CRANFORD – Union County College has added women's bowling as a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) team sport for the 2019-2020 academic year. The College has named Ian Parisi as the team's coach. With the addition of women's bowling, the College now offers 15 NJCAA sports teams to Union students.
"We're excited to offer another new opportunity for our female students to compete in intercollegiate athletics," stated Dean of College Life Tammy Smith. "Our goal is to fulfill the interests of as many Union students as possible through the athletic teams and clubs available for participation. This is an emerging sport that we look forward to offering to our students."
Union County College is now the 35th college in the NJCAA to offer women's bowling. Union's Athletic Director Shawn Noel announced that recruitment for the 2019 team will begin immediately. Any female Union student who is interested in joining the team is welcome to tryout.
Coach Parisi is a United States Bowling Congress Silver Certified Bowling Instructor and bowling pro shop employee. He is an alumnus of St. John's University, where he was a member of the bowling team. His college teams won two conference championships and he secured the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award of the conference during the 2014-2014 season. During the summer of 2015, Coach Parisi interned with the United States Bowling Congress national office in Arlington, Texas, and assisted in the administration of the Junior Gold National Championship. Coach Parisi spent two seasons as an assistant coach as NCAA Division II Molloy College, which is a well-known team at the national level. Coach Parisi is excited to build a competitive program at Union and looks forward to bringing bowling to the College community.
For more information about the bowling team, please contact Coach Parisi at ian.parisi@ucc.edu. For more information about Athletics at Union, visit www.unionowls.com.