Digital Collegiate Experience to connect student-athletes with college bowling programs

ARLINGTON, Texas – Selecting a college to attend can be a daunting process for anyone, and that process can be more difficult for student-athletes seeking a college that can provide the academic path and a strong athletic program to help continue their development.

Next month, International Bowling Campus Youth Development will try to help bowling student-athletes navigate the process with the Digital Collegiate Experience on BowlTV.

The Collegiate Experience, held each summer in conjunction with the Junior Gold Championships, is designed to give student-athletes the opportunity to learn more about college bowling by allowing the athletes to engage with coaches or officials of bowling programs from across the country.

The Digital Collegiate Experience will allow IBC Youth to continue its annual event though the 2020 Junior Gold Championships, along with opening ceremony and trade show, were canceled because of concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each day provides unique ways for people to connect and stay engaged, and the IBC Youth team believes it is important to continue this event.

With competitive bowling shut down since early March, it has made the recruiting process more arduous for both student-athletes hoping to show their skills and for the coaches hoping to watch and evaluate players at different competitions.

“The Digital Collegiate Experience will allow coaches to showcase their programs and explain to student-athletes and their parents the expectations they have for college athletes,” said IBC Youth Managing Director Gary Brown. “The Junior Gold Championships always has been a very important part of the recruiting and learning process for both student-athletes and college coaches. We want to continue to provide what we consider a valuable part of the Junior Gold Championships.”

The Digital Collegiate Experience kicks off Tuesday, June 9 on BowlTV. This will be a free event on BowlTV, but users will need to take the few minutes to create a USBC Community login to access the show.

BowlTV plans to showcase 30 colleges per day, with each college allotted up to five minutes to tell potential recruits and their parents about their program. While shows will be held on June 9 and 10, IBC Youth will add another third show if more than 60 colleges express interest.

More than 60 college organizations took part in the Collegiate Experience at the 2019 Junior Gold Championships in the metro Detroit area.

IBC Youth works with the National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association (NCBCA), along with the coaching associations for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), and National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) to provide information on bowling programs across the country.

All collegiate bowling programs will be invited to take part in the Digital Collegiate Experience.

Visit BOWL.com/Collegiate for more information about college bowling and check out BOWL.com/BowlTV to learn more about USBC’s video platform.