Two perfect: Demarest’s Jordan Tse bowls a pair of 300s in the span of a week by Greg Tartaglia of The Record
What can you say about Jordan Tse?
In his first three bowling matches this season, the NV/Demarest senior fired two 300s. He was perfect in the second game of the Norsemen’s Dec. 11 opener versus Bergenfield, and he began their Dec. 18 meeting with Pascack Valley the same way.
A pair of perfect games, both at Montvale Lanes, seven days apart.
“It’s a bit surreal,” Tse said Thursday, after NV/Demarest closed the pre-holiday break portion of the season by topping Tenafly, 7-0, at Hackensack’s Bowler City.
“I just want to keep my scores up and keep my team winning, and we’re doing very well for the start of the season.”
The Norsemen lead the Big North National Division with a points record of 24-4. Tse, 17, leads North Jersey with a 238 league average.
“That’s having a huge effect,” NV/Demarest coach Darrell Quazza said. “I mean, a guy goes out and shoots a 691, a 744, a 733 and now [a 698 Thursday]. And it’s our first match this season at Bowler City, we were at Montvale for the previous three.”
During those three, Tse actually had another perfect game bid. Versus rival NV/Old Tappan on Dec. 13, he started out with nine strikes in a row before “settling” for a 277 and the aforementioned 744 series, a career high.
A growing fraternity
Tse’s exploits alone are impressive. Now consider that two days after his second 300, Fair Lawn junior Nick Greco joined the club with his perfect game at Holiday Bowl. FYI, Greco’s 222 league average in December is third-highest in the conference behind Tse and Indian Hills’ Ryan McGuire (228).
The three 300s in the season’s opening month are a North Jersey record. The only previous time it happened was December 2013, when there were two.
Since the beginning of the decade, there have been 32 varsity perfectos entering Friday. That doubles the total from the 2000s (16) and more than quadruples the number from the 1990s (seven), according to The Record archives.
AOW: Jordan Tse of NV/Demarest, Male Athlete of the Week for Dec. 20
VARSITY ACES: The North Jersey 300 List, 2016-17 edition
Has shooting a 300 become, dare we say, easy?
“I’m not sure it’s easy, because during summer and for the past four years, I’ve just been practicing and practicing, going to leagues, doing tournaments,” Tse said. “And, I feel like I’ve come a long way since freshman year.”
That year, Quazza was the team’s assistant coach. He noted that developing a two-handed delivery allowed Tse – now a slender 5-foot-11 – to generate more pin action with his shot.
“For someone like him, who’s always been smaller in stature, it helps,” Quazza said. “When he started bowling in seventh grade, he was too tiny to get any power on the ball.”
X-factors
Technology is another factor that has benefited Tse and many of his generation. He is the third North Jersey bowler to fire multiple 300s in the same season, and the other two – Lyndhurst’s Daijon Smith in 2014-15 and Passaic Tech’s Carlos Duarte in 2004-05 – did so within the past decade-plus.
“A lot of it’s the equipment,” Quazza said. “They don’t put the tough [oil patterns] down, it’s a house shot [for league play], so you’ve got a margin of error when you miss. And the cover stocks on the balls now, with their reactive resin, they fly.
“Back in the ’80s, when guys were using plastic and urethane, you had to hit your spot every single time.”
That said, Tse is quick to point out that it still takes the right people to take advantage of those factors. The close-knit Norsemen certainly have, with seniors Nick Allegro and Ben Nelson, junior Andrew Chung and sophomore Peter Iovine all averaging between 175 and 190.
“Yes, it has to do with the technology, but it’s also a mindset that people go in with,” Tse said. “I feel like people always want to beat their friends and get higher scores than each other. And when you have a group of friends that you can play with, it makes it a lot easier.”
The Multi-300 Club
North Jersey bowlers to throw multiple varsity 300s in their careers, with graduation year in parentheses:
Jordan Lopez, Lyndhurst (2015), 3
Jordan Tse, NV/Demarest (2018), 2
Kyle Schellberg, Dumont (2017), 2
Daijon Smith, Lyndhurst (2015), 2
Jake Rollins, Glen Rock (2014), 2
Tim Frantin, Pascack Valley (2012), 2
Carlos Duarte, Passaic Tech (2005), 2
The bowlers to toss two perfect games in the same season, with time elapsed:
Jordan Tse, 2017-18 (Dec. 11 and 18; seven days)
Daijon Smith, 2014-15 (Dec. 13 and Jan. 15; one month, two days)
Carlos Duarte, 2004-05 (Dec. 16 and Jan. 18; one month, two days)