“Well—,” senior and bowling team captain Simon Man was mid-thought when he heard his name being called. He quickly excused himself, and walked over to the lane and picked up his bowling ball. After pausing briefly to concentrate, Man began his motion and promptly bowled a strike. After high-fiveing the members of his team, Man walked over and continued—”Sorry about that,” he said.

Stuyvesant’s boys’ bowling team is having another successful season. They are currently 4-0 following a win against Food and Finance High School on Monday, October 6. Stuyvesant’s high scorers against Food and Finance were Man with 176 pins, and senior Harry Truong with 173. Stuyvesant won all three games in the match, and managed to get all 12 of its members to bowl.

Coach Tim Pon looks forward to another promising season. “We’re going to do very well. I’m expecting [the team] to have another undefeated season. We haven’t given up a regular season match in [more than five] years,” he said.

The Hookers’ perfect regular seasons can be attributed to their weak division. “We don’t have much of a challenge. We don’t have any serious threats till the playoffs,” junior Leo Ernst said. Ernst is leading the team with an average of 158 pins a game, and has a season high of 179 against Bayard Rustin on Monday, September 29. The highest score of the season, however, belongs to Man with 189 pins.

Despite their clear success, a main problem for the bowling team has been practicing. Due to their limited budget from the school and the relatively high cost of practicing, the team only schedules several official practices each season. “This year we were given a little bit more money than last year. We’ve had two practices already, and I will likely schedule a third just before the playoffs,” Pon said. Due to these intermittent practices, the team members have to make bowling an individual priority. “People who live together try to play together. I go to Maple Lanes in Brooklyn with some team mates to practice,” Truong said.

Man also makes personal efforts to improve his bowling due to the lack of scheduled practices. “I practice with Stanley [Chung, a fellow team member] on weekends in Queens. If we had more practices, it would give us time to work with our fundamentals, which we can always improve. It’d also give us better team chemistry.”

Still, the captain expressed confidence for a successful season. “I feel the team has really good potential. I think we have a good shot in the playoffs.”