November 29th, 2023 was a groundbreaking day for 11th grade bowler Andrew Arnold. In a match against Devon Prep, Arnold scored his first ever perfect (300) game.
“It was a very gratifying experience, it made me feel like now that it’s happened once I know it can happen again,” Arnold said.
Arnold’s interest in bowling began when he was only four years old, encouraged by his parents who both played growing up. Soon enough, he was asking to go to the alley twice a week. At the end of his freshman year, when PV finalized bowling as a PIAA sport, Arnold was ecstatic to join the team. Since the 2023 season started, Arnold has secured great success in both his performance and comradery amongst his teammates.
“He is a great person to be around. He always provides confidence for his teammates and constructive criticism if something isn’t going right. He puts the positives over the negatives before game time,” varsity player, Rylan Mears, said.
On the day that Arnold bowled a perfect game, he put the team, coaches, and himself on cloud nine.
“That was a very proud moment for me. That was 12 years of effort. All my friends kinda got theirs around when they were 16, and now they have like 30, and they are only 19 years old,” Arnold said.
The week after his perfect game, Arnold rolled a 290. Arnold’s love for the game is truly exposed by how often he practices perfecting his skills.
“He’s always in the bowling alley. The day that he got that 300 perfect score, that night he went back to Limerick and bowled some more,” head varsity Coach Costello said.
Before each match, Arnold sets a positive vibe for the team. Sophomore Ryan Bodge mentions that Arnold has a pregame quote to hype everyone up. He is seen as a role model for the players and gets his peers in the right mindset for success.
“If you want to improve, it’s just about practice. A lot of practice and a lot of dedication. It’s a lot of time, effort, and money,” Arnold said. “Bowling is a really mental game. If you tell yourself something’s not gonna work, it’s not gonna work. Whatever happened in the last frame, it’s in the past now, you just gotta focus on this shot and making this shot better.”
Costello is continually impressed by Arnold and what he brings to the team each week because it truly binds the game and players together.
“He provides the examples. Players get frustrated when they don’t see the product of their hard work. They know that it can break because they can see it from our #1,” Costello said.
Arnold has built a family within the sport he loves by connecting him to others on the team and giving them somebody to look up to.
Mears looks up to Arnold because of “One, his consistency. When he goes up on that lane, there is no doubt in my mind that when that ball strikes the first pin, all 10 of them will go down. Second is his positivity. That stuff spreads like wildfire and creates this great vibe that lasts throughout our entire matches. He is a great person to be around, and I think all of my teammates would agree with me on that.”
To say the team was elated to be there when Arnold achieved the 300 is an understatement.
“I was very happy for him. I was happy that he got it for PV and I was happy that I was there to witness it,” Costello said.
Going forward, Arnold continues to practice different shots and improve his technique with his 8 different bowling balls, each 14 pounds. After high school, Arnold plans to bowl through college but stop short of entering the professional league.