SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio, November 30 -- Notre Dame College is pleased to announce that the development of both men’s and women’s varsity bowling programs is underway, with plans to begin intercollegiate competition in 2009.
“We’re excited to initiate both men’s and women’s bowling programs at Notre Dame,” said director of athletics Susan Hlavacek. “Bowling is a fast-emerging sport on the intercollegiate athletic scene, and we’re proud to give high school student-athletes an outlet to continue their careers in a state where the sport is popular at the prep level.”
According to Hlavacek, Notre Dame will begin recruiting now and look to hire a head coach over the winter of 2008-09.
With the move, Notre Dame becomes the only institution in Ohio to sponsor bowling as a varsity scholarship sport. There are 74 such varsity programs across the nation, in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and all three levels of the NCAA. At the high school level, there are 239 boys and 228 girls bowling programs in the state of Ohio.
Hlavacek indicated the announcement was made after months of due diligence in investigating the matter with various elements of the College.
Further details will be announced by the Notre Dame Department of Athletics at a later date. Earlier in the week, Notre Dame also announced that football would also become a varsity scholarship sport at the College, with intercollegiate competition slated to begin in 2010.
For more information, contact sports information director Skip Snow at 216-373-5319 or ssnow@ndc.edu.
Notre Dame College is a co-educational liberal arts institution in South Euclid, Ohio. The Notre Dame Department of Athletics sponsors the Falcons' participation in 18 men's and women's intercollegiate sports. The College is affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the American Mideast Conference (AMC). In 2007-08, Notre Dame athletic programs ranked in the nation’s Top-50, based on the NAIA Director’s Cup all-sports ranking as published by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).
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