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Proudly Filipino
GO TO THE BOWLER APPAREL SITE
WORLD CLASS ATHLETE TO ENTREPRENEUR
BONG COO is
the first bowler enshrined in the most exclusive bowling fraternities on earth -The
World Bowling Writers International Bowling Hall of Fame (1993) at the
International Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum, in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
For a woman who got
married at the tender age of 17, was separated barely four years and two sons
later, and yet overcame the early disaster in life to become world-famous,
multi-titled bowling star who by 1979,
started to establish world records and thus became the first ever Filipino
athlete to make it to the Guinness Book of World Records.
She
pursued Liberal Arts education in St. Scholastica’s College
and Philippine Women’s University and attended several management training
programs here and abroad. She passed
the civil service eligibility for professionals in 1981 and served as an
Associate Sports Director for the Philippine National Bank
from 1981 to 1985. She was also sports consultant to Shoemart Inc., SM Prime
Holdings Inc. and SM Bowling Centers from
1988 to 1999 along with numerous private corporations and government
institutions like the Office of the Vice Mayor of Quezon City in
1991. Now a certified coach and instructor recognized by the
American Junior Bowling Congress, US National Bowling Academy and a certified
USBC Coach since 2000, she is always on call
by the Philippines Sports Commission for grassroots development.
She
currently teaches Sport Bowling for the Department of Human Kinetics at the
University of the Philippines and Collegio de San Juan de Letran.
Fully retired from active
competition, she manufactures bowling and sports apparel under the label of "The
BowlerTM", and supplies bowling enthusiasts
worldwide particularly the Philippines Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW's).
"The Bowler" have outfitted the best of the Philippines to
the Bowling World Cup since 1978.
Bong Coo introduced the first commercial synthetic lanes in the country in 1995. Today, over 85% of bowling equipment nationwide
is equipped with synthetic lanes.
The bowling and billiards industry
in the Philippines obtained a big boost in 1998 with the accelerated reduction
of the tariff and duties of bowling and billiards equipment. Bong Coo
was part of this measure when President Fidel V. Ramos signed
Executive Order No. 439, modifying the
nomenclature for a separate tariff line for bowling and billiards requisites of
all kinds and as result was a continued development of the sport bowling in the
Philippines with the decrease in the cost of putting up a bowling sport facility
despite the dollar market condition. Thereafter, the bowling lane bed
population in the Philippines more than doubled.
In 2001,
Brunswick launched a PBA (Professional Bowlers Association)
registered "MVP Bong Coo" bowling ball.
To help ensure greater
participation in the sport bowling, Bong Coo, a lifetime member of the
Philippine Bowling Congress, has helped set up a number of bowling associations
over the entire archipelago that is now affiliated with the national sports
association. She is currently President of the 3rd oldest bowling
organization in the Philippines, the Magallanes Bowling Association and also
serves as a Director of the Philippine Bowling Congress.
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