Herb Halinski has been chosen to lead the Kansas Wesleyan women's and men's bowling programs as announced by Kansas Wesleyan Athletic Director Miguel Paredes.
Halinski comes to KWU after coaching the McPherson High School boys' and girls' teams the past 17 years. He was the Kansas High School Bowling Coach of the Year in 2014 and has been a member of the Kansas Bowling Coaches Association and a United States Bowling Association Silver Level Coach since 2009.
Halinski also has served as manager of the McPherson Bowling Association since 2012 and was inducted into the McPherson Bowling Association Hall of Fame in 2014. He's a tournament bowler himself and has attended the World Bowling Coaches conferences.
"It's an exciting time for me personally," Halinski said. "It's a big challenge, I've been coaching high schools for 17-plus years and giving individual lessons. I'm really excited about being able to share that with collegiate adults."
Halinski said he doesn't plan to make many changes with the Coyote men's program, which qualified for the NAIA National Championships this past season.
"We obviously we want the men to qualify for nationals again," he said. "We want to build the numbers in the women's program so they can start the same tradition the men have."
Halinski said coaching college bowlers will be different than high school bowlers but is eager to share his expertise.
"The techniques are more advanced than high school," he said. "Several years ago, I had some really advanced kids and was able to share a lot of stuff with them, just trying to get them to learn ball motion, reading lanes and things like that.
"Like many sports bowling is a team sport but it comes down to how good the individual is. We want bowlers who put the team first, that want to see the team do well and are very supportive of their teammates, always rooting for them and will communicate."
KWU Director of Athletics Miguel Paredes said Halinski rose above the field of candidates.
"Our search was competitive and Herb's excitement at the prospect of coaching our men's and women's team really stood out to us during his interview," Paredes said. "We are looking forward to growing our program and seeing it meet its full potential with Herb at the helm.
"He has demonstrated a commitment to growing the sport at the high school level in central Kansas and we are confident that this will help us to enhance our program as well."
Halinski says he's looking forward to the recruiting challenge and that the process has begun.
"I'm definitely looking forward to it," he said. "I've already talked to some of the signees and I have a good relationship with all the Kansas high school coaches. Miguel, Richard (Speas, Director of Athletic Recruiting and Fundraising), Gabe (Serrano, KWU's coach this past season) and Chris (Snyder, program director) have given me a lot of pointers on how to do things. What I've done is a lot of fun."
In the classroom Halinski has served as a Special Education instructor at McPherson High for 25 years and has been head of the department the past 12 years. He is a graduate of Kansas State and earned a master's degree in education from KSU.
"Coaching and educating young adults are passions of mine and I know Kansas Wesleyan takes pride in supporting young adults to become the best they can be," he said.