On Feb. 12, the boys on the varsity bowling team bowled a 1408 match, breaking a school record.

The record that was broken is a cumulative value of the scores of 6 players, and the previous record stood for 2 years.

Senior co-captain Max Blake believed that during the match the team was simply playing to the best of their abilities without even thinking about a record.

“We’re halfway into the game before we kind of realized that we had the potential to break any records,” said Blake, “But, for the most part, we were kind of unaware and just trying to bowl how we usually bowl, and just do our best.”

Coach Andrew Juedes gave a glimpse into the environment during the team’s record-breaking match.

“The guys really built on their collective momentum, stacking strikes on strikes on strikes.  This team keeps things pretty mild during our runs; no one gets too overly excited or too nervous,” said Juedes.

After the match, the team had not realized they broke a record. Senior co-captain Matt Booden said that it was their team manager, senior Ethan Yoo, who mentioned the possibility given the team’s high score. Yoo then did some quick research and found out that the team did in fact break a record. 

“He broke the news that we have broken the record, and we were super excited just because, with everything that’s been going on this year on the team, it was really nice to cement ourselves in the school record book,” said Booden.

According to Blake, the score was the highest total in New Trier history and the ninth highest in conference history.

Despite bowling being an individual sport, the varsity team has done an admirable job of creating a team dynamic much like other team sports.

Blake described how their success is partly attributed to the fact that many of the guys on the team have been on varsity together for three years.

“Our varsity team is comprised of six seniors and one sophomore and five of us six I think have been on the varsity team since our sophomore year,” said Blake.

According to senior co-captain Nicholas Henner, he and his teammates have grown to know each other’s bowling very well.

“We know what adjustments they should make in the game to be more successful because we’ve seen each other throw so many bowling balls,” said Henner.

In fact, Henner, Blake, and Booden have been co-captains of the varsity bowling squad since their sophomore years.

“The competitiveness we bring alongside this camaraderie that we build really makes it something special. The program has really progressed into something amazing over the last few years,” said Henner.

Across their careers bowling at school, the varsity players have formed strong bonds with their teammates.

“One thing about bowling practice, and kind of the matches too, you have a lot of time to talk to your teammates about bowling, but also just about life,” said Henner.

Booden would consider his teammates some of his best friends.

“We’ve become incredibly close, and I think, because we are such close friends, it makes it much more of a team sport than an individual sport,” said Booden.

The team worked hard in the offseason determined to succeed this season: meeting at local bowling alleys to practice, getting private lessons, and spending time together to build camaraderie. 

“I think we had a standard for ourselves that we could win, we were good enough, and we could contend for a state championship,” said Blake.

However the IHSA state tournament for bowling was cancelled. 

“Our original goal was to make it to the final day of the State Tournament and compete for a State Title,” said Juedes, “Our team finished 18th last year as mostly juniors,”

“After hearing the news about the postseason, we decided let’s take what we have and let’s try and compete in anything that we participate in,” said Booden.

Hononegah High School in Rockton, IL sent out an invitation to the 12 top teams in the state to participate in an end-of-the-season competition. Vernon Hills put in a bid for New Trier to be invited, and so, the team ended up receiving an invitation. 

According to Juedes, ever since freshman year, he knew this group of boys would accomplish a great deal in their school bowling careers, and now, the team is determined to finish out their season with success.

“Year-round they committed to improve.  They pushed themselves in our spring, summer and fall leagues. This group of guys loves to bowl,” said Juedes.