Eat, sleep, bowl, repeat

New Ulm senior Elijah Miller bowls a personal best 299!

Elijah+Miller+getting+ready+to+strike%21

Andrew Goodall

Elijah Miller getting ready to strike!

The average person who goes bowling generally does it for fun and doesn’t care about their score. They might even use the bumpers, but some bowlers are the real deal and can put up crazy numbers. Two of these individuals are Elijah Miller, a senior at New Ulm high school, and Paul Holm, a Concordia Lanes employee and league bowler.

Elijah Miller, a New Ulm public high school senior, bowled an impressive game of 299. Elijah began bowling sometime before 2009 simply because it was “something to do,” he said and ever since then he has enjoyed it and continues to be a successful bowler. He is currently at the top of his conference and has been a state participant many times throughout his bowling career.  I asked him if he was upset that he missed a perfect game by only one pin and he said, “No not really because I score over 250 quite often.”

Miller takes part in league bowling every Saturday morning and also goes to tournaments all over the state. He said, “I recently bowled a 241 on what a professional would bowl on in one of their competitions. I also bowled a 3-game series score of 769 which is quite impressive.” I proceeded to ask him if he plans on continuing his bowling career after high school and he said, “Yes I plan on doing tournaments after I graduate.” I asked him if he had anything that he wanted to accomplish and he said, “I want to bowl a perfect game by the time I graduate from high school.”

I went to Concordia Lanes in New Ulm to continue my interviews with Concordia Lanes employee and bowler, Paul Holm. I asked Paul how long he has been bowling for and he said, “I have been bowling for nearly 30 years.” Paul has bowled three sanctioned perfect games throughout his bowling career and he said, “the first time I bowled a 300 was at the age of 15.” Paul has had a successful bowling career that has been put on hold due to his arthritis. He hopes to get back to bowling within two years, so for now he is just resting and waiting for his arthritis to improve.

After the basic questions I continued our interview by asking him what his most impressive bowling accomplishment has been throughout his career. He said, “Boy that one is tough. Probably my freshmen year of college where 128 teams divided into four sectionals competed and the top 16 teams move to the finals. I was third in the country for average differential and if we had made it to nationals I would have been nominated for freshmen of the year since I was already a top ten freshmen in the nation.

My final question was would he be disappointed if he could not continue his bowling career and he said, “Probably not. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if I stopped bowling, but if I continue I’d like to be as good as I once was.” Paul and Elijah have both had successful bowling careers and they hope to continue them for years to come with countless levels of practice and determination.