Robin Romeo wins third straight USBC Senior Queens at Orleans

Where have you gone, Robin Romeo? Does our national still turn its lonely eyes to you? Woo woo woo.

Perhaps that is overstating it just a tad. But for 12 years — when Robin Romeo and a bunch of other elite women still were in their bowling primes — there was no pro tour for them. Their only recourse was to bowl in one-off United States Bowling Congress events, or go overseas, or bowl against men on their tour — which is pretty cool, but is also hard to do with any sort of regular success (See: Patrick, Danica).

The women’s pro bowling tour is back now, under a different name, but there are only a handful of tournaments. And so while Robin Romeo continues to bowl against the kids on tour, she also bowls in the one-off offerings, such as the USBC Senior Queens, which she won for the third straight time at The Orleans Bowling Center on Thursday night.

Romeo beat Tish Johnson in a battle of bowling Hall of Famers, 198-195. It was an exciting match, and a few hundred people (and a couple of screaming kids) were on hand to watch.

After Romeo was presented the big check for $3,000, and they put the Queens’ tiara on her head, she spoke about the state of women’s bowling.

“It’s sad that for a while there we didn’t have bowling,” she said of the women’s tour going into mothballs.

“USBC started the women’s tour last year, and they have a three-year contract. So the state is really good this year — they added more tournaments, and now they have CBS Sports Network televising the finals, and there’s a lot of great talent out there.”

There also was a lot of great veteran talent out there on the lanes at The Orleans.

Romeo, who won 17 titles on tour before it capitulated, didn’t roll her first strike until the ninth frame. Then she threw another one, and the double was just enough to hold off the animated Johnson, who, needing a double to win, flopped to the lanes in disbelief when she left her third 10-pin of the match in the 10th frame.

It was good theater, and the bowling fans on the riser that was set up cheered with enthusiasm. Woo woo woo.

THE ADAMS (STATE) FAMILY

You may remember Timm Rosenbach because of the way he spelled his first name, or because he was a pretty good quarterback at Washington State and started all 16 games for the Phoenix Cardinals in 1990, or for the two seasons he spent at UNLV as offensive coordinator under Bobby Hauck.

In the fall, Rosenbach will begin his second season as head coach at Adams State, an NCAA Division II member based in the cool mountains of Alamosa, Colorado. He’s taking a bunch of local kids with him.

No fewer than seven Las Vegas-area hopefuls will be listening for Rosenbach’s whistle toots when two-a-days begin. They include Devin Short (Arbor View), Ashton Lawson (Cheyenne), Vasa Hansell (Desert Pines), Antwuan Rainey (Cimarron-Memorial), Sterling Simmons (Moapa Valley), JD Reynolds (Foothill) and Stetson Stallworth (Yuma Catholic/Bishop Gorman). Quentin Kohorst of Green Valley is the Grizzlies’ equipment director.

And while it might be a reach to suggest any of the above will use Adams State as a springboard to the NFL, it has happened once before. Remember Don Cockroft, who was the Cleveland Browns’ kicker and punter for 13 seasons? Cockroft was Cleveland’s third-round draft pick in 1968 out of little Adams State College.

So a Las Vegas chapter of the Adams State Grizzly Club is being formed. The first meeting is at 6:30 p.m. June 2 at Torrey Pines Pub, 6374 W. Lake Mead Blvd. I’m told one of the topics for discussion will be how to defeat Colorado School of Mines.

PEPPERDINE HONORS RODRIGUEZ

Former Valley High baseball great Steve Rodriguez will be inducted into the Pepperdine Hall of Fame on Oct. 16.

Rodriguez played second base at Valley and at Pepperdine and for 18 games with the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers in 1995. He returned to Pepperdine and was the Waves’ head baseball coach for 12 seasons. Now he’s head coach at Baylor.

I remember chatting with Rodriguez when he took over the Pepperdine program when he was only 32.

He had led the Waves to the 1992 College World Series title by hitting a grand slam against Texas in the semifinals, and he had made a clutch defensive play in a 3-2 victory over Cal State Fullerton in the championship game. He was driving around Pepperdine’s campus and describing the palm trees swaying in the cool ocean breeze.

It sounded like an idyllic place to be head baseball coach, and then Steve Rodriguez said Pamela Anderson lived right down the hill from the ballpark.

LEGION BASEBALL SEASON OPENS

American Legion Baseball, which for my money was the first travel baseball program for youth — when I played, we sometimes drove in station wagons with wood paneling and no air conditioning from the Chicago suburbs to play games in Indiana towns such as South Bend and Fort Wayne and Lafayette — throws out the first pitch for another season in Las Vegas on Monday.

Gary Mouden, longtime commissioner of the local Legion program, says American Legion Baseball was organized nationally in 1925 (first program: Milbank, South Dakota), and has been played here since the old Gashouse Gang played pepper for those grainy baseball films of the 1930s.

Las Vegas has three American Legion divisions: Gold, Silver, Bronze. The winner of the Gold division will play in the state tournament, and the state tournament winner will represent Nevada in the Western Regional in Boulder, Colorado.

Hopefully the winning team won’t have to drive to Colorado in station wagons lacking air conditioning.

For more information about local American Legion baseball, go here: nybalegionbaseball.org

TALK SPORTS MINUS THE ROOSTERS

During March Madness, I wrote about the local sports radio show hosted by former UNLV women’s basketball coach Jim Bolla, and how he often had interesting guests but that you had to wake up with the roosters to hear them.

Not anymore. Bolla’s Coaches Corner program on KDWN 720-AM has moved from the rude hour of 5 a.m. to weekdays from 6-7 p.m. If you weren’t up with the roosters or making doughnuts, you can access past shows at: http://kdwn.com/coaches-corner/.

TRAINING AID

Several people have asked about contributing to a fund — or asked if there was one — to help offset the graduate school expenses of Brandon Hamilton, UNLV’s former student trainer who was born with a bone disorder called pseudoachondroplasia.

A GoFundMe account has been set up in Brandon Hamilton’s name. People can contribute at https://www.gofundme.com/24ujmyc.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski