A new year, a new team added.

As announced by Director of Athletics Al King, in the 2023-2024 Ashland University academic year the Eagles will be adding a men’s and women’s bowling team to the highly looked upon athletic department.

“The addition of bowling creates an opportunity for another group of students,” said King. “We’ve seen some growth with high school bowling in Ohio and with the GMAC adding a championship for bowling, we felt now was an opportune time to look at adding it.”

The future AU bowling teams will host matches and practices at Luray Lanes which resides here in Ashland.

While bowling has a relatively small sample size in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, they have a partnership with the Conference Carolinas that pays host to league championships.

Currently, the GMAC sees Walsh and Kentucky Wesleyan as the two only teams with both a men’s and women’s bowling team. Ursuline currently has just a women’s squad as well.

The Eagles intend to start the search for coaches and players immediately in hopes to build the program up.

“One of the first steps we need to take is finding a head coach. We need someone who can build a program,” said King. “That’s not an easy task because starting from scratch presents some unique challenges.”

With the season looking to kick off in 2023-2024, the skies are the limit for the Eagles to make a mark in an up-and-coming collegiate sport.