Three-time Team USA members Brenda Edwards and John Janawicz will blog from Guatemala City as they compete in the 2010 Pan American Championship of the Champions tournament beginning this weekend.

The event is the first competition on the schedule for Team USA 2010, which recently visited Arlington, Texas, for the first Team USA training camp to be held at the International Training and Research Center.

“It’s important for the team to start the season on a positive note in Guatemala,” said United States Bowling Congress staff coach Stephen Padilla, who will serve as Team USA coach for the event. “We want to represent ourselves and the program as well as possible and bowl as many events as we can in the American Zone.”



John Janawicz edges out Michael Fagan for Team USA Trials win 

“I know that with John Janawicz on the lanes and coach Stephen Padilla behind us, we will have a great tournament,” Edwards added. “I expect to just stay in the moment with every shot, making each one the best I can throw.”

Both Edwards and Janawicz qualified for Team USA by winning the Team USA Trials last December. Janawicz edged out Professional Bowlers Association star Michael Fagan by just three pins to make the team, while Brenda Edwards finished169 pins ahead of the next-highest qualifier in a dominating performance.

That showing was the cherry on the sundae of an especially memorable year for Edwards, as months earlier she made the telecast at the 2009 USBC Queens, ultimately finishing fifth. She then went on to shatter the all-time doubles record at the 2009 USBC Open Championships with Padilla, recording a combined pinfall of 1,566. Edwards added a 776 series to Padilla’s 790 to accomplish the feat.

“This past year has been a complete fairytale for me,” Edwards said. “In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have imagined this much success on the lanes. To represent the USA at the Championship of the Champions is one more dream come true.”

Janawicz, who won the Championship of the Champions tournament with fellow Team USA member Shannon O’Keefe in 2008, when the event was held in El Salvador, hopes to use that experience to his advantage in Guatemala.

“We had a really good tournament last time when I bowled with Shannon in 2008 in El Salvador, and I’m familiar with this bowling center as I was here in 2007 bowling the PABCON Men’s Championships,” Janawicz said. “So hopefully that experience will help me turn in another good performance.”

Both competitors expect to discuss as wide a range of topics as possible in their blogs over the course of the event, addressing everything from lane play, transition and equipment to the culture and atmosphere in Guatemala.

“This is my first adventure out of the United States, so my eyes and ears will be wide open, soaking up everything around me,” Edwards says.

The 2010 Championship of the Champions tournament begins with Singles competition on May 17 and 18, followed by Doubles competition on May 19 and culminating with the Masters portion of the event on Thursday, May 20. The first blogs posts from Edwards and Janawicz will be on BOWL.com starting Sunday, when they plan to blog after their practice session.