At the end of October 2025, Le Moyne College announced that a Women’s Bowling program will be added as a varsity sport for the 2026-27 academic year. This marks the first new athletic program at Le Moyne since men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field were added during the 2014-15 academic year, and will open opportunities for 11 additional student-athletes.
Since the announcement, talk of specific details regarding the program has been limited. Phil Brown, Assistant Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics and Campus Recreation, sat down to discuss what factored into the addition of the program, and where things stand as the start of the fall semester draws near.
Brown mentioned that soon after he arrived at Le Moyne at the start of 2025, President LeMura suggested exploring the possibility of adding a new varsity sports program. Working alongside his staff, Brown said they “looked at regionality and evaluated cost,” before bringing their findings back to President LeMura. Women’s Bowling rose to the top, Brown noted, in large part because it is a sport sponsored by the Northeast Conference, of which Le Moyne College holds full membership.
The search for the head coach of the program began shortly following the initial announcement. Despite not having a coach hired as of now, the school is “in the process of getting a candidate to campus here in the near future,” Brown stated.
“Because you’re starting a program from scratch, you’re looking for someone who has a little bit of experience with the NCAA model and recruiting…whether they are a [former] student athlete themselves or current sitting coach at the collegiate level,” Brown said regarding what the school is looking for in a potential candidate.
Beyond experience, Brown emphasized the importance of finding someone who fits the culture of Le Moyne College:
“One of the things that I’ve found here is coaches who coach with joy seem to do better. We want to have happy student-athletes who enjoy not only what they do here in athletics, but up the hill with academics and what Le Moyne offers to students.”
In terms of recruiting, Brown has actively taken a role in the search for first-year students and transfers into the program:
“I have a little experience with bowling because I oversaw the program at Vanderbilt, who was a three-time national champion. So I understand enough about bowling to help.” Brown added that he ultimately wants the head coach to make the final decision, but is “stewarding anyone who’s reached out, making sure they’re engaged, have the information about academics, inviting them to admitted student days, etc.”
Brown also noted that the timing of the program’s launch creates a unique opportunity for its first class of student-athletes:
“This program will have the luxury of starting in the NEC, where everybody else had to grow into the NEC,” he said. “We did choose a sport that was part of the conference we’re joining for that very reason, giving them the chance to compete for a conference championship right away. But what’s special about this one is that they’ll also get to compete for an opportunity in the NCAA postseason right away, where our other teams have had to wait the last three years.”
As the program heads towards its first season of play this fall, Brown left the door open for what this could mean for the future growth of Le Moyne athletics:
“If we’re able to launch this new program and we get the measurables out of it that we’re looking for, which is obviously some enrollment piece, and then more engagement from the student body, then there’s no reason not to look at other sports down the road.”
