Jensson, McCool named lifetime bowling members

A pair of local bowlers were rewarded for their decades of dedication here Sunday night.
Shirley Jensson and Bev McCool were named lifetime members of the Sunset Country Five-Pin Bowling Association at the closing banquet of last weekend’s zone aggregate championship at Plaza Lanes.
“It’s something every volunteer hopes might happen when they get ‘older,’” chuckled a gracious Jensson, who has been involved in the sport in various capacities for almost 30 years.
“I’m very honoured to receive it because it’s a prestigious award given to so very few people,” she added.
Jensson currently is treasurer for the Fort Frances Bowling Club, zone delegate and treasurer for the Master Bowlers Association of Northern Ontario, and the Northern Ontario delegate for the Sunset Country Five-Pin Bowlers’ Association.
Since 1986, she has served on a host of local and zone executive committees, and has fulfilled tournament duties in every role from scorekeeper to event organizer.
Jensson also has an impressive coaching record at the YBC level, taking the local Bantam boys’ team to the nationals in Regina in 1989.
“The boys were so excited and proud to be there,” she recalled. “Yes, I had an excellent team to work with, but it was a requirement that they have a coach.”
A fine bowler in her own right, Jensson has twice qualified for national competitions as a member of the Sunset Country ladies’ team—and even has rolled a 400 game.
“I believe in the sport of five-pin bowling,” she said. “It’s one of the best sports you can participate in.
“To start out with kids who know nothing about bowling and to teach them the proper way to bowl and the etiquette of the game and see them develop, it’s a great satisfaction to see the love of the game that you have given to them.”
Meanwhile, the time-worn tale of an athlete living a stone’s throw away from their favourite sporting venue quite literally applies to McCool.
She was living in a house above the bake shop next door to Plaza Lanes in 1960 when alley owner Fred Clinker encouraged her to pick up the game.
“I liked sports, and it was a good winter sport,” McCool said Monday afternoon from Florida, where she’s vacationing.
Her skills developed to the point where she made it all to the way to Calgary as part of the Sunset Country mixed team that captured the gold medal at the nationals in 1980.
She was inducted as a member of that squad to the Northwestern Ontario Hall of Fame in 1982 and was the owner of Plaza Lanes from 1978-93.
McCool also has coached YBC and provincial-level bowlers, and has served in an executive capacity with several associations.
She’s thankful for the recognition, but said a successful bowling community cannot be attributed to a single individual.
“You’ve got to have good volunteers around you, and people that will work with you to make things happen,” she remarked.