Bryan O’Keefe joined the Jacksonville State staff in 2023 to oversee operations for the Gamecock bowling team and serve as an assistant coach, bringing a wealth of experience at the collegiate and international level with him.
O’Keefe came to Jax State with his wife Shannon when she was hired as the program’s first head coach before the start of the 2023-24 season – the inaugural one for the Gamecocks.
He was the director of bowling at McKendree University, while also serving as a coach for Team USA for more than a decade before being named head coach of the national team in 2021. O’Keefe served as an assistant prior to taking over for Team USA, where he’d led Junior Team USA for four years.
While at McKendree, O’Keefe oversaw operations for both the men’s and women’s bowling programs. During his time, the Bearcats won six national championships – four on the women’s side and two more on the men’s side.
During his time at McKendree, O’Keefe coached seven NTCA National Bowlers of the Year and seven conference bowlers of the year. He saw one of his 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.
A men’s bowler earned All-America honors 17 times for the Bearcats, led by National Bowler of the Year A.J. Johnson in 2013-14.
O'Keefe earned USBC Gold status from United States Bowling Congress Coaching Certification and Development in 2014. Gold is the highest certification level a bowling coach can achieve.
He has been on the Team USA staff since 2009 and took over as head coach in 2021 after the retirement of longtime Team USA Head Coach Rod Ross. During O'Keefe's time with the Team USA program, athletes have earned more than 120 medals, including more than two dozen gold medals.
He most recently coached Jax State head coach and wife Shannon to win the Gold Medal at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. He helped AJ Johnson to the men’s Gold Medal at 2023 Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, where Jordan Richard and Breanna Clemmer won the Gold Medal in women’s doubles.
O’Keefe led the Team USA women to the team gold medal at the 2021 IBF Super World Championships, and in 2019, helped lead Junior Team USA to the top of the podium at the 2019 International Bowling Federation World Junior Championships in France and the 2019 PANAM Bowling Youth Championships in the Dominican Republic.
O’Keefe helped coach Junior Team USA boys and girls to team gold at 2012 World Youth Championships and was coach at 2013 World Senior Championships, where Team USA won multiple gold medals.
He was coach for Team USA at Tournament of Americas in multiple years and brought home hundreds of medals, and helped coach Junior Team USA at 2011 and 2013 Youth PABCON and won numerous gold medals.
Before his coaching career, O’Keefe was an All-American bowler at Nebraska and led the Cornhuskers to the 1996 National Championship. He was also a World Team Challenge Grand Champion and had the opportunity to represent the United States at the 1991 Lee Evans Tournament of the Americas in Florida, where he picked up five gold medals and one silver medal.
