University of West Georgia alumnus David Johnson was recently named a qualifier for the United States Virgin Islands National Bowling Team. He currently lives in St. Croix and is a partner at Cane Bay Partners VI, LLLP, a management consulting company specializing in management consulting, risk management and scorecard development, as well as service provider analysis.
David Johnson (right) with professional bowler Amleto Monacelli.
David and his six teammates represented the U.S. Virgin Islands at the Concecabol Tournament in Cali, Columbia, in May 2013. The tournament was also the qualifier for the Central American and Carribean games that will take place in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in July 2014. The team will bowl against other countries including Mexico, Venezula, Panama and Colombia.
“To be honest, I didn’t know when I joined the Virgin Islands Bowling Federation and participated in this tournament that I was going to be a part of the national bowling team,” David says. “Now that I am, I’m looking forward to more tournaments and being more competitive in the future.”
David, who was the top scorer for his team, has been an avid bowler for over 29 years, even finding time for the hobby while at UWG.
“I started bowling with my grandfather when I was 10 years old,” he recalls. “Even in college, our fraternity traditionally won the bowling tournament for intramurals.”
He not only credits his love for bowling to his grandfather, but also to Miguel Marcial and other international competitive bowling greats. Marcial, who is a former member and coach of the Puerto Rico National Team, is now the head coach of Johnson’s team.
“[Marcial] told me he would be really honored to be able to work with me more on practicing some of my fundamentals and strategy of lane play, and he felt like I could compete at that level against people,” says David. “I was really pleased to hear that because I’ve always taken it seriously even though it was a recreational activity. It’s a lot of fun for me, but I’ve always been really competitive.”
Since qualifying as a member of the Virgin Islands National Bowling Team, Johnson and his teammates have competed in championship bowling tournaments for South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. The team has competed against some of the top bowlers in the world representing 13 countries including Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Colombia and others. David even had the opportunity to meet a professional bowler whose career he has followed over the years.
“I watched Venezuelan bowler Amleto Monicelli compete on TV as a professional for over 20 years,” he says. “He is in the bowling Hall of Fame, and I had the unbelievable opportunity to bowl with him.”
Johnson graduated from UWG in 1996 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance. In 2011, he endowed the David A. Johnson Applied Econometrics and Analytics Fund at UWG, which provided the financial resources to the Richards College of Business and Department of Economics to begin offering courses in Econometrics and Business Analytics using SAS statistical software. Because of the program’s incredible success, David has pledged to make an additional donation.
