A pair of Warhawks added to their trophy case recently, taking home two separate national awards from the National Tenpin Coaches Association. Head coach Rebecca Hagerman and bowler Kelly Whipple were honored at the banquet for the NCAA championship, winning Coach of the Year and Bowler of the Year, respectively.

Hagerman won the award in her first season with UW-Whitewater, taking over for the incredible Leann Sullivan, who took home Coach of the Year honors three times in her career — 2013, 2015 and 2024. Hagerman took over the program after a great stint with Jacksonville State, winning one of her two NCAA titles during that time, and turned to coaching this year, taking a chance on Whitewater.

“Winning Coach of the Year is just a testament of the girls’ hard work and trust in myself and my amazing assistant coach, Kayla Smith,” Hagerman said. “I think it also solidifies that what we are teaching and working on the girls with is showing off, which is always a feel-good moment.”

Hagerman started her college career at McKendree University, where she won her first NCAA title in 2022 and was honored as a two-time All-American. She also won two NCAA Elite 90 awards, which are given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA of students competing in the finals of a sport.

Whipple herself secured her second Bowler of the Year award to become the first two-time NTCA DIII winner of the award. She won her first Bowler of the Year back in 2023, right off her Division III Rookie of the Year award in 2022. Needless to say, Whipple capped off what is a very storied bowling career.

“[Coming off winning Bowler of the Year in 2023], I knew that I had to have all eyes forward on my next season, and when I didn’t meet my expectations that season either, it was really hard on me, so to come into my senior season I gave it my all,” Whipple said. “I checked off all my goals, checked off all my boxes, and my new coaches, Becca and Kayla, really worked with not only my physical game but my mental game, and I went out there and I bowled the best season I have to date. Just to end it with a national Player of the Year was huge, and I felt really happy for myself.”

Whipple bowled every frame for the Warhawks this year, ending the season with a strike percentage of 46.3.

As many people in the sports world know, you don’t win national awards without having team success, and Whitewater bowled a great season. The Warhawks qualified for the Intercollegiate Team Championships back in March, finishing fourth in their 10th overall appearance at USBC sectionals. They went on to Las Vegas, where they won their first matchup 4-1 against North Carolina A&T, but fell to Pikeville 4-2 in their second matchup of the tournament.

“I think this season as a whole was one of the best seasons to date for the Warhawks,” Whipple said. “We got new coaches and went from 22nd in the rankings up to 12th in the latest poll. We all improved a lot, got another NCAA tournament under our belt, and had a lot of individual success as well. The [Vegas] experience was unlike any other. Vegas is a bowling city, and the bowling alleys are just incredible. They’re more stadium-like than normal bowling alleys, so that experience is on a whole other level.”

According to the UW-W Women’s Bowling website, the team led Division III in five of seven statistical categories recognized by the NTCA for awards, and they were the top-ranked DIII program by the NTCA Power Index.

“Overall, I feel like we did really well this season,” Hagerman said. “We were ranked 12th at the end of the year, just missing out on a NCAA Regional but making it to the intercollegiate team championships. I think the highlight of this season is us making the intercollegiate team championships.”

The Whitewater women’s bowling team will return later this year in the fall and look to build on their success from this past season.