The Hub hosted a Halloween Bowling Tournament on Thursday, Oct. 30, for BYU-Hawaii students. Amanda Ybarra, a senior from Idaho studying hospitality management and the Events coordinator of the Hub, said, “We do an event every semester and so we decided as a Hub that we wanted to do a bowling tournament this semester. We just got our bowling lanes running and so we decided to get the word out. We thought one way that we could do that was have a tournament and see who’s the best on campus.”Competitors played three games and the winner was determined by the highest average score. Yik Nam “Wilson” Chan, a junior from Hong Kong studying exercise science, scored the highest on all three games and won the tournament with an average of 156.7 points. In the first game, Chan scored 163 with five back-to-back strikes. Chan said he had never bowled on a team or professionally. “I bowled when I was in high school, but really just for fun with my friend and we normally just played against each other. That’s how we progress or get better,” Chan said.Chan didn’t hear about the event until the day before. “I was studying in the library, and when I came out, there were some guys asking me about the bowling event and if I wanted to go play.”Matthew Horspool, a senior from California studying biochemistry, is a sales associate at the Hub and said its tournaments have grown in popularity. “We’ve been doing these since before I’ve been working here so for over at least two years. Before I started working here, I went to one tournament and there were probably three or four people. I’d definitely say it’s growing in popularity.”One of the main reasons the Hub holds tournaments is to attract more students, said Horspool. “We have a fairly regular crowd of the local kids who come in, but the main purpose of the Hub has always been towards the students, so we’re always trying to come up with new ways to get more students in here,” said Horspool.Ybarra said the Hub is for all students regardless of interests. “The Hub’s always a rocking place. We have people here studying. It’s a great place to just chill. You can also come and play video games,” said Ybarra. “We have all kinds of crowds all the time like Kahuku High School students, local community kids and our students. It’s just a fun atmosphere to study, have some fun and relieve some stress - anything that you’re looking for.”
Writer: Joshua Mason ~ Multimedia Journalist
