Macpherson of Henderson, Nev., Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, N.Y., Kelly Kulick of Union, N.J., Lynda Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, and Diandra Asbaty of Chicago have been selected to compete at the Pan American Bowling Confederation Women's Championships (formerly American Zone) in Santiago, Chile, on Oct. 18-26.

Assignments were made by Team USA head coach Jeri Edwards and assistant coaches Gordon Vadakin, Ken Yokobosky and Rod Ross following the women's training camp, April 1-6, and men's training camp, April 20-25, in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"We have such a strong field of players that any selections we made we would have had a strong team," Edwards said. "We are happy with the players who are going to represent our country this year and looking forward to some great performances."

This is the first year professionals have been eligible to compete with Team USA in international competition, thanks to a change in World Tenpin Bowling Association legislation last August.

Two-time World Cup champion Shannon Pluhowsky of Phoenix will attempt to win a third at the QubicaAMF World Cup in Hermosillo, Mexico, on Nov. 7-15. She will be joined there by reigning USBC Team USA Trials men's champion Derek Eoff of Greenfield, Wis., who will hope to repeat Hoffman's winning performance from a year ago.

USBC Team USA Trials women's champion Shannon O'Keefe of Brookfield, Wis., who won the singles gold at the 2007 Women's World Championships, and John Janawicz of Winter Haven, Fla., singles gold medalist at the 2007 Men's American Zone Championships, will represent Team USA at the PABCON Champion of the Champions, a new event that will be held June 2-6 in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Del Ballard Jr. of North Richland Hills, Texas, David Haynes of Las Vegas and Brenda Viator of Lake Wales, Fla., plus another woman who will be named later, will represent the United States in the adult division at the Tournament of Americas, set for July 27-Aug. 8 at Boardwalk Entertainment Center in Orlando, Fla.