From Ebonite.com (with name correction)
On Aug. 5, 2010, when Zo Isaac walked into AMF Capital Plaza Lanes, in Hyattsville, Md., he had a Game Plan: to shoot a 300.
A sales associate for Goodyear, the Landover resident was participating in the Top Dollar Trios summer league in a house he has always struggled in, he said. While he has had several perfect games and 800 games, he’d never shot a 300 in this house.
“I’ve always wanted to shoot a 300 there,” Isaac said.
Going in that last night of the league, his team was fighting for second place. So, Issac, a recent Ebonite convert, broke out his Ebonite Game Plan and was on from the get-go.
“In practice, every ball I threw struck,” he said.
But during game one, a standing 7-pin kept him from his 300 in Capital Plaza. In game two, a 10-pin that refused to fall gave him his second 299 of the night.
“I was kinda going off,” he said. “I was ‘like who shoots 299 back-to-back?’”
Although he’d had two spectacular games, he was still dissatisfied. A 300 in Capital Plaza still eluded him.
“Someone said to me ‘You shoot anything over 200, you have an 800,’” Isaac said. “I was thinking ‘I already had an 800, I just want to shoot a 300 at (Capital Plaza).’”
A teammate told him to stay focused, that he was throwing the ball well, Isaac recalled.
“I told him if I’m going to start like this, I’m going to finish,” he said.
And finish he did.
“I yelled ‘I finally shot 300,’” he said.
Afterward, a friend, who unbeknownst to Isaac had been doing a play-by-play via Facebook, informed him he had just shot 898.
“It hadn’t even clicked what I had done,” he said.
He said it didn’t hit him that he had made Nation’s Capital Area Bowling Association history until he was presented with a banner at Capital Plaza proclaiming his accomplishment. The previous record was set in 2009 by Erv Raines III at Bowl America Bull Run.
Isaac gives Ebonite and Gary Parsons a lot of the credit for his history-making series. He started using the Game Plan and never once changed balls or moved.
He was on the sixth frame of that last game when someone told him they were on a 290 pace.
“I recall telling him to keep it going,” he said. “That’s when I realized that half the league was behind my lanes watching, along with Gary Parsons. He was commenting to someone and I could hear his every comment. He was giving me confidence on the shots, so at that point, that’s when I realized what I was doing.”
Parsons, who owns World Class Pro Shop at the plaza, said one of his drillers, Derek Payne, drilled the ball Isaac used that night, but he is honored to have had a part in Isaac’s history-making achievement.
“I am proud of Zo for his outstanding accomplishment and I am pleased and satisfied that we played a small role in that accomplishment,” Parsons said.
Isaac was using a competitor’s bowling ball up until two or three weeks before his 898, he said.
“At the end of July, I threw a buddy’s Ebonite ball and I really liked it,” he said. “I’d used Ebonite before, but hadn’t in a few years. After throwing that ball, I got some Ebonite equipment and noticed my scores going up, so I put (the competitor’s balls) up and started using Ebonite only.”
He currently has the Ebonite Mission, Game Plan, Smash Time and Playmaker. The latter three always go with him, he said.
“I’m only using Ebonite from now on,” he said.
After an article in BOWL Magazine ran, Isaac said he broke out his Ebonite Game Plan again and shot a 780. His next goal is to shoot a 900, but for now, he’s thrilled to have finally shot a 300 at Capital Plaza, he said.
“I really want to thank Ebonite for helping me make history,” Isaac said.
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