Camarillo group has a ball at video bowling tournament

When Paul Schifanelli started the Leisure Village Wii Bowling Club in November, he had no idea how big the group would get, but after less than six months, it has more than 100 members.

"I thought maybe I can get 25 people, but to get 100 people in such a short period of time — and we get new people every week," he said.

The club had its first tournament Tuesday in Camarillo. Four groups of three finalists competed for first, second and third place within their group's average category.

The three-game tournament began with the teams with the lowest averages, Team D (Spare Devils) and Team C (Bowling Bells), followed by those with the highest averages, Team B (Strike Force) and Team A (the Turkeys).

Bob McCullagh, 77, a senior advocate with the Senior Resource Center in Ventura, noted how quickly the group has gained membership.

"I've been working for two years and I have about 150 bowlers in the whole county. They have over a hundred here in six months," McCullagh said.

Members of the club can play the game on three televisions, with four players each. With the size of its membership, the club has game sessions Tuesdays and Thursdays during the day and on Tuesday nights.

Schifanelli said the game is perfect for people who physically couldn't pick up and throw a regular bowling ball.

"I have people in wheelchairs coming in. I have people in walkers. As long as you can move your right arm or left arm, whichever, you can play," he said. "We've taught everybody how to do it and the fact that you don't need a lot of strength, but you get up and down every few minutes because it becomes you're turn, and that's exercise. So basically it's almost like an exercise for them, but it's something where it gives them a chance to play with their neighbors, have some kind of camaraderie between the groups, and it's really gotten to be extremely popular."

The club has a full board of directors, which includes Schifanelli as president and his wife, Joyce, as secretary. Schifanelli said it's almost like a full-time job leading the club.

"Thank God I have a lot of good people who are helping me out because we've had to get coordinators for each session," he said.

For the tournament, the 12 players competed on two projection screens to a packed house. SCAN lent one of the screens for the nighttime event.

"The reason we're doing this is that there's evidence that shows that people who are active and keep going, live longer and they're independent. I'm looking at a resident-living league that will play in a tournament with the winners of the senior center league. It's too early for this year, but next year, we hope that can happen," McCullagh said. "I think it's phenomenal. Having this many people in a private community is exciting. They're having so much fun and it's healthy. It gives them skill, but it also keeps them busy, and the socialization here is just something else."

Schifanelli, 71, was a member of Team A (the Turkeys). For the final game, Schifanelli raised the excitement in the room when he played his 10th consecutive strike but was unable to make it a perfect game. It was the most strikes in one game for the evening.

The final rankings were announced at the end of the night.

In Team A (the Turkeys), Schifanelli took first place, Kathy Wirtz earned second and Carole Miller finish in third.

The Team B (Strike Force) first-place winner was Joan Levy, while Gary McGraw came away with second and Carol Levy placed third.

In Team C (Bowling Bells), Geri DeSimone came away in first place, Lenore Stern earned second, and third place went to Lyn Bennett.

The Team D (Spare Devils) top scorer was Rei Sugita, while Renee Kaplan took second and Linda Jasik earned third place.

DeSimone, 62, said being part of the club is the best thing to happen to her in a long time at Leisure Village.

"We have so much fun," she said. "It keeps the people who are really handicapped active, and I'm one of the coordinators setting it up. I love it."

Schifanelli, who expects membership to grow even more after this tournament, said there are plans for another one in the fall. He also said there are plans for a tournament between the top Leisure Village players and players from senior centers in the county.