LI seniors victorious in virtual bowling

Nancy Quiney remembers well the state semifinals match.

The visiting team's bus pulled up to the curb in Copiague and Queen's "We are the Champions" blared from the speakers as cheerleaders lined up in welcome.

The home team watched the visitors emerge and began sizing up their competition.

Then out came the canes, walkers and wheelchairs.

The sport was Wii bowling, and the April match pitted Copiague's Tanner Park Senior Center against Greenport's Peconic Landing Assisted Living. Both are part of the National Senior League, an online venture where seniors across the country face off in weekly games of virtual Wii Sports bowling.

Peconic's mobility issues garnered little compassion from Tanner Park, some of whose players use walkers, too. And, they noted, the competitive spirit does not wane with age.

"We had no sympathy," said Quiney, 70, of Copiague. "We said, 'We're gonna take them down!' "

The Tanner Park High Rollers beat Peconic's Wii The People in a close match. Weeks later, they bested a Rochester team for the senior league state title. Now, the bowlers are looking for a national championship.

Gaining popularity

Atlanta's Dennis Berkholtz, 67, a former Olympic team handball player, came up with the idea for the league in 2009 after visiting his parents in an assisted living facility and noticing how few activities there were.

Today, the for-profit league has more than 950 bowlers on 160 teams from 26 states. The four-person teams hail from senior centers, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers. For seven weeks, the age 55-and-older bowlers play two games a week against other teams, logging their cumulative scores online.

Some teams play each other live or over Skype, but most rely on the honor system for the games, in which a player uses a hand-held remote to control action on a screen.

The Tanner Park-Peconic match was the first live game for both teams. Anyone can participate, said Quiney, who is one of the state's highest ranked Wii bowlers, once logging a perfect 300 score.

"Everybody helps each other," said Jack Hunsucker, 70, of North Lindenhurst. You may start out shaky, "but then you find your own niche and by the third frame you're bowling spares and strikes."

Hunsucker had never picked up a bowling ball before he took up Wii bowling. "You feel so spastic at first with the remote," he said. He started out bowling under 100. Now he averages a respectable 180.

The competitive spirit

Tanner Park joined the league in February. Its three teams are divided by skill level, with an age range from the 60s to the 90s. The center's other two teams -- the Lucky Strikes and the Tanner Terrors -- took second and sixth place, respectively, in their conferences.

For the $150 sign-up fee, a facility can enter as many teams as it likes, Berkholtz said. Leading Age, an association of nonprofits for aging issues, sponsors the national championships, flying the finalists to its annual meeting for a match before thousands of spectators. This year, the game will take place in Denver in October.

Berkholtz said being in a league allows seniors to be part of a team and rekindle -- or ignite -- the competitive spirit.

"When New York is playing against a team in Illinois and then a team in Texas and next week a team from Florida -- you know that's kind of cool when you're 80 years old and have never done that before," he said.

Tanner Park director Nancy Delaney said she has seen a change at the center because of Wii bowling. "They're laughing and talking, and it gets them to meet people they had been sitting here with for months and find they have things in common," she said.

Players said Wii is perfect for seniors who aren't as physically capable as they were when they could pick up a 12-pound bowling ball with ease.

"As long as you can move your arm, you can play Wii bowling," said Rocky Laudadio, 69, of Babylon. "It does a lot for your ego."

For Margie Garcia, 72, of Amityville, being on the Wii bowling team has done something more. "Since my husband's passing, this has helped me a lot," she said. "It's like therapy. It gave me a distraction from my sorrow."

The players said they envy bowlers who have their own polyester team bowling shirts and the money to travel for live matches or use Skype. They are looking for a sponsor to help with expenses, but in the meantime will continue to practice with the hope of winning the national championships.

Even if they don't, the players said the game will be a mainstay at the center. "We have fun with it and that's what matters," Laudadio said.