Bill Vint
Professional Bowlers Association

"AfroFrish," known to mere mortals as "Kyle Troup."

The inaugural PBA Team Challenge, inviting PBA players and all comers to put together a roster of five players for a team battle never before seen in the United States, has already produced some interesting combinations of players.

Among the first 15 teams entered are Team Fish, the Couch Potatoes, the unnamed “super team,” another unnamed team with a distinct international flavor, teams with pronounced regional ties, others with lots of collegiate experience, and it’s rumored an all-women’s team will be in the field.

Team Fish, as previously announced, includes five PBA players who like to have fun: Dick (FishStick) Allen, Kyle (AfroFish) Troup, Connor (FishFord) Pickford, Anthony (TwoFinFish) Simonsen and Kris (WickedFish) Prather while PBA Hall of Famer Jason Couch’s Couch Potatoes includes fellow lefty Ryan Ciminelli, Denmark’s Thomas Larsen, Ryan Shafer, Dave Wodka and Couch himself.

The so-called “super team” without an official name features Chris Barnes, Jason Belmonte, Tommy Jones, Wes Malott and Bill O’Neill – owners of a combined 13 major championships among their 63 total PBA titles. The “internationals” includes England’s Dom Barrett and Stu Williams bowling with Sweden’s Martin Larsen, Finland’s Osku Palermaa and token U.S. player Patrick Allen.

Team Brunswick is in the field with Sean Rash, Parker Bohn III, Tom Smallwood, Jason Sterner and the king of PBA title winners, Walter Ray Williams Jr. South America will challenge the field with Colombia’s Andres Gomez, Jaime Gonzalez, Jaime Monroy, Manuel Otalora and Venezuela’s Ildemaro Ruiz.

If experience counts, look to the McCorkle Real Estate team which includes PBA50 Tour stars Tom Baker, Bob Learn Jr., Ron Mohr, Amleto Monacelli and Pete Weber.

For more information on who is entered, check out the link to current team rosters:

http://www.pba.com/Content/files/Downloads/2015%20FALL%20CLASSIC%20(Team).pdf

Entries for the PBA Team Challenge, as well as the Mark Roth/Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship and PBA Xtra Frame South Point Las Vegas Open singles event, are being accepted online or by calling Mary von Krueger at 206-332-9688 (email: maryvk@pba.com).

The PBA Team Challenge will include six full qualifying games by all five team members at 9 a.m. PT on Saturday, Oct. 24, followed by 12 Baker format qualifying games at 5 p.m. After 18 combined team games, the top eight teams will advance to a Baker format round-robin match play at 9 a.m. Sunday, and after a combined 26 team games, the top four teams will bowl a Baker format stepladder final round at 3 p.m. All PBA Team Challenge competition will be covered live, exclusively on PBA’s Xtra Frame online bowling channel.