The University of Saint Mary newest addition to its athletic program is men’s and women’s bowling. With this addition came the hiring of Coach Chris Beall from Marshalltown, Iowa. Coach Beall brings a ton of college coaching experience in the college baseball world. With that being said Beall is a lifetime bowler and plans to attack the recruiting trail hard both locally and on a national level. Being both men’s and women’s head coach, Coach Beall is tasked with putting both rosters together before the start of next season. 

His first order of business was to reach out to recruits and start forming his team. “As soon as I got hired, I started recruiting, so I have sending out emails to all the high school around Kansas City, Kansas and just started pounded the ground asking coaches if they had any uncommitted students. “He spoke on the fact that he has seen a lot of interest in the program and how bowling is not a prominent sport compared to the likes of football or baseball but is on the rise nationally. One of the hardest parts about recruiting for bowling is the fact that most bowlers are multisport athletes. 

He had this to say on the topic, “a lot do multiple sports as high school kids do so it’s kind of hard now because baseball is going, track is going. It is hard to get a hold of kids.” That has not stopped his aggressive recruiting style, Coach Beall has put flyers out on national sites and emailed kids from all over the country. He believes to stay competitive the program needs to look at all options of bowlers both around the Kansas City area and nationally. Past the recruiting trail Coach Beall has high hopes for the first year saying, “the first year we need to establish our culture, goals and what we want to be.” This is going to be key for the program to show success early in the program’s history.

Bryan Gudka is a Sports management major with an emphasis in Digital Communications at the University of Saint Mary. Joining JCOMM in 2018, Bryan is also involved with the football program at USM.