Bowling Season Recap

Let me just start out by saying this season for OP Pins far surpassed my personal hopes and dreams for this year and was my favorite bowling season so far. We got to the Tournament of Champions! We were among the top 40 teams in all of New Jersey! When I first joined bowling Freshman year, I did it thinking I would just mess around with my friends for a few hours a couple of days a week at the lanes. I had no idea how competitive the atmosphere was going to be. If anyone knows anything about me, they know I am extremely competitive – maybe hypercompetitive, but this is the kind of atmosphere I love. I would even go as far as saying the atmosphere during the state tournament rounds were as intense as the OP vs. Delby soccer game!

The second half of the season for OP pins was a roller coaster ride. After Varsity lost our best bowler Nick Short, our run in the state tournament and counties looked to be nonexistent, however, with a speedy recovery, Nick Short was back on the lanes before the state tournament. Despite having 3 of our bowlers in the top 10 in average (Nick Short [6th], Ryan Hochstaeder [9th], and Steven Chambers [7th]), Varsity finished 4th in our league. But that didn’t matter considering we were the only ones to advance to the next round of the state tournament from our league with my high game of 245 and high series of 628 as well as Nick Short’s, Steven Chamber’s, and Ryan Hochstaeder’s high 570-590 series range. Varsity also had the second highest team total scoring for one game in the league (971), and the highest total team game score over a three-game match of 2847. The Varsity team had a very successful year, but let’s not forget about the Junior Varsity team! They finished 2nd in their league! In Junior Varsity averages, Josh Costello was 4th in the league, Nate Yaeger 5th, Anthony Marino 6th, James Finnen 7th, and Xander Mirashi 9th. That’s very impressive.

Since it was their last bowling season at OP, I asked Ryan Hochstaeder and Nick Short to comment on their experiences with OP Pins. Nick said, “I believe that next season has the potential to go even better than it did this year, and we got to states which is something we haven’t done in a few years. With Steven [Chambers] and Jack [Coyne] leading the way next year, I believe that Josh and Xander will improve enough to the point where they can average in the 170s. And if Nate and Ryan Del Rio continue to improve, we will have a nice deep lineup to work with. Maybe, even some freshmen can come in and help us go to bigger and better places.” Ryan said, “I’m very excited for the team’s next season. The talent on the team can only get better from here. Nate, Xander, and Josh just started bowling, so they can make some major improvements over the summer and become excellent players. I predict at least a second place finish for the guys. #RollRams.” As for myself, I couldn’t agree more. We have new talent on the OP bowling squad, and a few of them are actually bowling in separate leagues during the spring and summer. This extra practice in the offseason should lead OP Pins to another successful season next year!

Stay Metal \m/