By By STEVE MORRISON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – "I felt like I was in the "zone all night. Actually I hit the pocket every, single time, every game," recalled A.J. Gaideski, as he described his record-setting 826 bowling series at Joey Armadillo's bowling alley, achieved on Tuesday, Dec. 11.
Gaideski spun a 300 game, his first ever, to begin the three game set. His previous personal highs were a 289 game and a 757 series. Following that 300, A.J. tossed nine more strikes in a row, leaving a single pin, on his first ball in the 10th frame of game two.
Gaideski picked up that spare, and his finished off the game with another strike for a 279. He had thrown 21 in a row, and had successfully hammered 22 strikes out of 23 attempts, through the second contest.
"I had the first nine after the 300. I buried it (the first ball in the 10th frame of the second game). It was shaking. I guess it was the four-pin, but it just didn't go down. I picked it up (the spare); and then I got a strike," Gaideski recounted about his almost-perfect second game.
By that point, everyone in the Tuesday Combo League was astir about the potential for a singular bowling spectacle. Beginning the final game, Gaideski was locked in to his own zone. He threw a nine and a spare in the first frame, and then blasted six more strikes in a row. Then he had three straight leaves of the 10 pin, which he converted into spares, finishing with a "mere" 247.
Gaideski had thereby eclipsed an 823 Niles City series record established by James Karasek last year and equaled by Ken Kennedy, at Armadillo's, just recently, on Nov. 20 of this year.
"I like the alleys. I think they're fair. I just like the competition. I've always been in some kind of competition. My dad got me into bowling when I was little, and I've always liked it ever since," A.J. added.
Gaideski previously teamed with his cousin, Mike Losievski, to win the 2005 Elks State Bowling doubles competition. In that event they scored over 1,400 pins actual pinfall together.
Bill Gaideski, A.J.'s father, who spent considerable time teaching his son the basics of the game, drew his son's gratitude. "My dad taught me everything I know about bowling. He got me into it; brought me down to the alleys on Sundays. I've bowled with him in a league ever since I was 19 years old," the 39-year-old Edwardsburg social studies teacher reminisced.
Some of those lessons have paid off in the love of teaching and bowling. A.J. is the varsity baseball coach, assistant varsity football coach, and seventh grade basketball mentor for the Eddies.
Awards of a plaque and a ring to Gaideski will be forthcoming at the end of the bowling season.