Marines

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Andrea Sharp poses with her perfect score tallied on the scoreboard on Feb. 19 at the Quantico Bowling Center at Little Hall.

Photo by Jon Blanton

Female bowler makes history at the Quantico Bowling Center

27 Feb 2015 | Eve A. Baker Marine Corps Base Quantico

On Feb. 19 Andrea Sharp made base history when she became the first female bowler ever to bowl a 300 — a perfect score — in official league play. Bowling alley manager Jon Blanton, who has worked at the Quantico Bowling Center for 23 years, says while a handful of male players have done it, Sharp was the first woman to accomplish the feat.

The score of 300 is achieved by bowling 12 strikes in a row, a level of skill that, in most cases, takes years to hone.

Sharp, a 44-year-old mother of two, said she has been bowling since she was 10, though she admits taking about 10 years off from regular play when she first had her children. She is originally from Germany and began playing competitively at age 12, qualifying to play on the state team for Bavaria as a teenager. She recalls mowing lawns as a teenager to pay for her hobby.

These days Sharp, whose husband is a retired soldier, bowls three days per week: on Thursday mornings on Fredericksburg, Thursday evenings on base and on Friday evenings in Dale City. The Thursday evening base league consists of 12 teams of four players each, and it is a mixed league, meaning both men and women of all ages bowl together.

Sharp bowls with a 15-pound ball, which is at the heavier



end of the spectrum; the heaviest ball weight for official



play is 16 pounds, and they start at six pounds.

This is the first time Sharp has bowled a 300, and for her accomplishment, she earned a ring from the United States Bowling Congress, which is the governing body for the sport in the United States.

According to the USBC website, bowling is the most popular participation sport in the US, and 69 million people bowl at least once per year.

Sharp credits Blanton with helping her to improve her game and said when she first started playing again, he gave her a lot of good tips and advice. Her advice to other plays is "Keep practicing, and don’t get discouraged if you throw a low game. I throw low games, too, sometimes." Most importantly, she says, "have fun, because bowling is a fun sport."

— Writer: ebaker@quanticosentryonline.com


Marine Corps Base Quantico