A THOUSAND SATURDAY MORNINGS

BY BOB JOHNSON

The adjective most associated with Saturday is “lazy” — as in a lazy Saturday morning following a long week at work.

But there rarely has been anything lazy about Saturdays for Nelson Chase, who began coaching youth leagues in September 1991 and hasn’t missed a scheduled session since.

On Sept. 14 of this year, he marked 1,000 consecutive scheduled Saturdays as a youth bowling coach without a single absence.

“Perfect attendance” seems to be in Chase’s DNA. In 10 years as a youth bowler at B&C Lanes in Hudson Falls, New York, he missed just one Saturday morning session — although he did show up.

“I was there and getting ready to bowl,” Chase recalls, “but then I got sick in the restroom and my parents said, ‘You’re going home.’”

After going to college at SUNY Potsdam, he returned home to look for a teaching job. While he’d been gone, the junior coach at the center had retired and a permanent replacement had not been found. The owners of B&C Lanes, who had employed Chase while he was in high school, knew he was coming back and asked him if he’d be interested in the job. He was.

Actually, “job” is a bit of an overstatement as the word suggests that Chase was paid to run the youth program. He was not. He says he simply enjoyed helping young people, whether it involved teaching math and physics at the high school (for which he was paid) or teaching athletic and social skills at the bowling center.

Chase coached at B&C Lanes for 11 years until the manager passed away and the owner decided it was time to retire. That’s when he asked the Bickford family, owners of Broadway Lanes in Fort Edward, New York, whether they needed a coach.

“I warned them that I was accustomed to running all over, behind the desk, getting on the microphone, doing whatever needed to be done to run a smooth program,” Chase says. “They told me I could do my own thing, and Broadway Lanes has been my home since 2002.”

The 24-lane center is a two-generation operation. The original owners are John and Christina Bickford, their oldest son Sean is vice president of the company and their youngest son Brandon is the CFO. The family also owns a center in Granville, New York, about a half-hour away.

The manager of Broadway Lanes is 25-year-old Ian Rose, who began bowling at the age of 4 and came up through Chase’s junior program. He also bowled for the Fort Edward High School bowling team, which Chase coached for 26 years.

“He always wanted the kids in his classes and on his teams to succeed,” Rose says. “I remember that when he was coaching he carried a clipboard, and the back of the clipboard had a sign on it: ‘MAKE YOUR SPARES.’ Anytime you’d miss an easy spare, he’d hold up the clipboard.”

Chase also has coached Special Olympics athletes.

Over time, Chase got involved in state youth bowling activities as well. He’s a two-time New York State Coach of the Year. He has received the state’s Service to Youth Award. He chairs the state youth committee and runs New York’s Pepsi tournament.

“I do a lot of things, but it always has been with a lot of help,” he says. “Whether it’s the centers I’ve worked in, the committees I’ve been on or the tournaments I’ve been involved with, there have always been many people contributing.”

All of his efforts at the state level have gained Chase election to the New York State USBC Hall of Fame for meritorious service. He’s also a member of the Adirondack USBC Hall of Fame for achievement.

Yet he says it is his work at Broadway Lanes, working one-on-one with youth bowlers from pre-school through high school ages, that brings him the greatest sense of satisfaction.

“When you’re coaching, you’re also teaching,” he says. “And it’s not just, ‘Stand here,’ or ‘Face the 10-pin,’ or ‘Follow through’ — all the same things my junior bowling coach at B&C Lanes was saying — but it’s also winning and losing with grace and how to talk to other kids.”

But didn’t he realize a similar sense of satisfaction from teaching high school math and physics? Yes… but there’s another reason Chase does what he does.

“I’m helping to keep league bowling going,” he says. “I bowl in one league a week, and as I look around, I can point at several kids — they’re not kids anymore — in the league who came up through our program. I think that’s kind of cool.”

Why is league bowling so important to him?

“You have people with lots of money who drive fancy cars, and you have guys who drive beat-up trucks and life hasn’t handed them a thing,” Chase says. “When you join a league, none of that makes any difference. You can socialize and find common ground no matter what your background.  I love that experience. So, I guess my motives are a little selfish; I want to make sure league bowling keeps going.”

For a thousand Saturdays and counting, Chase has endeavored to instill that love of the game and sense of community in the young people he coaches. Although he has no plans to stop anytime soon, he is looking for someone to carry the torch down the road.

“My goal is to put a spark in somebody,” he says. “I’d like to find someone who could do what I’m doing so I could slow down just a bit.”

Meanwhile, Nelson Chase continues to keep his Saturday calendar clear for youth bowlers… and the future of league bowling.

“I guess you could say there’s a fine line between dedication and stupidity,” he says with a chuckle. “But I just really love what I do.”