Shannon O’Keefe, one of the most successful collegiate coaches in the country and one of the top bowlers in the world, will lead the building of Jacksonville State’s new bowling program, athletics director Greg Seitz announced on May 12, 2023.
Jax State announced in January of 2023 that it would be adding Bowling as its 18th varsity sport and completing its sport additions in preparation for the University’s move to Conference USA beginning that July.
O’Keefe, one of the top names in professional and international bowling that has won at every level, comes to Jax State after nine stellar seasons as the head bowling coach at McKendree University in Lebanon, Ill. She led the Bearcats to four National Championships - two NCAA National Championships and two USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships - and was named the National Ten Pin Coaches Association (NTCA) Coach of the Year in seven consecutive seasons.
“When looking for a head coach to start our bowling program here at Jax State, Shannon exceeded our expectations,” Athletics Director Greg Seitz said. “Her career as a bowler and her career as a coach at the collegiate level are second to none, but she is also a top-notch person. We are excited to see to what heights she can lead Gamecock Bowling, and we welcome her to the Jax State family.”
She will hit the ground running as the Gamecocks’ first bowling coach, with Jax State beginning competition in the upcoming fall of 2023. The Gamecocks will compete in Conference USA immediately after the league announced the inception of bowling as a conference sport on Tuesday. They will be one of nine programs in the first season of C-USA Bowling, joining Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Tulane, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt and Youngstown State.
“First I would like to thank everyone at Jacksonville State University, specifically President Killingsworth, Greg Seitz and Greg Bonds for believing in our ability to construct this inaugural NCAA bowling program,” O’Keefe said. “The overall support from the university, both academically and athletically, is something I can’t wait for our student-athletes to experience. We feel honored and blessed for this opportunity and look forward to making the community and University proud by building a championship-level program.”
Building a championship-level program is something O’Keefe is familiar with. At McKendree, she took over the Bearcats in 2014 and led them to the NCAA National Championship by 2017. They won it again in 2022 and entered the Championship ranked first in the nation before falling to eventual champion Vanderbilt in the semifinals, but they regrouped to win their second ITC National Title one week later.
Under O’Keefe’s guidance, McKendree won the first three Great Lakes Valley Conference titles after the league began sponsoring bowling in the 2019-20 season. She was named the inaugural GLVC Coach of the Year following that season. Prior to the GLVC, the Bearcats won back-to-back MidAmerica Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) crowns in 2018 and 2019 and have been ranked No. 1 in the final NTCA Poll multiple times.
In just nine seasons at McKendree, O’Keefe coached seven NTCA National Bowlers of the Year and seven conference bowlers of the year. She saw one of her players earn All-America honors over 40 times. There were 15 Bearcats that earned All-GLVC honors and over 40 GLVC All-Academic honorees in the four seasons since the conference started sponsoring bowling as a sport.
When not coaching, O’Keefe has put together a world-class career as a bowler. An 18-time member of Team USA and an eight-time World Champion, she also has 15 titles on the Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour that include three major championships. She has also been named the PWBA Player of the Year three times – in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
She has won seven gold, four silver and two bronze medals at the World Tenpin Bowling Championships and has a gold, silver and two bronze medals at the Pan American Games. In 2022 at the World Games in Birmingham, she took home the gold in singles and silver in doubles.
Prior to her bowling career, she was an All-American outfielder on the softball team at Portland State University, where she hit .411 as a freshman. As a teenager, she was one of the final 160 women competing for a spot on the 1996 Team USA Softball Team.
She is married to Bryan O’Keefe, who has served as McKendree’s Director of Bowling since 2014, a period that has seen him oversee operations for the Bearcats’ men’s and women’s programs. He has been on the Team USA staff since 2009 and was named the Head Coach of Team USA in 2021.
