Evergreen Park boys bowling coach Ron Pula had a few suggestions for freshman Aidan Gerstein.
Gerstein listened.
“He’s a good student,” Pula said.
Is he ever.
Since joining the Mustangs mere weeks ago, Gerstein rolled the highest game of his career — a 257.
But the best was yet to come. Gerstein rolled a 300 game in the first round of the Oak Lawn Spartan Classic on Nov. 22 at Palos Lanes.
The drama was heightened because Hancock’s Parker Gunther was on Gerstein’s pair of lanes and Sandburg’s Eddy Banks was on an adjoining set of lanes, and they went deep into their games flirting with a 300. That drew a crowd.
“Around the eighth and ninth frame, the others started dropping,” Gerstein said. “I was trying to focus on my shots, but I noticed people were watching in on my 11th and 12th shots.
“When I did it, I went nuts, my teammates started to hug me and bowlers from other teams started to hug me. It was crazy.”
It was just the third perfect game in program history.
Gerstein has been bowling for five years and the last three, he went to a two-handed shot.
Pula met Gerstein in the summer and knew he had a special bowler on his hands. But some tweaks were needed.
“We made some minor changes,” Pula said. “We straightened his swing out and he has a straighter shot. The idea was that he had a good game, but we wanted to take it to the next level.
“With the straighter shot, you are saving more power for the pocket.”
Gerstein finished ninth in the tournament with a 1,229. Stagg’s Noah Jones was first with a 1,423 and Oak Lawn won the team championship with a 6,151.
Getting Fired up
The Chicago Fire, occasional tenants at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, announced their regular-season MLS schedule last week. The Firewill open Feb. 21 on the road at Houston. Their first home game is at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at Soldier Field.
Fire home games move to SeatGeek when they conflict with the Bears from mid-August through November. The NFL preseason and regular-season schedule won’t be announced until next year.
Games that potentially could be moved to Bridgeview are Aug. 16 against Portland, Sept. 9 against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, Sept. 13 against New England, Oct. 10 against New York City, Oct. 14 against Philadelphia, Oct. 28 against Orlando and Nov. 7 in the regular-season finale against Columbus.
The team also handed out awards to its top players. Philip Zinckernagel was named most valuable player, Hugo Cuypers won the Golden Boot and Jack Elliott was named defensive player of the year.
A host of players had their contracts guaranteed to 2026, including Reavis graduate Brian Gutierrez.
Trotting in the cold
Oak Lawn’s Gavin Hampton, 22, won the 37th Orland Park Turkey Trot in freezing temperatures on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 27, on a 2.5-mile course near Village Hall.
Hampton, who also won the village’s Veterans Liberty Run on July 3, finished in a time of 14 minutes, 40.16 seconds.
The women’s division was won by 14-year-old Avery Landi of Yorba Linda, California, who ran a 16:21.28 and finished 11th overall in the race, which had 738 runners or walkers finish.