Thomas Worthington bowling coach amused by feedback to 300 game

Joe Taylor estimates he has bowled “23 or 24” 300 games over the years, and those are just the ones that came during sanctioned competition.

Taylor, Thomas Worthington’s bowling coach since 2011, doesn’t count the perfect game he rolled Monday night during a year-end coaches get-together at Columbus Square Bowling Palace.

Even so, Taylor’s accomplishment went public when Thomas athletic director Molly Feesler posted a video of the final strike on the department’s Twitter page. Taylor admitted amusement at the response.

“I didn’t realize there was video out there until my phone blew up this morning with my friends and some of my former bowlers telling me they saw it,” Taylor said. “I didn’t think it was all that impressive.”

“Coach Joe, Cardinal Bowling Coach, drops a 300 game on the rest of the coaching staff at tonight’s end of year coaches meeting!” the tweet read.

As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, the video had more than 5,000 views.

Taylor remained on one lane for the entire game, unlike in sanctioned play when bowlers alternate lanes between frames for the sake of competitive balance.

“It wasn’t nearly as difficult as everybody made it look, which I shouldn’t say because 300 is never easy, but it was easier than it would have been if two or three other people would have been throwing on the lane with me,” Taylor said. “People didn’t notice much until I got to the eighth or ninth frame. We were set up for what’s called ‘no tap,’ so a strike or a 9 count as a strike, and the 9s show up as purple on the screen.

“No one really paid much attention until they started looking up and realizing none of my numbers were purple.”

Even with nothing at stake except pride, Taylor admitted a few nerves but said he’s every bit as proud of his 800 series, the number of which he said exceeds his 300 games.

“You can get lucky and shoot 300, but with an 800, you get the opportunity to shoot two spares for three games and that’s it,” Taylor said. “Still, I didn’t want to screw it up.”

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Thomas Worthington High School bowling coach rolls 300 game