Bowling Celebrates 30 Year Milestone of Distinguished Service by Queensland’s Gail Torrens

Release provided by Lynne Clay

Today, 22 January, is a significant date, and two-fold celebration for Tenpin Bowling Association of Queensland CEO, Gail Torrens.

It marks her birthday, and also coincides with the date in 1993 that she was welcomed as a part-time volunteer for the sport of tenpin bowling as State Coaching Director of Queensland.

Since then, Gail’s life and career have completely melded with the sport she loves.

Her talents and dedication were quickly recognised and she was employed as TBAQ’s State Coaching Director in 1994 – a job she has maintained till this day.  Awarded tenpin bowling’s first Grad. Dip. (Elite Sport Coaching) by the University of Queensland, Gail went on to qualify at every level as a High Performance Coach, Educator, Trainer and Mentor, including coaching Athletes with a Disability.  At the same time, she remained a competitive athlete, bringing a wide range of skills and experience to her growing administrative and coaching responsibilities, and providing strong leadership to the Tenpin Bowling Association of Queensland (TBAQ) as its CEO since 2011.

National and international highlights of her career include roles as Manager of the Australian team at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo in 2004 and Manager/consulting Coach for the 2008 Men’s World Championships team in Thailand.

Gail travelled to the United States in 2004 at the invitation of American coaching icon Dick Ritger to conduct four 5-day camps alongside 11 international level coaches for almost 250 bowlers from all over the world.   She maintained links with international branches of the sport in many roles over the years as convenor and Tournament Director for Bowling at the biennial Pan Pacific Games and coordinator of TBAQ’s Talent ID international pathway for junior and youth bowlers.

In 2019 Gail was honoured with induction into the TBAQ Hall of Fame and in 2020 she was invited to join the Board of QSport, as Chairperson of QSport’s Indoor Sport Group.    Her distinguished career of service to the sport was confirmed in 2022 by selection as a finalist for the prestigious Queensland Sport Administrator of the YearAward.

Gail’s achievements and outstanding contribution to tenpin bowling and the wider sports community are acknowledged with admiration and gratitude by her colleagues throughout Queensland, and nationally.

“Gail is extremely well respected in our sport – she has an innate ability to engage at all levels and to grow our sport through her strong connections with athletes, proprietors, coaches, volunteers, QSport and other important stakeholders including the Queensland government,” stated TBAQ Chairman, Nathan Stein.  “On behalf of everyone involved in our sport and the TBAQ Board, I would like to congratulate Gail on this milestone and thank her for her continued passion to grow our great sport,” he added.