On Wednesday, Dec. 4, senior Jameson Santelli made Schreiber history, bowling a perfect game for the varsity team with a score of 300.
This achievement by the captain contributed to the Vikings winning 644-597, 738-536, 659-594 over the Manhasset High School Indians.
“It was incredible, just incredible to watch. The first game he bowled he had a bunch in a row, and everybody in the alleys were watching like ‘holy cow.’ It wasn’t like baseball where a guy hits a home run and the accomplishment happens almost right away. This was a gradual build up, where first he had three in a row, then six, then nine, and now he’s got ten in a row, and then eleven in a row and all of the sudden he had it. I had never been a part of anything like that, and it was an incredible experience,” said Head Coach Mr. Joe Del Gais.
The perfect game was achieved in the second of Santelli’s three games played at the match. In his first game, he narrowly missed a perfect game, scoring a 289.
“During the first game, I was really nervous. But after getting the first strike in the second game, I wasn’t very nervous because of how well I performed in the prior game, but I was very excited. I would say that this is one of, if not the, greatest accomplishment of my life so far. For the rest of the season, my goal is to help lead the team to win our conference, which is what the team and I have been aiming for this season,” said Santelli.
Achieving a perfect game is anything but an easy feat. It involves rolling a strike on every frame, meaning that Santelli needed twelve strikes in a row.
The fact that he was only in twelfth grade during his perfect game means that there still could be an upside for him.
“What Jameson did was really sick, mainly because of how hard it is to do and because it’s never been done before at the school. I’m really happy for him. Hopefully it’s a start for us getting a banner for the school. We’re doing well and hope to get a trophy this year,” said sophomore John Gallagher.
Currently, Vikings bowling stands at 37-18, which is second place in their conference behind only the Garden City Trojans.
“We are playing to win the conference. We aren’t there to eat hot dogs and french fries at the lanes. We want to be as competitive as we can, and that means winning the conference, which I believe we can do,” said Coach Del Gais.
The way that the records of bowling teams are made does not follow the traditional win-to-loss record system of most other sports. Each player plays three games each match. After each game, the scores of each teammate are added up, and compared to the sum of the opposing team’s scores.
For each combined score that is higher than the opponent’s, the team is awarded three “points.” Each point awarded to a team goes in as a win, and each point that is awarded to the opponent goes in as a loss. During each match, there are eleven total points that could be won or lost.
Another aspect that is different about the bowling team compared to other Schreiber teams is that the varsity and junior varsity teams are combined. At this point, the junior varsity team is 41-3, which is first in the conference.
This combination of varsity and junior varsity gives the team more flexibility in the roster of twelve players, with four of these players in the varsity lineup.
The lineup varies, as the only two locks at this point for varsity are Santelli and co-captain and senior Murphy Siegal.
“Having the two teams combined gives us the ability to mix and match however we like. It also certainly makes for more team camaraderie, because the varsity and JV kids are bowling with each other side by side and next to each other. I definitely think that this format helps us a lot as a team. We’ve been bowling very well so far overall. Everybody is competing, which is our second priority to winning. This competitive nature will contribute a lot to our main goal of winning the conference” said Coach Del Gais.
All stats are as of Dec. 16, 2013.