Former volleyball player looks ahead to first SFA bowling season as coach
By: Ashley Landers
Issue date: 11/6/08 Section: Sports
It's official. SFA now has an intercollegiate women's bowling team, and Laura Cramer was hired earlier this week as the team's coach.
Cramer is not only a former SFA student but also a former athlete. From 2003 to 2006 Cramer was on the SFA Volleyball team. She helped lead the Ladyjacks to three Southland Conference titles in a row and in 2005 was named the Southland Conference Player of the Year.
SFA is adding women's bowling, along with women's golf, to comply with Title IX legislation. The University moved equestrian from a varsity sport to a club sport and needed to add two more women's sports to the program.
Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 to the 1964 Civil Rights Act was instituted to promote gender equality in college sports.
Cramer is confident about starting the new bowling program at SFA. She believes playing under Debbie Humphreys, SFA head volleyball coach, will help her out a lot and feels being familiar with SFA will be beneficial as well.
"Coach Humphreys taught me everything," Cramer said. "She is one of the most successful coaches in the Southland Conference, which is a plus."
SFA was actively looking for a bowling coach, and the word spread that Cramer was a bowler.
"Basically one thing led to another," Cramer said. "I started bowling after I played volleyball, and when word got out that I played, it just came together. I think it is a good fit."
Since graduating in 2006, she has been working in Nacogdoches. She was not quite sure what she wanted to do in her future, and then SFA athletics came knocking on her door.
If someone had asked Cramer while she was in college what she'd be doing after graduation, she never would have thought it would be coaching bowling at SFA. She is not disappointed, however. "I am extremely excited about the opportunity," she said.
Cramer plans to recruit players by finding out when club bowling teams are having tournaments around the state. "Texas has a great club bowling system, and I think I'll see some talented athletes," she said.
Cramer is not only a former SFA student but also a former athlete. From 2003 to 2006 Cramer was on the SFA Volleyball team. She helped lead the Ladyjacks to three Southland Conference titles in a row and in 2005 was named the Southland Conference Player of the Year.
SFA is adding women's bowling, along with women's golf, to comply with Title IX legislation. The University moved equestrian from a varsity sport to a club sport and needed to add two more women's sports to the program.
Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 to the 1964 Civil Rights Act was instituted to promote gender equality in college sports.
Cramer is confident about starting the new bowling program at SFA. She believes playing under Debbie Humphreys, SFA head volleyball coach, will help her out a lot and feels being familiar with SFA will be beneficial as well.
"Coach Humphreys taught me everything," Cramer said. "She is one of the most successful coaches in the Southland Conference, which is a plus."
SFA was actively looking for a bowling coach, and the word spread that Cramer was a bowler.
"Basically one thing led to another," Cramer said. "I started bowling after I played volleyball, and when word got out that I played, it just came together. I think it is a good fit."
Since graduating in 2006, she has been working in Nacogdoches. She was not quite sure what she wanted to do in her future, and then SFA athletics came knocking on her door.
If someone had asked Cramer while she was in college what she'd be doing after graduation, she never would have thought it would be coaching bowling at SFA. She is not disappointed, however. "I am extremely excited about the opportunity," she said.
Cramer plans to recruit players by finding out when club bowling teams are having tournaments around the state. "Texas has a great club bowling system, and I think I'll see some talented athletes," she said.
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