Patience & Perseverance Pays Off

By Bob Wells

Bill Michaels Jr. of Vancouver, Washington has a new trophy to add to his collection, after grinding through the loser’s bracket to win the 25^th Annual Reser’s Portland Masters at Kellogg Bowl in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Participating in his 6^th Portland Masters Tournament, Bill showed his experience and especially his patience as he had to go through the loser’s bracket to get to the finals.  Bill qualified 5^th after the first 10 games; then defeated Greg Clark and Mike Danielson, his first two matches.  Next he ran into Kevin Henderson of Albany who was probably the strongest 32^nd qualifier in tournament history, and lost “614” to “560.”  That loss put Bill into the loser’s bracket and he had to bowl every match from that point on.  Bill bowled 4 matches on Saturday and 6 mores matches on Sunday including a double win against the tournament leader Ian Willard of Milwaukie.

Ian Willard and Dan Jackson were the two undefeated bowlers left on Sunday.  They slugged it out in our highest match of the tournament with Ian winning “741 to 678”, putting Dan into the loser’s bracket.  After Michaels defeated Bob Porter (605 to 554) in the last match on Saturday, he came up against the player he feared the most, left hander Stoney Brown at 9:30 Sunday morning.  But, his perseverance and patience paid off as he beat Stoney 613 to 593.  Next was another very talented left hander, Dennis Powell of Eugene.  Bill got by him “560” to “518”.  But, look who was next…Kevin Henderson, the bowler who knocked Bill into the loser’s bracket.  This time it was bill’s turn as he defeated Kevin “654” to “483.”  Now it was Dan Jackson’s turn to come up against Bill, but again Bill came through with a “663” to “566” match to win putting himself into the championship match against Ian Willard, the only undefeated bowler left.  This meant that Bill would have to beat him twice to win the title and that’s just what Bill did to become the champion.

Bill, who suffered a heart attack last June at the young age of 45, and is now on blood pressure medication, commented that his patience really paid off for him as he got a lot of breaks at opportune times in most of his matches and his opponents didn’t capitalize on his mistakes.

This was his 6^th attempt, with a 2^nd place finish to Scott How in 2006 being his best finish prior to this year’s win.  He also has a PBA title to his credit, as he won the 1996 Resident Pro title for the Northwest Region.

Bill said that what makes this win so special is that exactly 40 years ago his mother, Marie, won the US Open also held at Kellogg Bowl.  She was at Kellogg all weekend to watch him bowl, along with his wife Toni and best friends Dennis and Robin Bailey.

Bill won $2,000, a Great Eagle Trophy, and a spot in next year’s USBC Masters in Reno.  With his 2^nd place finish, Ian Willard gets $1,000 and a spot in next year’s USBC Masters also.

Tournament highlights and sponsors information can be seen at www.portlandmasters.com, along with some past history of this great event.