By Ken Hansard
Although bowling is a lifelong sport, very few people ever achieve perfection – even for one game. Brandon Andino, who just finished his senior bowling campaign at Campus High School, is definitely the exception to that rule; he rolled a perfect game in only his second year of competition.
Andino’s story about why he first picked up a bowling ball is a good one. He didn’t even know that Campus had a bowling team until midway through his freshman year. “When I heard that, I decided to try out just for the fun of it. I made it through the first day of tryouts and then got cut in the second round. But I don’t give up easily, and I don’t accept defeat. I bought some equipment and got straight to practicing 10-15 hours a week. At the time, I wasn’t even passionate about bowling; I just wanted to prove the coach wrong.” And did he ever. By the time tryouts rolled around his sophomore year, he was already up to a 200 average, and it was also during his sophomore year that Brandon rolled his first perfect game.
Andino became the first Campus Colt to average a 256 over the course of three meets. Individually, as a sophomore he placed 10th in the AVCTL, he placed 10th as a junior – along with a third place finish at regionals – and as a senior he placed 5th at AVCTL.
Even though Brandon’s senior season didn’t end on the high note that he had hoped for, he chalked it up as a “learning experience” and vowed to continue to move forward. “My coach told me he is very proud of my hard work and effort, and that out of all the bowlers he’s seen, he’s never seen someone at the bowling alley practicing as hard as me. This whole thing has been journey, and along the way I became passionate about the sport.”
After high school, Andino plans to take that passion to Kansas Newman to bowl for the Jets and major in sports media and broadcasting. He would eventually like to make bowling a career, with hopes of competing in the PBA and later becoming a professional broadcaster.
