EPCHS Alum In The Spotlight: Maggie Suchoski, Class Of 2010

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Bowling has always been a big part of Maggie Suchoski’s life. Now, the 2-time IHSA state qualifier as an Evergreen Park Mustang is back with the program in which she excelled as its assistant coach.

“Everyone in my family bowls, and they got me started when I was 4,” said Suchoski, who also teaches math and oversees the creative writing club in her first year on the Evergreen Park Community High School staff.

“I’ve bowled my whole life, and started getting more competitive and involved in tournaments the older I got.”

She became a star on the lanes immediately after enrolling at EPCHS, making the varsity team as a freshman. She made the All-Conference team all four years of high school, and was a state qualifier both her junior and senior seasons.

“That was pretty exciting,” Suchoski said. “That’s something you work all-year long for, and at the time it was just the top 2 individuals at sectional who qualified. I got second place as a junior and won sectionals as a senior.”

Suchoski’s bowling career continued its upward trajectory after her 2010 EPCHS graduation. She was a varsity collegiate bowler for four years at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, then joined the Professional Women’s Bowling Association tour for two years.

Competing on the Pro Tour was “challenging,” Suchoski said.

“I enjoyed it, but didn’t do it for very long. It’s quite expensive to pay for the travel, entry fees and equipment. Then I had kids and figured it wasn’t worth it anymore. Now, I just bowl locally.”

But the accolades didn’t stop when Suchoski left the Pro Tour.

At that time, there was one achievement that had eluded her throughout her life: A 300 game.

“I had quite a few 299s,” she said.

Her first 300 came in 2016 at Palos Lanes. She remembers vividly what was going through her head during the final frame of that game.

“I was like, please don’t be disappointed again. And then when I got the strike, it was so nice. It was something I was working toward for 20 years.”

But once she broke through with that initial 300, more have come since. Suchoski has now bowled six 300 games, with the most recent one coming at Tinley Bowl just a few weeks ago.

She also has six 800+ series’ on her bowling resume.

“It’s rare for a woman to get 800s, so I am very proud of that as well,” she said.

While bowling has been in her blood, Suchoski’s path to become a teacher was anything but set in stone.

“I went to school to get a degree in physics,” she said. “I wanted to work for NASA, or in a lab somewhere.”

But when she started coaching bowling at Plainfield North High School, “so many people thought I was a teacher, and told me I would be good at it… At the time I still wanted to work for NASA and be famous. But then when another person asked if I’m a teacher, at that moment I was like, I have been asked that so many times in my life there’s a reason for that.”

So she got her Master’s in secondary education from Saint Xavier University in 2018 and was hired as a physics teacher at Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School that same year, teaching there for five years. When an opening came up at EPCHS in 2023, Suchoski was excited at the chance to return to her alma mater.

“I felt like the skills I had would be better served to the kids here,” she said. “I was an alum, and felt it would be nice to come back.”

Suchoski teaches Pre-AP Geometry at EPCHS. Her first season as assistant coach for the girls bowling team was a successful one, as the team qualified for sectionals, and, “weren’t too far off from going to state.”

“It’s nice to see the girls improve, have a lot of fun and be competitive,” she said.

Since the program is only losing one senior to graduation this year, Suchoski is excited for what should be “an even bigger and better” 2024-2025 season.

As a math teacher, she explains her role as the faculty advisor for the EPCHS creative writing club, a group traditionally advised by an English teacher.

“I actually double majored in college in philosophy, enjoy abstract thinking and write in my journal in my spare time. I found it to be a good fit.

“Math people can be creative too.”