Kober bowls perfect 300
Kober bowled a perfect 300 at the Pin & Cue recently.
Whitefish local Jamie Kober, 31,
recently bowled 12 consecutive strikes to complete a perfect game
at the Pin & Cue bowling alley. According to Vince Red Elk of
the Pin & Cue, it may have been the first time a woman has
bowled a perfect 300 at the alley.
Kober’s top score was no fluke. She’s
been bowling for 26 years, joined her first league at six years old
and currently averages 202 in the Whitefish league. The Pilot met
up with Kober last week to find out more about her 300 game.
Q. Tell me about the final frame in
your perfect game? Were you nervous?
Kober: Everyone stopped and gathered
around to watch. I was a little nervous. My first ball in the 10th
frame was awful — it was very high, but they all fell. Then the
11th ball, I was still very nervous, and it was a bad shot, too,
but it carried. Then my last ball, it was just beautiful, and there
it was.
Q. In baseball during a perfect game,
it’s an unsaid rule that no one should mention anything about it to
the pitcher or else he’ll be jinxed. Does the same rule apply in
bowling?
Kober: These bowlers here know not to
say anything because they’ve all been there. But there are some
bowlers who are like, “Hey, three more and you get a perfect game!”
and it gets in your head. But these bowlers here know that would be
the kiss of death. Nobody was ribbing me.
Q. How close in the past have you come
to a perfect game?
Kober: My best was a 286. I think it
was 10 strikes and a spare.
Q. Do you have any superstitions or
follow a certain routine before each roll?
Kober: When I played volleyball, I had
to bounce the ball an odd number of times before a serve. But in
bowling, I just kind of wiggle my hand, do a little shimmy and away
I go.
Q. Do you bowl with many other
women?
Kober: I bowl with my parents and
another woman in the Bigfork league.
Q. Are male bowlers intimidated by
you?
Kober: Mostly in Bigfork, yeah. It’s a
male ego thing, I guess. They voted in their men’s scratch league
that women can’t bowl in it. But here in Whitefish, this was
originally a men’s league, and the women petitioned to let them in
and they did.
Q. Did you do anything special to
commemorate the game?
Kober: I get a 300 ring from U.S.
Bowling Congress, and I called my mom and dad.
Q. How hard do you think it will it be
to bowl another perfect game?
Kober: I don’t know, I’m not a pressure
bowler at all. I think I got lucky. It was a little bit of skill
and a lot of luck. If the planets are aligned just right, I may
throw another one.