- May 2, 2024
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Emma Pezzullo knew she bowled a strike as soon as she released the ball. Once all the pins fell, she and her teammates started celebrating.
It was Pezzullo’s 12th strike in a row for her first-ever 300 game.
“I knew it was a strike, and I heard everybody chant and cheer,” the Flagler Palm Coast senior said after bowling the perfect game on Oct. 4 at Palm Coast Lanes in a home match against Spruce Creek. “It was amazing. I was ecstatic, and I started crying. My teammates came up and hugged me. My mom came up and hugged me. Everybody came up and hugged me, and I was crying.”
After rolling a 297 last year against Palatka and coming close on a number of other occasions, Pezzullo finally joined the 300 club.
“I was nervous, definitely,” she said. “I wasn't trying to look at my score at all. I was helping my teammates out however I could, cheering for them and just staying calm.”
The Bulldogs went on to defeat the Hawks 7-0 to improve to 13-1 on the season.
It was amazing. I was ecstatic, and I started crying. My teammates came up and hugged me. My mom came up and hugged me. Everybody came up and hugged me, and I was crying.”
— EMMA PEZZULLO
When Pezzullo bowled her 297, she knocked down 11 consecutive strikes and then left three pins standing on her final ball.
“If I remember correctly, I didn’t hook it enough,” she said. “This time, I was calmer. You have to stay calm during those situations, because the slightest thing can mess you up. When the 10th frame hit, I was like, this is my time.”
Pezzullo leads District 3 with a 224.84 average, a 481 series (over two games) and now a 300 game.
She has been bowling for 12 years but didn’t start getting serious about the sport until four years ago, when she was bowling in Dolly McKitrick’s league in Ormond Beach. She struck up a friendship with one of the other bowlers on her lane, Walter Lents, who at the time was on the bowling team at Mainland High. He became her coach.
“He made me who I am,” Pezzullo said. “When he started coaching me, I was at a 94 average. And then I built up to a 180, and now I'm at a 224.”
Lents is now a sophomore at the University of North Florida and an Army ROTC cadet. He was in the crowd cheering as Pezzullo rolled strike after strike on the way to 300.
“It was a good day for me with my class schedule to come and watch her,” he said. “So, it was very exciting to see all the hard work she’s put in pay off with her first 300.”
Lents said he saw Pezzullo’s potential four years ago. But she did the rest.
“I knew I could help her out some way,” Lents said. “So I just start helping her. And since then I've been staying with her through her growth and up to now. She got her first 300. And she might be the best female bowler in Volusia and Flagler counties.”
Pezzullo didn’t join FPC’s bowling team until her sophomore year. Next year, she expects to continue her bowling career in college — she has offers from Columbia (Missouri) College, Wichita State and Mount Mercy University in Iowa.
“I am very excited to see how much further I can go with bowling,” she said. “I would really love to go pro eventually, so going to college and getting that extra experience with sport shot (a more challenging oil ratio used on lanes in competitive bowling) will just advance me more.”
