The Roberts Wesleyan College women’s bowling team is looking to build upon its historic 2020-21 season.
The Redhawks, under the tutelage of head coach Marion Sullivan, captured their first East Coast Conference crown in March and advanced to the NCAA Championships in April. Roberts finished the season ranked 11th by the National Tenpin Coaches Association among Division II and III teams and 24th in all divisions of women’s college bowling.
A young program entering its sixth season – and fourth under Sullivan – the Redhawks come into this fall brimming with optimism and confidence.
Sullivan, a native of Lockport who began bowling with her family at age three, won three state team championships for Lockport High School and earned several accolades in high school and before and after college. She started coaching high school bowling at her alma mater in 2011 and took over the Redhawks in 2018.
A K-12 Instructional Technology Specialist for Rochester Academy Charter School, Sullivan has five 300 games and four 800 series to her credit. She married her husband, Shane Sullivan, in the offseason, and the couple is expecting their first child, a boy, in January.
Sullivan took time to share her thoughts on making history with the Redhawks this spring, the upcoming season, and her roles as an educator and coach. Her responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What do you love about bowling?
“It’s just something that I grew up doing. It’s just like home, and I am not sure what I would do without it. For me, it’s just embedded in my everyday life. I am not sure what I would do if I didn’t have bowling or I didn’t have coaching.”
What is your coaching style, and how do you relate to your bowlers?
“I think that it helps that I am an educator because I have a different understanding of kids at all developmental stages and all developmental areas. I think you have to bring a lot of that into coaching, and you have to look at it with a very well-rounded perspective. It’s not just about sport; you have to incorporate so many other things when it comes to character building, team bonding, working with families, understanding your athletes and meeting their individual needs, and being able to really mold them and watch them grow as people through the sport. You need to make sure that they have a strong work ethic both in the classroom and on the lanes and that they are truly becoming the best people that they can be by building on their strengths. I am very structured and very disciplined but am also as flexible as I can be.”
What have been some of the keys to success of growing the Roberts program?
“Patience, persistence, and flexibility. … It was also important to get the marketing piece together so that people knew that we existed. Also, getting our team to work as a team, retaining athletes year after year, and getting strong athletes to come in and get some wins under our belts because it’s hard to recruit if you are not winning. So, a lot of patience, resilience, and determination.”
How is the team looking this year, and who are some bowlers to keep an eye on?
“The team is looking really good this year. We still have Sarah Gerken, who has been our leading bowler the past two years, senior Christina Walker, and all of our freshmen from last year (Paige Barkley, Mykenzie Burnett, and Hayley Kephart). We are also bringing in a strong freshman class of Danielle Jaeger, Kelly McCarthy, Angelica Polcini, Luz Jones, and Jaden Warner. Sophomore Abigail Cutting is also in her first season with the team.”
What can we look for in terms of goals and aspirations for the Redhawks?
“For the girls, it’s character, compassion, and consistency. We start with having character on and off the lanes and doing what you are supposed to do, working together with your teammates, and coming to me for help if you need it. We need them to be consistent so that we know we can rely on them and they can rely on each other, and we can have each other’s back while knowing what to expect out of each other. Compassion is treating each other with respect, love, and kindness and being there for each other when they need it.
“For me, it’s getting the girls to know each other so they build strong relationships and trust at the beginning. When they trust each other, they bowl to the best of their abilities every day. And, for the team, it’s coming out and winning matches, winning tournaments, and qualifying for sectionals. As for NCAAs, we got a taste of what they were like. They were amazing, and we would love to go back and be able to do that again, but this year will be different than last year and a new challenge.”
How do you embrace your role as a woman of color and a leader, both in coaching and the community?
“I try to lead by example in everything that I do; it’s just kind of who I am as a person. I just try to represent myself as a Black woman to the best of my ability so that I can give people who may not completely understand or may not completely know about communities of color or women of color an example of what we stand for and what beautiful people we really are.
“With my girls, we have a team that is not very diverse right now, and it’s nice that we have such a strong relationship with each other, and they are able to look up to me the way that they do. We are able to learn from each other, and I think that is huge because when they go out into the world and are working and see another woman of color, they will have their experiences with me and be able to share those with people.
“At my school, which is about 90 percent students of color, it’s kind of the same thing in terms of just being that strong role model and person to look up to.”
Did you have similar opportunities when you were a young bowler?
“Absolutely, I felt that a lot. I was very well known when I was growing up, one, because I was good, two, because I was Black, and three, because I was a girl. I just got a lot of extra attention because I was an anomaly in the area. There just wasn’t anyone else like me who was doing what I was doing where I was. I think that was huge, and it can create a pathway for people to listen to you, to look up to you, to understand you a little bit more, and to see that we (Black women) are capable of doing a lot of things well. It’s not always easy, but that is part of the challenge that we take on.”
One last question about time management.
How do you do everything that you do?
“(Laughs) I have no idea. I pray a lot and just take everything one day at a time. I think that when you are open and honest with people that it makes things a lot easier. I never pretend to have everything together because I don’t. I just ask for a little bit of grace and a little forgiveness, and people usually understand.”
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