The Fresno State men’s bowling team honored late and longtime bowling head coach Glenn Carlson by winning a championship event named after him.
The Glenn Carlson Cup is a club-level championship that took place April 4-5 in Arlington, Illinois. Although this is the second year of the event, it marks the first time the Bulldogs participated in it.
The contest is named after Carlson, who founded the Fresno State bowling program in the late ‘60s and coached the Bulldogs from 1969-2008 before passing away at the age of 71.
“I’m very proud of the way the boys played in Illinois,” current head coach Chris Preble said. “It was a tough season for us, and I put a pretty good challenge into them before we started. We got kicked in the teeth a lot this year. Obviously we didn’t get to go back to compete at the highest national level, but when they came to this tournament, they recognized that this was a unique opportunity for this program.
“We wanted to honor the man that this tournament was named after considering everything that he had done for us. And they fought all the way through. They scratched, clawed, and they found a way to make that happen.”
The competition was a double-elimination bracket format run by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). The team must be ranked in the top 24 on the final collegebowling.com power rankings in order to earn an invite to the event.
Preble has been involved with the program since 2001. He served as an assistant coach and became the head coach following Carlson’s death in early 2008.
The eight-man Bulldog squad ends the season on a good note. It was able to bounce back despite facing adversity early on and throughout the 2014-15 season.
“It was a tough season for us,” Preble said. “The boys struggled at times throughout the season, but we were getting stronger as the year progressed and happened to run into this opportunity to showcase their talent one last time. It turned out to be what they needed to get over the hump. It allowed the boys to get some real solid closure to what otherwise was a tough season.”
Preble and the ‘Dogs finished the season ranked 12th in the nation, according to the Collegiate Club Championship Club Rankings.