Matthew Carman is proof that practice makes perfect.
Or nearly perfect.
The Ewing High School junior decided after last year to dedicate more time to his bowling. What followed was an incredible season for him and the Blue Devil boys.
Carman bowled a 290 game, just 10 pins shy of the perfect 300, raised his average more than 30 pins per game and helped Ewing win the Liberty Division of the Burlington County Scholastic League and reach the Central Jersey Group 3 semifinals.
“It’s just me wanting to be better,” said Carman. “I think it’s just the mindset is a big part of it, because if you have the mindset that you want to do better, you’re going to do better. But if you just throw it away and don’t want to put the work in, then it’s not going to show up out on the lanes.”
Carman and the Blue Devils had had what plenty of bowlers and teams would consider strong seasons the previous two years.
Ewing had posted marks of 14-4-1 and 14-5-1 and Carman had put together solid 180.43 and 181.71 averages. But standards are different at Ewing, which hasn’t lowered its standards since claiming its fifth state title in 2014.
“Obviously the expectations I have every year are to make it to the state tournament,” said Ewing coach Dave Angebranndt. “With the way the format has changed (to head-to-head brackets), you always want at least to win a first-round matchup in the state tournament and see what happens from there. But to be able to get a bye in the first round in a really tough Central Jersey, Group 3 bracket speaks volumes to how my guys have bowled all year.”
What’s made the season and the Blue Devils’ achievements all the more impressive is they do not have a senior on the team. Carman and fellow junior Joey Reid have been the strongest juniors all season and Sebastian Curtiss and Antonio Vargas are the top sophomores. Darrell Willis and David Hartmann are key juniors as well and freshman Kristopher Jenkins has had a good start to his career.
“The last few years it’s been a heavily concentrated girls program just because of the numbers and the abilities, but now it kind of flipped a bit,” said Angebranndt whose girls were solid in a 14-5-1 season in which they reached the CJ 2 quarterfinals.
“I have 14 guys on my roster between varsity and JV, and I don’t have a senior, so I’m hoping that within the next couple years, maybe the boys success is going to replicate what the girls have been over the last couple years. You never know. Maybe next year they take a run at the state championship,” Angebranndt said.
This year was a good stepping stone. The Ewing boys placed third in January at the highly competitive Brick Memorial Tournament behind Jackson Memorial and Delbarton.
Then in February they earned the No. 4 seed and advanced to the CJ 3 semifinals with a 2-1 quarterfinals win over Colts Neck on February 13. Carman put together a strong series of 685 with a high game of 245. Reid had the high game of the day with a 257 to push his series to 604 and help reach the semis.
“We have a good thought going into it, just making it there and coming all this way by winning all these matches,” Carman said. “It’s just really cool to think that a small school in Ewing out of everybody else can make it this far.”
The Blue Devils ran into another young, strong team in top-seeded St. Joseph’s Metuchen in the semifinals to end their season with a 2-0 loss February 19. But Ewing finished 17-2-1, including an 11-0-1 mark to win the BCSL Liberty Division.
“In the beginning of the season, I was a little iffy because we did have a senior leaving that was on the team for a couple years,” Carman said.
“But going in I had good hopes, but I think for myself personally with the season I’ve had, I didn’t think I was going to do this good,” he said. “But now that I’m here, I’m glad where we are as a team and where I’m at as a player and as a contributor to our team.”
Carman had been a contributor in each of his first two seasons. And he posted some promising results – a 241 game as a freshman and a 247 high score as a sophomore. He doubled his efforts in the offseason and saw huge improvements much to the delight of Ewing.
“His attitude has gotten so much better, his personality has grown, he’s become a leader on the team, whereas you know in years past he hadn’t really adopted that role,” Angebranndt said. “It’s another year for him to be around the opponents, be around the coaches, and get more experience. He’s been a guy that I can rely on all year. He’s consistent. You know going in, he’s going to shoot at least a mid- to upper-200 game in a match, whether or not he shoots three or not. But he’s definitely improved on his abilities. He’s worked tirelessly.”
On December 9, in the third game against Westhampton Tech, he bowled a career-high 290 game. It was nearly perfect.
“I’ve gotten really close,” Carman said. “I had a 290 this season, and I got a 280 also.”
He also placed in the top 40 out of nearly 150 at the New Jersey Singles Classic. To see his offseason work pay off has been encouraging to him and inspiring to teammates, many of whom are also dedicating more time to the sport in the offseason in hopes of seeing significant improvements.
“I have full confidence that every single one of us can improve to play our best play that we could,” Carman said. “We could be a top team in the state with who we have because if everybody continues to work and just do what they need to do, I feel like we have a pretty fair chance of being a top team in the state next year.”
That would make for a terrific scholastic exit for Carman, who also plays football for EHS. He aspires to bowl in college and beyond as he’s grown more dedicated to the sport. He took up bowling by the time he was 8 years old. When he started high school, he started to put more time into it.
“There’s a numerous amount of kids in the state that are phenomenal at the sport,” Carman said. “So after I saw that I just felt like I could also be one of those people to get myself out there and just take it more serious and not be one of these laid back kids that just want to take it as an unserious sport.”
Carman is looking to bowl in the Junior Gold Championships and continue competing in tournaments and leagues in the offseason. He is hoping to see the same sort of improvements again for next year.
“All he wants to do is bowl,” Angebranndt said. “He gets upset when a match gets cancelled because all he wants to do is get better. I think he realizes his potential after this year. So he’s hungry to get better. It’s definitely nice to have him next year along with the other guys coming back.”
