John Bender started with common pigeons at the age of 9 years old.

As time progressed he moved into rollers under the direction of a local

Portsmouth Club member Bill Berry. Bill taught John the basics of feeding,

medications and general care of the birds.

Later around the age of 13 in a  4-H program , under the direction of local

Police officer and Portsmouth club member David Staybler, John was introduced to showing rollers.

 

John quit raising rollers at the age of 16. He returned  at 22 and was introduced to Local Roller flyer Joe Roe. Under Joe’s direction he learned the finer aspects

of flying the birds for performance.

 

 John flew three times in the World Cup fly before he won the WC title. 

His 1st fly in 92 he received a DQ for landing early. In 93 he placed 10th in

 the finals.  In the 94 fly he won . He Left the hobby in 96 and return  in 2001.

 John is now rebuilding his bird line using primarily birds from Tom Monson. 

John's  94 W/C Team

John has always had a mixture of rollers from different fanciers. Some birds were pure lines, while others were a combination of families. The names that influenced the 94 team were a combination of these names:
Joe Roe, Carl Hardesty, Charles Albaugh, Joe Marlette, Richard Jaconet, Paul Platz,Wright Miller, Terry Rhodes and Larry Cohen

The 6 black self's in the team were one of Johns families he had been working on for a few years. They were a combination of three of the above names.
John says he appreciates all the hard work the other roller enthusiasts put into their birds before he acquired them. He says he found "the right stuff" in these birds. All the things necessary to make a champion team. This win was only accomplished by these bird men selecting the right air qualities in the past for their families. This team flew not only for John, but they also flew for all the other fanciers names that were behind them.

Judge George Kitson Scored the birds  6,6,5,5,6,5,5,7,7,5,5,5,5,7,5,5,7 with Q.1.2  and D.1.2  for a Total of  134. Judges notes on the team: Overcast and still, the kit flew perfect at a perfect performing height, a very good working kit.