Trip to The 5th World Deaf Bowling Championships!

Hello everyone! My name is Joshua Dalton, I'm proud to announce that I have been selected to represent the USA Deaf Men's Bowling team for the 5th World Deaf Bowling Championships in Munich, Germany which will take place on August 1-12, 2023. Our USADSF head coach, Brad Hagen who also coaches for Sam Houston State University Women Bowling team, officially sent the letter to all elite athletes who are selected to the roster last Wednesday, March 1, 2023, which can be seen below:

Unfortunately, elite deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes like myself must do their fundraising because we do not receive any financial support from the United States Olympic Committee. This presents a twofold challenge for all athletes: fundraising and training for The World Deaf Bowling Championships. We only have less than five months to raise the money to make the trip happen.

Our Deaf USA Men's Bowling team participated in the 4th World Deaf Bowling Championships in 2019 and won the Bronze medal in the team event. You can see the video where we captured the bronze medal below:

After we returned from Taiwan, we feel that we can improve and come back to The World Deaf Bowling Championships to capture the Gold medal this time. That can make it possible if people like you, who support the mission of the USADSF and its athletes, are willing to donate to help the USA Deaf Men's Bowling team to cover all costs including international airfare, bowling equipment and training expenses.

First, I want to tell you a story about myself on how I become an elite bowler. When my father was a young boy, he always felt alone because he is profoundly deaf and could not be able to participate in any team sports because all kids on his team are hearing and he was not able to communicate with them. His older brother's friend invited him and his hearing brother to a friend's birthday party at the bowling alley. When my father started to bowl for the first time, he realized that he enjoyed the game because he can score all points without having to communicate with other people. My grandparents knew that bowling is a perfect sport for my father to participate and they decided to invest their time and energy to take him to the bowling alley every week, month, and year.

When my father became older, his average was 230+ and everyone in the town think he should become a professional bowler. He did not have money to pay himself to participate in the tournament so the local bowling house where my father bowled every week decided to cover the fees to send my father to the tournament that the Professional Bowling Association (PBA) hosted in his town. He was so thrilled to participate in the first PBA tournament and finished third place after defeating Mark Roth and losing to Earl Anthony in the stepladder. After this tournament, he struggled to make the cut in another tournament because he does not have a coach to help, and he does not know how to read and write well. He gave up and decided to bowl at any local tournaments or any deaf tournaments nearby. A few years later, he met a beautiful deaf woman at his workplace and fell in love with her and asked to marry her. They got married and started having a family.

In 1987, they already have two sons and gave birth to a third child, which is me. The moment I was born, their world completely CHANGED because they found that I am profoundly deaf, just like themselves. They knew what they needed to do so they decided to invest their time and energy to make sure that I am well-educated and of course, they took me to the bowling alley every Saturday for the local youth bowling league.

Then, my father decided to teach me how to bowl straight. He also took me to his bowling league every Thursday and Friday night so I can watch and learn how he bowls. I told my father that I want my ball to curve like his ball so he decided to say that he will give me a new bowling ball that can hook, only if I hit at least 200 in a game with the straight ball. He gave me motivation and I bowled for many weeks, months, and years. Then, I finally hit 214 in a game for the first time and my father stood up and applauded in front of me. He fulfilled his promise by giving me the first hook bowling ball, Ebonite Gyro. He coached, taught, supported, and pushed me every week to make sure that I improve every time.

When I entered high school, I was selected to be on the high school bowling team and I was the best bowler on the team. We won many district champions and local tournaments, and my high school bowling coach was able to teach me because I was able to read and write pretty well. Other teammates' parents decided to ask my father if they could take me to many tournaments to bowl with their kids on the same team. My father decided to come to every bowling tournament in the state with me and other teammates.

After graduating from high school, I moved to Texas and attended the University of North Texas. My whole family lives in Oklahoma, which is three hours away from the university. My father keeps pushing me to participate in the bowling league while I live in Texas. I decided to surf the internet and learned that there is a collegiate bowling team at the University of North Texas. There was a try-out event at the University lanes in Denton, Texas and I decided to participate. When I arrived there, I met the twins, Anthony and Sean Spahr-Lavery, at the bowling alley, and I told them that I was interested in joining their team for the intercollegiate bowling tournament. They told me that I have to compete with other students to capture the spot to be on the team. I took the challenge and got a few bowling balls out of my bag and start to compete against everyone. After bowling two great games, it caught Anthony Spahr-Lavery's attention and he decided to bowl and compete against me on the same pair of lanes. After beating him once, he immediately added me to his team and I was thrilled to be on the collegiate team because it took me to another level. During college, I learned so much from those twins and a well-known bowling coach, Del Ballard.

After college, my father decided to take me to several deaf bowling tournaments like Southwest Deaf Bowling Association, National Deaf Mixed Bowling Association, Great Lakes Deaf Bowling Association, and many more. My name started to get recognized by many deaf people after winning many events until the major tournament in 2012 in New Jersey. When I flew to New Jersey, my bowling balls got lost somewhere at the airport and they could not find them and I have to bowl the next morning. Yeah, I arrived at the bowling tournament without any bowling equipment and I had to rent bowling shoes and a bowling ball from the alley. I told myself that I mentally can bowl well and told my team that they have to bowl well for me as well. After three games, I bowled 797 and won the team championship, and this historical moment brought my name to the United States Deaf Sports Federation (USADSF), which led me to attend my first Deaflympics in 2013 in Bulgaria. Now, I am proud to represent them again at the 5th World Deaf Bowling Championships this upcoming August in Munich, Germany.

Here is the picture of when I won the team event champion and all-events champion in New Jersey:

I wanted to thank my father for continuing to believe in my success. If not for him, I won't be here today asking you to help me and my fellows reach our dream and represent our country at The World Deaf Bowling Championships.

Here is a picture of my parents below, this is when I won the Masters:

Please remember that the donation you made is not only for myself but for my USA Bowling team as we can go to the 5th World Deaf Bowling Championships this August.

I would like to share some pictures of my bowling journey shown below, and thank you for your time: