A primal pre-game chant and some playful shoving by senior and co-captain Leo Ernst lead to a 3-0 sweep over the previously 1-1 University Neighborhood High School Panthers on Thursday, October 8. This win for the Stuyvesant boys’ bowling team, the Hookers, marked its fourth straight win to begin the season, and the team’s 68th consecutive win since the start of the 2005 season.

“We are very balanced. Both our A and B teams are very solid. We are more consistent, not as erratic as last year,” senior Zachary Weiner said.

In a bowling match, there are three games, an A game, a B game and a C game. Four different players bowl in each game, and their scores are added. The team with the highest total scores in two out of the three games wins the match. So far, the Hookers have swept each of their first five games, meaning the A, B, and C teams all had higher scores than their opponents. “We are already as good as the end of last season,” Weiner said.

The Hookers certainly proved this against the Panthers, beating them by a total of 490 pins, where even the C team had more total pins than any of the three Panther teams. Furthermore, the A team has only had five more total pins than the B team thus far in the season, proving the solidity of the entire team.

The impressive winning streak seems to have boosted the confidence of the Hookers for the remainder of the season. Its next two games come against two undefeated opponents, Norman Thomas, which has won all four games on 2-1 wins, and Hunter College High School, which has swept all four of its games. “Every pin counts and we have to convert all the spares and get the strikes,” senior Jack Pipitone said. Despite the opponents’ perfect records, many of the Hookers are unfazed.

“Honestly, it’s not even going to be close,” Ernst said. “We will not lose an A or B game the rest of the year.” Obviously, the hookers not only have talent, but confidence in their abilities as well.

One contribution to the team’s early success could be its seamless transition from last year, even though it lost five valuable seniors. “We’ve all improved, and people have stepped up to replace previous seniors and captains,” senior and co-captain Steven Lau said.

The Hookers can also attribute its early success to more practices. After being able to schedule only a few practices last year due to a miniscule budget, former coach and current Interim Acting Assistant Principal Physical Education Larry Barth raised a lot more money to fund practices. “Last year, the school had very little money to practice, maybe two practices each season for the past couple of years,” coach Timothy Pon said. “This year, we have a bit more money for practices.” According to Pon, each player on the team gets to bowl one game at practice, making the total cost of each practice $69.70. The extra money allows the team to schedule more practices in order to improve their game.

The additional budget for practices could have a large impact when the playoffs arrive. The playoffs take place in a different bowling alley than Leisure Time at Port Authority, the one the Hookers usually play in. Therefore, it will be important for them to get used to a different atmosphere. “We have to go to Maple Lanes for the playoffs, so now we could schedule a few practices there,” Pon said.

The Hookers seem certain of another playoff berth in the near future. Although the team lost in the first round of the playoffs twice in the last two seasons, the members believe that they have enough depth to go further this year. Even Pon appears convinced that they should remain without a loss for the entire season. “If we get past Hunter, which I think we should, we should go undefeated for yet another season,” Pon said.