When local youth bowlers walk into one of Wes Malott’s pro shops and find him behind the counter, they see a PBA star they watch on TV, an idol whose style they try to emulate on the lanes. What they don’t see is the Wes Malott who once stood in their shoes, the one who put 17-hour days in at his hometown bowling center as a kid, the Wes Malott who never forgets where he came from.

“I wasn’t fortunate enough to practice that much before I turned 16 and got discounted rates for working at the bowling center,” Malott, a member of Team USA, recalls. “It takes a lot of practice and time to reach the next level, and it can get very expensive.”

The 50 cents a game Malott paid for practice once he got that gig at the center may not sound like much. But when you’re a kid destined for the kind of stardom that accompanies a PBA Player of the Year award, 50 cents adds up in no time.

“I get teased a lot now about not practicing, but I think I made up for it back then getting 50 cents a game and spending $20-$30,” Malott says. “I’d bowl Saturday morning and then I’d practice until five or six at night before going to work. I was there from 8:30 a.m. until after midnight.”

The pro shops where local youth bowlers find Malott today contain more than bowling balls and drill presses; they also contain memories. One of the shops Malott runs with business partner Gary Robinson is the same place where he drilled his first bowling ball at age 16. The other is at a center just five miles away from where he grew up.

Those were days when Malott was one of the starry-eyed kids he encounters in his shops, learning how to drill ovals, the physics of ball motion, why one ball works better than another on a given lane condition. Today, Malott hopes to impart his knowledge through his pro shops and the hometown celebrity he enjoys in the Austin, Texas area where they are located.

“It’s something I enjoy doing, and it’s a way for me to extend my bowling knowledge to the community where I grew up,” Malott says. “I’ve been around the best bowlers and ball drillers in the world out on tour, and now it’s time for me to give back to a sport that’s been so good to me.”

That spirit of giving back, along with the efforts of fellow PBA stars Chris Barnes and Parker Bohn III, inspired Malott to put together his upcoming Malott's All Stars Youth Championship.

“It’s just one of those things that has gone through my mind the last few years,” Malott explains. “I know Barnes hosts a tournament in the Dallas area, and Parker does one up in his area, and now that I am in the pro shop business and I have good relationships with the centers where I have the shops, I thought it was finally time to put something together.”

The tournament will be held at Highland Lanes in Austin from May 27-29. $10,000 in guaranteed scholarship dollars will be awarded, with $1,500 going to first place finishers in each division. But if you think scholarship money is all this tournament has to offer, you don’t know Wes Malott.

“I don’t want it to just be something thrown together,” he says. “I take pride in what I do, so there will be a lot going on. It begins with a sweeper on Friday night with some extra prize fund money, and we’ll be raffling off giveaways throughout the weekend. We’ve teamed up with Roto Grip, Dexter and Vise to have plenty of giveaways during the tournament.”

Malott has come a long way since the days when he wore the shoes of the youth bowlers who will show up for his tournament in May, with six PBA titles and nearly $800,000 in career earnings since joining the PBA in 2001. Now he hopes to help others realize the dreams he chased back then.

“The youth are the next generation of bowlers who will keep this sport alive,” Malott says. “I know times are tough right now, and things aren’t going as well as we would like, so hopefully this is one small way I can do some good.”