Kansas Wesleyan University has added men’s and women’s bowling to its varsity sports lineup and has hired Christopher Uffman as its first coach, announced director of athletics Mike Hermann.
“Kansas Wesleyan will now be a place where students can continue a competitive bowling career in college while attending an outstanding institution, Hermann said. “Men’s and women’s bowling is growing at both the high school and collegiate level. We are pleased to be among the first in the region to add bowling at the collegiate level.”
University officials had recently approved the addition of the sports to increase opportunities for students and student-athletes. The addition of bowling will be the first sport addition since the reinstatement of men’s tennis and the addition of women’s tennis for the 2000-01 year. The addition brings KWU’s total sport offerings to 22.
Bowling at the NAIA level remains classified as an emerging sport, but has the institutional support to become a championship sport pending approval by the NAIA National Administrative Council (NAC). Tabor became the first KCAC institution to add bowling two years ago.
Bowling continues to gain popularity as well in the region. Both public high schools in Salina added bowling to their lineups this year and will compete in the Class 5-1A division. Bowling has a strong level of popularity at the scholastic level in Kansas, especially in Wichita, where nearly all the high schools have programs. Nearly 2,500 high schools nationwide sponsor both boys’ and girls’ bowling according to a 2012 survey by the NAIA.
Christopher Uffman comes to Kansas Wesleyan from AIB College of Business in Des Moines, Iowa. He recently completed his first season leading the bowling programs at AIB when the school announced it was dropping its athletics programs and merging with the University of Iowa. In his first season with the Eagles, he helped lead the teams to the program’s first-ever USBC Collegiate Sectionals bids in just the program’s second year.
“We are fortunate to attract such an experienced coach to provide the vision for this program,” Hermann said. “It’s easy to see that Christopher has a great passion for the sport. Plus, he’s built successful programs at several schools and has started a new program previously. He’s a rising star among college coaches.”
Before AIB, Uffman coached one year at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, leading both the men and women to Top-20 rankings nationally and a sweep of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Regular Season and Tournament Championships. He coached the 2014 WHAC Player of the Year and Second Team All-American in Andreya Teuber on the women’s side and Andrew Anderson, the WHAC Rookie and Player of the Year as well as the NAIA Rookie of the Year and a First Team All-America selection. Anderson was also named as the NCBCA National Rookie of the Year.
Uffman also served as head men’s and women’s coach at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa for three seasons where he helped the Crusaders start the program in 2010. While at Clarke, he served as Midwest Collegiate Conference chairperson and tournament director. He also spent three seasons as head women’s coach at Michigan State, leading the Spartans to the 2009 Women’s American Heartland Intercollegiate Bowling Conference Championship.
A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Uffman graduated from Michigan State in 2007 with a degree in Psychology, where he was a four-year member of the school’s intercollegiate bowling program. Uffman is an accomplished bowler who qualified for the 2009 Michigan Masters Bowling Tournament finals, is an Amateur Bowlers Tour title holder, has four certified 300 games and once bowled 18 strikes in a row at Michigan State.
Uffman spent 16 years as a certified and practicing youth bowling coach in Grand Rapids and Lansing, Michigan.
An avid promoter of bowling at all levels and a regular participant in regional Professional Bowling Association events, Uffman currently holds a Silver level coaching certificate through the United States Bowling Congress.