In the late 1960’s, Lucien J. “Mike” Joyal began coaching at the Birchwood Bowl with their Junior Program and also had the responsibility of the Junior Bowling Program at Empress Lanes. The programs had over a hundred bowlers which operated for several years.
In the mid 1970’s, Mike was becoming more involved and he realized that more professional training was required to excel at coaching. Mike attended several coaching courses in the USA and also became involved with the National Coaching Certification Program. He assisted with the writing and development of the Canadian Tenpin Federation NCCP program manuals.
Mike worked with the National Team Coach that represented Canada at the World FIQ in London, England. At that time, Mike also helped in coaching the Junior Teams. Mike coached the Women’s National Team at the FIQ World Tournament in the Philippines (1979) and also coached the Women’s National Team in the FIQ American Zone Final, where the team medal production was the highest ever achieved to that point in time.
Mike conducted several coaching clinics and seminars in Winnipeg, Brandon, Portage la Prairie and Winkler which developed our provinces pool of certified coaches.
He also became involved in the Winnipeg Bowling Association and rose to the President’s Chair. Later he was elected as President of the Manitoba Provincial Tenpin Bowling Association.
Mike’s efforts in Manitoba coaching program played an intricate role in developing our youth athletes, many of whom moved on to compete and represent our province at the National and International level.
Mike also bowled regularly Classic League at Chateau from the early 1960’s till 1984 averaging in the 190’s.
