text: This is a collection of press articles about the End of Term 2016 project. End of Term is a collaborative project to preserve public United States Government web sites at the end of the current presidential administration ending January 20, 2017. ||||| This is a collection of press articles about the End of Term 2016 project. End of Term is a collaborative project to preserve public United States Government web sites at the end of the current presidential administration ending January 20, 2017. ||||| A youth bowling tournament in St. John's has caused a stir over the colour of a participant's pants. 
   
   Seven-year-old Grayson Powell bowled the game of his life on Saturday during a non-league tournament, putting up a high round of 171 en route to a championship win for his team of three. 
   
   Grayson was given some harsh news immediately after the provincial gathering — he was disqualified for the colour of his pants. 
   
   "The rule is you have to wear black pants," his father, Todd Powell, explained. "The problem I have with it, they allowed him to bowl prior [to disqualification]." 
   
   Todd Powell says his son was disqualified due to a scheme by a bowling official to help his hometown teams. (Eddy Kennedy/CBC) 
   
   Grayson took part in a 15-minute warm-up. Nothing was said. He then bowled three games — the best three of his young life — and nothing was said. 
   
   It wasn't until he was lined up next to his teammates, ready to accept a gold medal for winning the just-for-fun tournament, that Youth Bowl Canada provincial director Gordon Davis pulled Grayson's mother into an office. 
   
   Her son, who was wearing faded black jeans, was disqualified. 
   
   His pants were just not black enough to meet the tournament's dress code. 
   
   "Parents ruin it for kids," Powell said. "If this is what sport is about when it comes to kids...shame on them." 
   
   A pair of faded black jeans are at the centre of controversy on the Newfoundland and Labrador youth bowling scene. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) 
   
   While semantics can be argued — how black were his jeans, really? — Grayson's father has a deeper theory than the colour of his son's pants. 
   
   Davis also coaches teams out of a bowling alley in Corner Brook. The teams finishing second and third, who were bumped up to the top spots, were both from his lanes on the island's west coast. 
   
   "He should be ashamed of himself," the senior Powell said. "For [Davis] to go back to Corner Brook saying that, 'We won a provincial medal' — no. The three individuals that bowled on Saturday, they are the ones that won that medal." 
   
   Davis ejected the Riverdale team to use the provincial win to bolster his own club, Powell alleged. 
   
   These were the jeans seven year old Grayson Powell wore on Saturday when he was disqualified from a youth bowling tournament in St. John's for not wearing black pants. (Eddy Kennedy/CBC) 
   
   "He owes these three individuals — three kids — a written apology." 
   
   Davis did not return messages left by CBC News. 
   
   As for Grayson, he went home feeling dejected, his father said. 
   
   When asked by a CBC reporter how the disqualification made him feel, he had only one word. 
   
   "Sad." ||||| In tenpin bowling, it’s usually about the bowling. But sometimes it’s about the jeans. 
   
   Seven-year-old Grayson Powell bowled the game of his life to win his team of three a youth bowling tournament in the Newfoundland city of St John’s on Saturday. But shortly after his 171-point game propelled Riverdale to the title, Grayson was disqualified, and was unable to collect his prize. 
   
   The reason? He wore the wrong trousers. 
   
   “The rule is you have to wear black pants,” Todd Powell, Grayson’s father, explained to CBC. Grayson was wearing faded black jeans – which were evidently not black enough. 
   
   So as Grayson waited in line to collect his gold medal, Gord Davis, the provincial director at Youth Bowl Canada, informed Grayson’s parents that their son was to be disqualified for his sartorial breach. 
   
   Powell Sr said he was distinctly unimpressed with Davis’s ruling. “If this is what sport is about when it comes to kids … shame on them.” 
   
   But Davis’s organisation insists it did nothing wrong, and said the dress code for Provincial A tournaments had been in place “for decades”. In an impassioned defence on Facebook that ran to 2,600 words and seemed to have been written by Davis, Newfoundland & Labrador YBC rejected accusations of wrongdoing and said simply: rules were rules. 
   
   “Mr Todd Powell knew full aware of the dress code, and sent his child to Provincials knowing that it was against the rules,” the post read. “Why is NL YBC in the wrong here, when parents knowingly broke the rules, and we are the bad guys? 
   
   “We did nothing wrong. Stop blaming NL YBC and [president] Gord Davis for something that should never have had happened. Ignorance of a rule … is not the fault of the governing body.” 
   
   Powell Sr pointed out to CBC that his son Grayson had been allowed to bowl throughout. Why wait until he had finished to disqualify him? “The problem I have with it … they allowed him to bowl prior. He owes these three kids a written apology.” 
   
   YL NBC said additional opinions had been needed with other executive members before a ruling could be made. “I was not going to embarrass those kids by stopping play and making a scene,” Davis wrote. 
   
   Later, on the same Facebook page, Gord Davis said that even though the decision could not be reversed, Grayson and his team would be presented with gold medals in a special ceremony because the situation had been “blown out of proportion for simple communication problems”. 
   
   “I informed Todd that the kids had bowled magnificently and yes they deserve to be recognized for their accomplishments,” Davis wrote. 
   
   “We will make sure these kids are taken care of first because that is what we are all about. We apologized for what decision we had to make and the fact that they were not relayed any information during the first or third game.” 
   
   The governing body said it wished to move on from the controversy and simply concentrate on bowling. “Any kid can play this sport,” the post read. “Lots of kids won’t play sports because they feel they don’t belong and they are bullied, or just not good enough. Well, bowling is not like that: we treat all kids equally.” 
   
   Providing, of course, they’re wearing the right pants.
target: – A 7-year-old bowler in Canada just learned a tough lesson about rules, or pants, or ... something. After Grayson Powell bowled a terrific game and prepared to collect a gold medal with two teammates, he was told he was disqualified for wearing pants that weren't black enough. So reports the CBC, which photographed Grayson's outfit and, sure enough, his black jeans are faded to a gray. "If this is what sport is about when it comes to kids ... shame on them," said his angry father, Todd Powell. This odd controversy, however, was just getting started. In a long rebuttal, Gord Davis, provincial head of Youth Bowling Canada, insisted the organization "did nothing wrong" and is "not to blame for how this went down." The black jeans dress code has been in place "for decades," he said, and rules are rules. The boy's dad smelled a rat. He accused Davis of disqualifying his son's team so the second- and third-place teams, which bowl at lanes owned by Davis, could take higher honors. Davis fired back that Powell was "full aware of the dress code" and sent his kid anyway. He pressed: "What parent would do this?" As the Guardian reports, one of Powell's complaints is that his son was disqualified only after bowling a 171-point game that propelled his Riverdale team to the title in the Newfoundland city of St. John's." After the story made headlines in Canada, an odd-sounding compromise was reached. The disqualification stands, but the kids get their gold medals. In the future, however, all rules must be followed "no matter what," wrote Davis on Facebook. (This girl's leggings and tunic got her in trouble at school.)