Randy Hicks, Deborah Holland and Brandon Ledbetter of Southern Lanes in Douglasville, Georgia, have been selected to receive the USBC Proprietor of the Year Award, which annually recognizes bowling center owners for outstanding support of USBC local, state and/or national association programs.
Hicks, Holland and Ledbetter purchased Southern Lanes after it had gone through foreclosure with its previous owner. They reopened the center in August of 2018. As is often the case when new ownership takes over, there was plenty of work to be done.
“When we bought it, we agreed that the last thing we wanted was for the people that had bowled here before to walk in and see the same old place,” Hicks said. “We took all the carpet out and put in acrylic floors, which are pretty unique. We put in giant ceiling fans, new heat and air conditioning, new parking lot; we had to do it all. We did have a great scoring system, and the lane beds were in good shape, so in that sense the bones were good.”
After spending the first five years of ownership concentrating on creating a thriving business for the 32-lane center, Hicks and the group went to work transforming under-utilized space into an area called “The Bowling Factory.” The 12,500-square-foot space has three different lane surfaces: Brunswick Anvilane and Pro Anvilane and AMF HPL. Specto and Clutch also are installed for coaching.
Southern Lanes is known for giving back, from affordable rates for those on fixed incomes to sponsorships that keep youth sports thriving, and from providing special-needs invitation competition for several counties in the area and hosting Special Olympics for the state of Georgia to hosting field trips for day cares and after-school programs for Douglas and Carroll County Schools.
The Southern Lanes team will be honored during the 2026 USBC Convention and Annual Meeting, scheduled for April 27-30 at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, Nevada.
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