North Florida Sport Shot Series

Last updated 8/26/2024:  

About the NFSSS:

The North Florida Sport Shot Series (NFSSS) is a monthly scratch tournament played on sport shot oil patterns, yet we have added a few fun twists to enhance the tournament experience. In addition to the 5-game tournament block, participants also compete in multiple side scholarship contests — “Most Marks” (U12 Mixed & Adult/U22 Mixed divisions only), “Most Spares” (Boys & Girls divisions only), “Most Strikes” (Boys & Girls divisions only), and “Knockout Challenge” (all males and all females).

Our Scholarship Finale in mid-May is open to all youth bowlers, while select qualifiers (those that entered in more than half (4+) of the regular monthly events that occurred during the season) will be awarded SMART funds from the year-end scholarship pool.

Our valued sponsors help us build up the scholarship pools awarded to our participating youth bowlers. Several bowling centers have donated into our scholarship pools, and the Bowl4Life Foundation is a returning sponsor too.  We are always seeking more sponsors to benefit the youth participants!

Be sure to follow us on our Facebook Page for the latest news!

2024-2025 NFSSS Tournament Schedule:

Check-in is from 9:00am-9:45am; Tournament starts promptly at 10:00am.

  • SUN SEP 22 at Bowlero Mandarin
  • SUN OCT 20 at Yulee Bowling & Amusements
  • SUN NOV 17 at Batt Family Fun Center 
  • SUN JAN 12 at Jax Lanes Bowling Center
  • SUN FEB 16 at Bowlero Mandarin
  • SUN MAR 23 at Yulee Bowling & Amusements
  • SUN MAY 18 at Bowlero Southside (Scholarship Finale)

Overall Tournament Format: 5 games, moving lane pairs each game

Patterns: A different, certified Sport-Compliant pattern (ratio between 1:1 and 3.99:1) will be used at each tournament. To mimic Junior Gold, the pattern is kept a secret, even from the Tournament Directors, until after game 5 when it is revealed and announced to all.

Tournament Divisions: Four divisions — U12 Mixed, Boys (U15/U18), Girls (U15/U18), and Adults (U22 Mixed).

Entry Fees (payable at check-in):

  • Entry Fee is $50/tournament ($20 lineage/expenses, $10 to each event’s divisional scholarship fund, $10 towards the side scholarship contests, and $10 to the year-end scholarship fund)
  • Optional Junior Gold Qualifier entry is $25 for U12, $37.50 for U15, $50 for U18 (Note: This is separate from the annual Junior Gold USBC national membership fee of $10 for U12 or $30 for U15/U18). The optional Gold Qualifier entry fees pay for entries to the National Tournament based on total entrants at a 1 in 4 ratio.

***NEW THIS YEAR*** “Most Marks” Scholarship Contest (U12 Mixed and Adults/U22 Mixed divisions only)

The “Most Marks Contest” is a scholarship event built into the NFSSS monthly tournament.  All bowlers will be given a scoring sheet to record their scores “frame-by-frame” and tally their total strikes and spares over the 5 qualifying games.  The bowler(s) with the highest number of combined strikes and spares (“marks”) will win their division’s side scholarship pool. Ties will be broken by whoever has the longest streak of consecutive frames with marks; if a tie still exists, they are broken by highest game score.

“Most Spares” Scholarship Contests (2 divisions — U15/U18 Boys & U15/U18 Girls)

The “Most Spares Contest” is a scholarship event built into the NFSSS monthly tournament.  All bowlers will be given a scoring sheet to record their scores “frame-by-frame” and tally their total strikes and spares over the 5 qualifying games.  The bowler with the highest number of spares will win their division’s announced scholarship pool. Ties will be broken by whoever has the longest streak of consecutive frames with marks; if a tie still exists, the tie is broken by highest game score.

***NEW THIS YEAR*** “Most Strikes” Scholarship Contests (2 divisions — U15/U18 Boys & U15/U18 Girls)

The “Most Spares Contest” is a scholarship event built into the NFSSS monthly tournament.  All bowlers will be given a scoring sheet to record their scores “frame-by-frame” and tally their total strikes and spares over the 5 qualifying games.  The bowler with the highest number of strikes will win their division’s announced scholarship pool. Ties will be broken by whoever has the longest streak of consecutive frames with marks; if a tie still exists, the tie is broken by highest game score.

“Knockout Challenge”

The “Knockout Challenge” is a fun scholarship event that takes place right after the qualifying round of each NFSSS monthly tournament, and is included as part of the tournament entry fee.  All bowlers will be assigned to a group of lanes for the event, split by gender.  After a brief warmup period, contestants will throw one ball in each round, attempting to knock down at least the minimum number of pins required for that round (Round 1 = 6 pins, Round 2 = 7 pins, Round 3 = 8 pins, Round 4 = 9 pins, Rounds 5+ = 10 pins); Advancers move to the next pair of lanes for the next round. Rounds are replayed if no one knocked down the minimum required pins. The last person standing in each gender division will be awarded the respective scholarship pool (NO TIES!).

Junior Gold Qualifier:

Each monthly tournament includes an optional 2025 Junior Gold Qualifier event (requires additional JG entry fees).  The 5-game qualifying round scratch scores will be used to determine the entry winner(s), using an award ratio of 1:4 in each age/gender division.  Junior Gold divisions may be combined (by gender or age group) if there are not enough entrants (4) in a division; If there are still not enough Junior Gold entrants for age group, players will have the option to compete in a higher age division by paying the difference in JG entry fee OR the Junior Gold add-on fee will be refunded prior to the competition. Note: there are no qualifiers for U22 division bowlers. Also, the May Scholarship Finale offers s a 2026 Junior Gold Qualifier.

Scholarship Finale:

The Scholarship Finale event in May is open to all youth bowlers, who can compete for the usual monthly scholarship pools and side contests; however, bowlers that competed in more than half (4+) of the previous monthly NFSSS tournaments are eligible for the large year-end scholarship pool. The tournament format will be the same as monthly tournaments.  SMART scholarships will be awarded to all eligible bowlers at the discretion of the Tournament Directors, based on performance during the season and tournament (100% of funds are paid out to the bowlers).

***NEW THIS YEAR*** There are progressive year-end scholarship pools for the Most Marks, Most Spares, and Most Strikes scholarship contests. All spares and strikes a bowler earned over the entire NFSSS tournament season (all 6 regular events plus the finale) counts towards these bonus year-end scholarship awards. Divisions and tiebreakers are the same as the monthly events.

Questions?

Please send all questions to the Tournament Director (listed below), via email to nfsssbowling@gmail.com or through this website’s homepage.

Tournament Director: Ryan Waters