NU?s Bowling Program Just Keeps Rolling On

World's Top Female Bowler Still Sold on Alma Mater

Randy York’s N-Sider

The year before Tom Osborne coached his third national championship Nebraska football team, Bill Straub became the Huskers’ head bowling coach in 1996. It’s impossible to compare two definitively different programs, but Straub’s resume in his chosen sport is equally iconic to those who follow collegiate bowling. Straub has received two national coach of the year awards.

Teams Straub has coached have won four NCAA championships. He also has guided NU to seven more national team titles before the NCAA adopted bowling as an officially sanctioned sport. Overall, Straub has coached three national collegiate bowlers of the year and 14 Husker bowlers with a combined 32 first-team All-America awards.

Straub also has coached seven women bowlers who have been selected to national teams. Three of those seven national team members compete for Nebraska’s current No. 1-ranked program – Lizabeth Kuhlkin, a senior from Schenectady, N.Y.; Gazmine Mason (above), a sophomore from Cranston, R.I.; and Julia Bond, a freshman from Chicago suburb Aurora, Ill.  A year ago, Bond made the USA Junior National Team when she was still in high school. Earlier this month, Mason finished second in a Las Vegas tournament that determined the six junior national members.

Lizabeth Kuhlkin: Top Collegiate Bowler in America

“We have two of the six, plus Lizabeth (above), who’s the top collegiate bowler in America,” Straub said before acknowledging another convincing development that gave Nebraska yet another recruiting-related booster shot. Shannon Pluhowsky remained Team USA’s No. 1 bowler earlier this month after winning the highest level at Las Vegas this month and continues to be the world’s No. 1-rated professional female bowler.

Talk about a proud bowling program that just keeps rolling on while rewriting history on an annual basis, collegiately and professionally. But make no mistake. Straub, assistant coach Paul Klempa and the Huskers aren’t into individual rankings or personal honors. They’re fervently focused on trading in 2014’s NCAA runner-up trophy with the only one they think matters – the 2015 NCAA national championship trophy that will be awarded April 11 in St. Louis.

First things first, especially after Nebraska finished third in the Mid-Winter Classic in Jonesboro, Ark, January 18, but continues to be ranked No. 1. This weekend, the Huskers compete in the Prairie View A&M Invitational at Arlington, Texas. “At least eight of the top 10 teams in the country will be there, if not all 10,” said Straub (below), attending Gazmine's N-Club ceremony.

Straub’s, Klempa’s Teaching Worth the Nebraska Visit

The challenge is as obvious as it is exciting. “I’m so glad I came to Nebraska to play for Coach Straub and Coach Klempa,” Mason said, recalling how she didn’t even want to take her last visit to Nebraska because she was tired of the recruiting process during her senior year of high school. “I’d been to Maryland (Eastern Shore), Virginia (Norfolk State), Vanderbilt and Valparaiso (Ind.),” Mason told me Monday. “I had pretty much decided I was going to Vanderbilt. My dad told me I’d made a commitment to visit Nebraska and I needed to follow through and see what was out here.”

We all know what happens when Nebraska gets a quick look and a fair shake. “My dad was right,” she said. “Everybody cares at Nebraska, and you could tell immediately that the athletic department wants to mold you and make you into the best student, athlete and person you can possibly be. I fell in love with Nebraska from that moment on.”

That does not mean, however, that Mason’s freshman season was a slam-dunk success. “Coach Straub has his own way of doing things,” Mason said. “Last year was kind of difficult for me to adjust. I knew what he expected, and he taught me how to become your own judge – a value that I really embraced. He helps you learn every day, and most of it is about body management…how you do good shots and bad shots and why some of them go here and others go there. He makes you analyze so that you can be your judge for every single shot.” Until she met her coaches, Mason was “never into body management. I just bowled,” she said. “Now, I understand what happens and why it happens. I owe a lot to Coach Straub and Coach Klempa. I value everything they say."

Bond Wants to Be the Right-Handed Pluhowsky

Bond (above) feels the same way, accepting Nebraska’s bowling scholarship after being the National High School Bowler of the Year. “She won the Junior Nationals in Indianapolis in 2013,” he said. At Nebraska, the benchmark is wide and compelling. “Shannon (Pluhowksy) was a national champion six times,” Straub pointed out. “She was the best player in America. Now she’s the best female bowler in the world. She’s kept improving since she won everything she could 11 years ago.  She never stopped. When Straub watches Bond practice, he can’t help but think of Pluhowsky. “I think Julia wants to be the right-handed version of Shannon (a southpaw),” he said. “They’re both intense. They’re almost morose when they seek perfection. They just hate to lose, even in practice.”

Kuhlkin is equally driven when championships on the line. “She went to Hong Kong to compete last summer and won two world championship gold medals,” Straub said, shaking his head. “She’s the best amateur female bowler in the world, and Shannon’s the best professional female bowler in the world.” The Huskers’ two members of USA’s junior national team have Big Red role models. “When I went home (to Rhode Island) for Christmas vacation, I bowled six straight hours every day before I went to Las Vegas,” Mason said. “I knew I was going to compete for five straight days in Las Vegas and I wanted to be prepared for that kind of challenge.”

She met that challenge and succeeded and almost every day, she’s thankful that her dad insisted that she check out the University of Nebraska and Lincoln before making a pivotal lifelong decision. Sophomore Gazmine Mason and freshman sidekick Julia Bond are equally blessed to have the world’s top collegiate bowler and the world’s top professional bowler to measure the success that drives both of them every day, every month, every year.

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