LINCOLN, Neb. - For the next nine days, Sun Valley Lanes will be a hotbed of youth bowling as the World Bowling Youth Championships visits the United States for the first time since 2008.

The event will feature more than 200 competitors from 37 countries, and the tournament officially kicked off Sunday night with the traditional march of teams, words of encouragement from dignitaries and a musical dance performance courtesy of the Lincoln Indian Center.

Official practice will take place Monday before competition gets underway with the singles event Tuesday and Wednesday. Bowlers will compete for medals in five events - singles, doubles, team, all-events and Masters.

Bowling fans from around the globe will be able to watch the competition live on BOWL.com's BowlTV starting Tuesday, and coverage will include all qualifying, semifinal and final rounds.

The United States is the two-time defending champion in the boys four-player team event, and two players from the winning team in 2014 - Kamron Doyle of Brentwood, Tennessee, and Wesley Low of Palmdale, California - return this year. They will be joined by Anthony Simonsen of Austin, Texas, and Michael Tang of San Francisco.

The United States' girls roster this year includes University of Nebraska standouts Gazmine Mason of Cranston, Rhode Island, and Julia Bond of Aurora, Illinois, along with Jordan Richard of Tecumseh, Michigan, and Stephanie Schwartz of Racine, Wisconsin, who helped the Junior Team USA girls to a bronze gold medal in the 2014 team event.

At the 2014 World Youth Championships in Hong Kong, Junior Team USA topped the medal table with 12 medals overall, including three gold, five silver and four bronze. The last time the tournament was held in the United States was the 2008 tournament in Orlando, Florida.

For complete information on the World Youth Championships, visit 2016wyc.worldbowling.org.

The complete live-streaming schedule (all times Eastern) can be found at BOWL.com/LiveStream.