By Breven Honda
For over a total of three decades, Toni Gans has had a passion with bowling. 
Gans, who returned to the alley three years ago after a 16-year break, has always had that excitement, not just to see the ball hit 10 pins, but for the longevity one can play the game and opportunity for individuals to come together.
“I like to bowl because of the people I have met throughout the years,” Gans said. “My husband and I have lifelong friends. We started bowling many, many years ago. We are like family.”
In the last three years, Gans has been involved in the planning for the bowling events for the Mesquite Senior Games, including the event coming up on March 11.
Gans, who has also served as a Mesquite Senior Games Board member over the last two years, said when she plans these bowling events, she makes sure everyone who has the opportunity to take part in the event, enjoys it.
“My main goal is that we try and reach every level of bowling; our higher average bowlers, our beginning bowlers, our fun bowlers, people who may not even bowl in the league,” Gans said. “We want everyone to participate because bowling is a lifelong sport. You can start when you’re six and we have participants that are 95.”
This year, there are nine divisions, separated in increments of five-year age brackets ranging from 50 years old to those above 90.
Over the last few years, the planning for the bowling event had to be altered because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, 2023 is the first time returning back to the format before life changed three years ago.
“Prior to COVID, the format was we would do doubles in the morning and singles in the afternoon, three games each,” Gans said. “When COVID came, we stopped. This year, we’ve gone back to our pre-COVID format.”
The doubles portion of the bowling event begins at 10:30 a.m. and the singles start at 1:30 p.m. Check-in is one hour before the start times at the Virgin River Lanes.
The event not only brings out the fun, but also the competition as those from outside Mesquite (and outside Nevada), primarily Utah, also participate.
“For people that have bowled in leagues before, I would look at this particular event more like a city tournament that a lot of bowling associations have, so that we can draw everybody in,” Gans said. “We draw from Salt Lake City, Vegas, St. George, all important contributors to our games.”
In total, there are 88 bowlers who can participate in both the doubles and singles events. Both events are separated by gender, in addition to having mixed genders for the doubles event.
Sandy Tudor, the Mesquite Senior Games Interim President, said the expectation is to get 88 bowlers once again.
“We’ve filled up every year,” Tudor said. “We are limited by the number of lanes at Virgin River Bowling. We can only have 88 bowlers in each session, whether it is the singles, the doubles or the mixed doubles because of the number of lanes.
“We always end up with a waitlist before we get ready to do the bowling.”
As Gans plans these bowling events, which also includes giving away door prizes from local community businesses, Tudor has been front and center when it comes to watching her prepare for each occasion, because of the knowledge she has for the game.
“It’s personally very rewarding that she’s taking the initiative and doing all of this,” Tudor said of Gans. “She’s very detail oriented, so I know that all of the little details nobody else thinks about will be taken care of, mostly because she understands the bowling event really well.”
In addition to planning the bowling aspect of the event, Gans has also prepared the registration aspect, not only for her event, but for the majority of the entire Games.
This is the second year individuals are using Fusesport, a national sports registration company, that ultimately benefits both the committee and the participants.
“It allows us to save the participant’s information so that if they register for another event that we would have in the fall or next year, we’ve got that information there,” Gans said of Fusesport. “There’s a lot of basic information we don’t have to have them complete anymore. It also gives us a good recording tool that we can use to monitor we’re offering the right sports.”
For bowling in particular, Fusesport is able to take the results and relay them back in the case a participant is able to advance to a national bowling event.
“Basically, the reason we use them is they are also affiliated with the National Senior Games,” Tudor said. “It’s not a complicated process, but it is a very specific process to set up the various events because we have to meet their criteria.
“Toni just said, ‘I’ll take care of that.’ And she did. But setting this up for all of our events was 90% Toni.”
As much preparation goes into the games, Gans hopes people enjoy themselves as they try to pick up spares and go after strikes and turkeys.
“It’s very, very heartwarming,” Gans said when she sees smiles on the participants. “That’s why we do it. To get out there and have everyone get out and participate and have fun. That’s what we’re all about.”
