{"id":122877,"date":"2022-04-18T13:25:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T17:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=122877"},"modified":"2022-04-18T13:25:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T17:25:00","slug":"wright-state-bowling-coach-strikes-his-way-into-state-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2022\/04\/18\/wright-state-bowling-coach-strikes-his-way-into-state-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State bowling coach strikes his way into state hall of fame"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Longtime Wright State bowling coach Jeff Fleck will be inducted into the Ohio Bowling Hall of Fame as a Friend of Ohio Bowling. Fleck was also named the head coach of Wright State’s new Division I women’s bowling team.<\/p><\/div>\n

As a longtime bowler, Jeff Fleck has had much success knocking down pins, but his latest accomplishment is sweeter than any strike.<\/p>\n

The longtime Wright State University bowling coach \u2014 and co-founder of the nationally recognized club bowling program \u2014 will be inducted into the Ohio Bowling Hall of Fame at a banquet in Columbus on May 21.<\/p>\n

Fleck will be inducted in the category of Friend of Ohio Bowling, along with 10 others who\u2019ve had success or made contributions to the sport in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on Cloud Nine since I found out at the end of February,\u201d Fleck said of the honor. \u201cTo be in a hall of fame at the state level is pretty rewarding. Everybody\u2019s been congratulating me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u201d includes many of the Wright State students who bowled under his leadership, beginning when he co-founded the club program in 2005. The program is operated as a club sport \u2013 the student-athletes aren\u2019t on scholarship and instead pay a fee to compete.<\/p>\n

Fleck heads the program and coaches the women\u2019s team \u2014 there are three other coaches for the men\u2019s varsity and junior varsity teams, and the women\u2019s junior varsity team. The coaches annually are offered minimal compensation, but all of them return the money to the university and serve as volunteers.<\/p>\n

Each team has eight bowlers, five of whom bowl at a time at tournaments, with the other three as substitutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve competed in tournaments in Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee and Indiana. We compete against all types of schools,\u201d Fleck said.<\/p>\n

The teams\u2019 season runs from late September through April. Practices are held two or three times a week at one of two facilities, one in Kettering and one in Beavercreek.<\/p>\n

Fleck, his fellow coaches and the student-athletes have a history of success. He said the program is in the top 25 in the country. The women\u2019s team won the National Collegiate Club Championship in 2015 and 2019 and were runners-up in 2014 and 2016. The men\u2019s club bowling team won its first national championship earlier in April in Iowa.<\/p>\n

Fleck has a personal history of recognition, too. He received the Club Team Bowling Coaches Association Larry Wilson Women\u2019s Club Coach of the Year award six times and was named the 2015-16 National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association Kerm Helmer Women\u2019s Coach of the Year. In 2020, Fleck received the National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association National Gordon Teigen Meritorious Service Award for his contributions to collegiate bowling.<\/p>\n

Fleck\u2019s role will change in the new academic year. Wright State is adding women\u2019s bowling as an NCAA Division I team, which Fleck will coach. The women\u2019s club bowling teams will be eliminated.<\/p>\n

“I am so excited to be chosen as the coach of the new NCAA women’s bowling program,” Fleck said. “I relish the opportunity to take our very successful club program to the next level.”<\/p>\n

Fleck was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where his father was stationed in the Air Force. The family moved several times before settling in Ohio in 1968.<\/p>\n

He started bowling when he was 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents would take me bowling. I was pretty good at it right away,\u201d Fleck recalled. \u201cI bowled successfully, winning city and state titles.\u201d<\/p>\n

His love of the sport and his string of successes are at the core of his coaching philosophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBowling has been good to me, and I feel like I\u2019m giving back by helping coach and teach and train and provide information that I was fortunate to get from those who helped me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He relishes the team aspect of bowling, especially how it teaches communication, leadership, and community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the chemistry, the cheering, and the focus on the positive. I like that atmosphere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He tells recruits that by coming to Wright State they\u2019ll get not only a degree in their major, \u201cthey\u2019ll also get minors in bowling and life skills.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a longtime bowler, Jeff Fleck has had much success knocking down pins, but his latest accomplishment is sweeter than any strike. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":122889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2798,725,715,2024],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-staff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122877"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122901,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122877\/revisions\/122901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}