Between the hours we log at our jobs, some of us garden; others watch TV. Very few of us spend our extra time training to be a professional athlete — but that’s just what Andrew Pedrick, University police dispatcher for the University of Maryland, College Park, does. At least if you consider professional bowlers to be athletes — but, hey, they’re on ESPN so why not?
What does it take to be a professional bowler? More and better bowling, it turns out — Pedrick will have to end the year with an average score of 200 or more to be considered a pro. (Remember that a perfect game — 12 strikes in a row — comes to 300.) And while Pedrick has scored his fair share of perfect games, he still has a ways to go.
So between his 4 PM to 2 AM security shifts, Pedrick is spending his spare time (pun intended) taking a tour of local bowling alleys — thanks to unique oil patterns, each alley has its own quirks and demands a slightly different style of play. “You can get a different shot every time,” Pedrick told the UMD’s Diamondback. “It’s like tennis, with clay courts and then grass.” If you care to cheer Pedrick on, he competes alongside his parents most Fridays at the AMF Country Club Lanes in Rosedale.
