Aug. 13, 2011

Bowling Walk-on Tryouts: UAB bowling coach Michelle Crews will conduct walk-on tryouts the week of Sept. 6-9. For more information, contact Coach Crews at 975-3290 or mcrews@uab.edu.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The past two months have been kind of like trying to pick up a 7-10 split for UAB bowling coach Michelle Crews.

Hired on June 2 as the first-ever coach for the Blazers' new program, Crews had no time to waste in laying the foundation for the team's inaugural season in 2011-12.

The two-time collegiate All-American had a standout playing career, competing for Junior Team USA in 2008 and leading UCF's club team to a national runner-up finish in the 2006 United States Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Team Championships.

Now she enters her first season as a coach with the challenges of building a roster, organizing a schedule and doing everything it takes to get a new program rolling down the lanes.

Just days away from the start of the school year and only two months from the beginning of competition, Crews sat down for a question-and-answer session with uabsports.com to talk about her background in bowling and her plans for the program at UAB.

Question: When UAB announced it was creating a bowling program, were you looking to get into the coaching profession, and what attracted you to the UAB job?
Crews: "I always was interested in coaching, I had only done it on a smaller scale. Just on a whim, I happened to get online one day. I went to Google, typed in bowling coaching jobs, and up UAB came. It wasn't something I was actively looking for. I was working in a dental office at the time, and sometimes a person can just tell that they're meant to do other things, and I always knew that I needed to be in the bowling industry some way, somehow."

Question: What excites you about the opportunity to build your own program from scratch?
Crews: "That's definitely the most enticing part is that I get to build it how I want it to be built. I don't have to step into somebody else's shoes and mold it to how I want to do things. It's going to be a great opportunity to be able to start UAB's program and hopefully take it forward into many years. It's not something that I'm hoping to be here a year or two and then leave. I'm really excited for the future and to be able to be here for a long period of time."

Question: What has been the biggest challenge for you so far?
Crews: "Definitely the recruiting. We were on such a short time frame to really get athletes here. So many athletes had already committed to go elsewhere early in the year because normally you make that decision before Jan. 1. So to then do it the summer before school starts, it's made it challenging this year. But I'm pleased with the girls we have been able to get and excited for the type of bowlers I think we will be able to attract in the future."

Question: What type of schedule will your team play in its first season?
Crews: "We'll have eight tournaments this year. It pretty much adds up to be about one per month. It looks like it's going to be about three in the fall and four or five more towards winter and spring. The schedule is going to be fairly competitive. We are going to go to some of the bigger tournaments. It is a full-season sport for the most part, October to April. That's a pretty long season, so the girls will be in shape. They'll practice four, five, six days a week on the lanes. They'll be in the gym doing some strength and conditioning and making sure their endurance is built up."

Question: What will you look for in the bowlers you will recruit?
Crews: "I really look at potential when it comes to bowling. Average isn't really that important; it's what kind of potential they have and are they going to listen, are they coachable, how excited are they to be here and take part in this experience. Being enthusiastic about the experience and being positive about it is better than shooting a 300 every time. It's not always the better bowlers that make a good team; it's the athletes that want to be on the team, so that's what I really look for."

Question: Eventually, what do you see as the ideal size for your team's roster?
Crews: "I think eight is a really good number. A lot of teams carry more than that. I wouldn't be opposed to going over eight, but I think eight is just really fair for everybody. Everybody will be able to travel to tournaments. They'll all get that experience of being there together on the lanes. I think that's going to be important to build that team relationship and build that family environment. The girls can really bond together; they don't have to worry about competing against their teammate for that travel spot."

Question: You graduated from UCF in 2009, so you are young in the coaching profession. What do you see as the advantages of being a young coach?
Crews: "I'm a little more relatable to what the girls are going to be going through because I've been there. I've experienced it. I've lived through it. I know what it's like to be a student-athlete. I can understand where they're coming from and how to deal with certain situations because I've gone through the exact same things."

Question: What has been your most rewarding experience in the sport of bowling?
Crews: "There are two experiences I wouldn't give back for anything in the world. One is when we made it to TV for the national championship when I was at UCF in 2006. We worked so hard that year and we came over so many hurdles as a team. I can still feel what it was like to be on the lanes and bowling for that national championship.

"The other one is when I was on Junior Team USA. The year that I made it I struggled really bad through tendonitis in my bowling arm. When I made the team it was summer of 2007 and it was for the 2008 team. I literally bowled the last two days of the tournament with my arm numb. When I finished second and made the team, it was a whirlwind what I had accomplished and thinking back over my journey."