Bowling announces inaugural schedule
8/24/2010 4:03:00 PM | Women's Bowling
There are a number of steps that have to be completed every year as coaches prepare for the upcoming season. Those steps are multiplied when it is the first season.
Sam Houston State bowling coach Brad Hagen has been putting all the pieces in place for this inaugural year for the Bearkats. Another big hurdle that is now cleared is a finalized schedule for this season.
"It is a good feeling just to have this done, and we know for sure where we are going to traveling this year," Hagen said. "The girls are all here and we are ready to get this started."
Hagen has announced the Bearkats will compete in seven tournaments this year and will kick everything off with a match against Stephen F. Austin. The match against SFA will be on October 17 and will take place in Arlington at the Bowling International Training and Research Center.
"Because of the historical aspects of this matchup, I thought it was important for us to start against SFA," Hagen said. "This is going to be a historical season for us and what better opponent to open with than SFA?"
The ITRC in Arlington is a state-of-the-art facility that will be the home of the US Bowling program. Hagen said competing there was another opportunity that was too hard to pass up.
"This will be the first ever collegiate match to take place at the ITRC," Hagen said. "This is the most elite training center in the world. It will be a great experience for our girls."
The SFA match will be followed by a tournament in Springfield, Mo. two weeks later. They will also compete in tournaments in Jackson, Miss., Cabot, Ark., Lincoln, Neb., Tallahassee, Fla., Bessemer, Ala. and Smyrna, Tenn.
Right from the beginning, Hagen said the goal is to reach the NCAA Tournament which will be held in Detroit in April.
"The schedule is put together based on the strength of our opponents and building to the end of the year," Hagen said. "It was important to us to put the tournament schedule together to go up against the bigger programs. These tournaments will help us at the end of the season and should play in our favor to help us get into the NCAA Tournament."
Hagen said on average, the team will play about 18 matches in a tournament, depending on the number of teams competing. They can't play more than six matches per day and no more than two matches against one team in any given day. Over the course of the season, the team will compete in about 100 matches.
