In the past two years, Milligan has added bowling and flag football to the athletic program as well as disc golf as a club sport.
Earlier this year, Brian Rickert was hired to coach Milligan’s new bowling program. For their first season the team starts out with five freshmen. While there is not yet a women’s team, the men are prepared to start tournament play this year.
Tournaments for collegiate bowling teams can be different from traditional bowling. There are two types of tournament matches: 10 pin games and Baker’s games.
“We start the tournament bowling a set number of 10 pin games. These are normal games that anyone can go to a bowling alley and play,” said freshman team member Christian Brown. “In Baker’s, each team has 5 bowlers bowling one game together. One person will bowl the 1st and 6th frames, one bowls the 2nd and 7th, and so on.”
With the small size of the bowling team, it can be difficult to adjust when someone is unable to participate.
“We did have one of the boys fracture a foot, but it is planned to have him bowling by our first tournament,” said Matt Richards, another team member.
If the injured player is not ready by the tournament, the team will be unable to play in Baker’s games.
Last year the Milligan flag football team travelled around the country as they kicked off their first season. While they finished the season winning only one of their eight games, it was a great way for a lot of the players to get introduced to the sport and learn what it takes to be a successful football player.
Preparation and game play have already adjusted from last year to this year.
“This fall we are training and practicing for our season to start in the spring,” says junior Maddie Manear. “We are also hosting a tournament in October and are really looking forward to playing with some other really talented teams on our own field!”
This will be the team’s first time playing games at Milligan.
Despite the excitement of players, not everyone takes the new team seriously. Mya Eury, a junior on the team, finds this as a major disadvantage.
“Many peers don’t realize that this is a huge organization that is starting to become popular,: said Eury. “Until it does, we have a lot of work to do to show others that this is very legit and we take it very seriously.”
Disc golf is a club sport entering its second year at Milligan. Coached by Tim Barr, the team experienced considerable success in tournaments last year, including Amanda Kent’s top 10 placement at nationals. While the sport is currently just a club, the players are hopeful that in the near future disc golf will be recognized as an athletic program.
Both men and women play disc golf at Milligan. While the main competitive event for disc golf is the national tournament in the spring, there are still other tournaments that the team will participate in.
“We have some qualifying tournaments this semester to help some of the men of our team get into the national flight of the national tournament,” said Kent. “but it’s good experience for us ladies to get used to tournament play and see some competition.”
When asked what he wished Milligan students knew about the disc golf program, graduate student Michael Nickens mentioned that the team is open to people of all skill levels and even to those who are already athletes at Milligan.
“People may think that they don’t have time to play college disc golf since they are on another sport, but over half of our team plays another sport at Milligan.”
Many of these teams are misunderstood since they are so new to Milligan’s campus. If you are interested in more information or want to join, coach emails are listed below.
Bowling: Coach Brian Rickert, bwrickert@milligan.edu
Flag Football: Coach Rachel Sianez, ramsianez@milligan.edu
Disc Golf: Coach Tim Barr, tbbarr@milligan.edu
Headline Photo: Junior Elizabeth Burns in a match from last year.