Saint Vincent women's bowling raises its profile nationally with steady success

Saint Vincent, to most of the outside world, is known as the long-time training camp home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. When Jeff Zidek started the Bearcats’ women’s bowling program seven years ago, that was one of his big selling points when he contacted potential recruits.

Now, potential recruits are contacting him. The Unity campus is gaining nationwide acclaim for something other than its part in the NFL’s annual rite of summer.

On the strength of the team’s gaudy winning percentage — .752 (212-70) in its first six seasons — and finishing last season with votes in the national poll, Saint Vincent is becoming a sought-after destination for women’s bowlers.

The Bearcats have composed quite the resume.

This season marked their fourth Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference regular-season title. Twice in their first six seasons they posted the highest winning percentage among all NCAA divisions, including last season’s .850 (51-9) showing.

Also last season, SVC received votes in the final National Tenpin Coaches Association all-divisions poll — 30th in poll points — and finished No. 14 in the Division II-III poll.

In the recently released February 2024 rankings, the Bearcats (57-11) are ninth in the D-II/D-III poll and 27th in the all-divisions poll.

“This is the first year where I’ve really had recruits finding me as opposed to the other way around,” Zidek said. “That’s a sign to me that we are really starting to get where we need to be.”

Zidek is loath to credit his coaching skills for the team’s success. Not that he doesn’t have anything to offer. A bowler himself for five decades, Zidek, 55, knows plenty about the nuances of the sport.

“When I feel like I need a ball change, he’ll tell me what ball to go to, and it always works out,” junior Sabine Strickland said.

He also possesses the intangibles all successful coaches have.

“He just knows what to say at the right times,” said freshman Skyy Nicholls, an East Allegheny grad. “He knows how to cheer you up if you are not feeling like you are doing your best.”

Zidek believes the biggest factor working in his favor is the time he is able to put into recruiting. His full-time job as track announcer at The Meadows Racetrack & Casino affords him ample time to look for players.

Finding the right players, he said, is the key to any good program. And for the inaugural season, finding that one special athlete to build around was paramount.

He found that in Dani Koehler. A native of Florida, Koehler became the program’s cornerstone, and, by her junior year, the Bearcats were AMCC regular-season champions and had the highest winning percentage in the NCAA at .877 (50-7).

She later brought her twin sisters, Jackie and Monique, into the program. Both became first-team all-AMCC performers during their sophomore and junior seasons. The twins are seniors this year, and Dani is still with the program as a volunteer assistant coach.

“She got us on the map,” Zidek said, “and it’s continued to build from there.”

The program draws players from all over that map. Six of the 11 current bowlers are from out of state — area AMCC schools Pitt-Greensburg, Penn State Behrend, Mount Aloysius and La Roche, by contrast, have four out-of-state bowlers combined — sophomore Abby Justice (Delaware), the AMCC Newcomer of the Year last season; freshman Daphne Stuber (Ohio), who led the team in Baker play with a 205 average in the Grapevine Classic in Erie; Strickland (Florida); the Koehler twins and freshman Marissa Jones (Ohio).

Strickland, who, because of her mother’s career in the U.S. Air Force, spent her formative years in Japan, Turkey and England, was the AMCC Bowler of the Month for December. That was when Zidek took his team to Las Vegas to compete in a two-day, 33-team event that featured a number of Division I programs.

Saint Vincent finished 12th, with Strickland averaging a team-best 185.9 on the first day.

It was at the behest of his players that Zidek began to raise the Bearcats’ level of competition.

“I have always been very hesitant to put our team up against Division I company,” he said. “One of the ways we have gotten noticed over the years is because of our win-loss percentage. But I know that the tougher the teams we bowl, the tougher it is go get wins.

“The team actually came to me last year and said, ‘We want that challenge.’ ”

They have proven to be up to it. At the end of January, the Bearcats entered the St. Francis Red Flash Invitational, which featured several Division I schools among the 14 teams. Zidek said he was hopeful of beating one or two of the bigger programs, but SVC went 5-2 against the D-I’s and Nicholls, who averaged 192.8 during the event, made the all-tournament team as well as earned AMCC Bowler of the Week.

Saint Vincent finished third overall behind eighth-ranked Duquesne and No. 15 Mount St. Mary’s.

“When we were at St. Francis, and we beat these D-I teams, it gave everyone a big boost of confidence to show that, hey, we can do this,” Nicholls said. “We’re a small D-III school, but we can definitely take on anyone who wants to go against us.”

Nicholls has been on a tear of late. She followed her performance at St. Francis by leading all bowlers with a 190.2 average as the Bearcats secured the conference’s top seed with a win in the second AMCC round-robin tournament. The effort netted Nicholls her second consecutive conference bowler of the week honor.

Then, on Feb. 10, she made the all-tournament team with a 192.8 average (five games) as the Bearcats won the Br. Pat Lacey Memorial Tournament at Lincoln Lanes in Latrobe.

Zidek said Nicholls is the only player he has had whose average is higher on the tougher collegiate “sport” oil pattern than it was in high school.

“She has exceeded my expectations to the point where I had kind of penciled her in splitting time as a starter and non-starter, and now I have no choice but to start her,” Zidek said with a laugh.

The final hurdle for the program is winning the AMCC tournament and getting an automatic bid to NCAAs, where schools from all divisions will compete. Saint Vincent has been to the tournament final the past three seasons but has been knocked off by Medaille each time.

The good news for SVC is Medaille University closed its doors in August, and its bowlers scattered to various other schools. But Zidek warned his players that just because their primary antagonist is gone, the trophy won’t simply be handed to them.

Two new programs, William Smith and Alvernia, have stepped in to challenge the Bearcats for the NCAA bid.

The conference finals are March 22-24, and the players are hopeful this is the year they get over the hump.

“It has been a rough two years for me,” Strickland said, “but I know it’s been harder for the (seniors) who have been here longer, so I would really like us to win this year.

“I think we have a lot more motivation since (Medaille) is gone that we really believe we can win it this year.”

For Zidek, reaching the NCAA tournament would be one more selling point for his burgeoning program.

“Just to even get there would be a major accomplishment,” he said. “Once you get to that national tournament, no one can ever take that away from you, and that’s kind of what I have them focused on.”