By BILL SNIER
SALEM — Salem High School athletic director Matt Freeman had been thinking about adding bowling as a varsity sport for the Quakers.
Todd Spielman, president of the youth football league who also assists with the junior bowling program at Hunt Club Lanes in Salem, also approached Freeman with the idea.
“It was just the right time. We had been thinking about it, and he came to me and wanted to talk about it as well,” said Freeman, who came to Salem as the head boys soccer coach in 2010. “We just started talking about it over the winter.”
So Freeman decided to put out a student survey to gauge interest. The results clinched what he thought about adding the program.
“We had already talked with the principal and superintendent about it. But the interest we got from the students was really the driving force that had us move forward,” said Freeman, who said 52 students indicated an interest in being involved.
“With that sort of interest, we figured we could bowl both a boys and a girls team on the varsity level. But that was definitely the catalyst.”
Freeman has since received board of education approval to begin the sport in 2024-25, with both boys and girls teams. The Quakers other winter sports are basketball, swimming and wrestling.
Appointment of a coach will not come until supplemental contracts for winter sports coaches are posted sometime in August.
Salem becomes the fifth Eastern Buckeye Conference team to field boys and girls bowling, joining Alliance, Marlington, Minerva and Carrollton. Warren Howland becomes a member in football during the 2026 season.
“It is just football as of right now,” EBC commissioner James Carmichael told the (Lisbon) Morning Journal. “Seven teams is OK, but it would be better with eight.”
Howland also has a bowling team.
The lone remaining holdout in bowling at this point is the Quakers’ archrival, West Branch.
“They are going through some transitions right now so we really haven’t heard anything about what they might do,” Freeman said. “I’m not sure if it’s something they will look at now that we’ve done it.”
But one major decision Freeman did make is to apply to join the Stark County High School Bowling Conference, which also has the other four EBC bowling schools as members.
“To tell you the truth, I was hesitant at first about that … going up against all those established schools,” Freeman said of joining the SCHSBC. “But I liked the pitch that (commissioner) J.C. (Heighway) gave me plus we liked how the league is set up. We did our research and we really liked the web site and thought it would be really cool to be a part of something like that. Our parents will have the ability to go back and get a look at what our teams are doing.”
Freeman also said scheduling was a big factor.
Heighway sent ballots to all 18 conference members to seek approval for adding the Quakers, and the application was approved.
Heighway said the conference will insert Salem into the American Division, where the remainder of the EBC schools already are, along with United Local. Canton South, a former member of the EBC until withdrawing for the 2021-22 season, will move to the National Division and join Triway, Canton Central Catholic, Louisville, Massillon and Lake Center Christian.
“We simply swapped schedules for Canton South and Salem to make it work,” said Heighway, who had the schedule set prior to Salem’s interest. The conference now will have 19 members.
“We had thoughts about just bowling the teams around us like East Liverpool, Beaver Local and (Columbiana) Crestview,” Freeman said. “But the more we read about it and (Heighway) emailed me, it just didn’t make sense not to do it.”
Since four EBC teams already were involved in bowling, the conference did have its own awards for all-league teams as well as coaches and players of the year and scholar athletes. It does not have an all-sports trophy at this time.
“That was another part of this … getting recognition for our athletes,” Freeman said.
Freeman said the Stark conference schedule will include 14 matches (10 inside the division and four outside the division). But, he added, Hunt Club is interested in hosting a high school tournament, the dates to be determined.
“We think 15 dates is perfect for our first-year program,” Freeman said. “We will probably stay with that. But if another team approaches us and we have the availability, we may look at it. But it will be a nice league that we can get into and grow our program.”
Salem will be involved in the postseason tournaments. Freeman has made requests about what needs to be done through the Ohio High School Athletic Association. The Quakers are in the Northeast District for other sports.
“First, we want to establish both boys and girls teams for equity purposes. We feel that’s important, and with the interest we have, we can definitely do that,” Freeman said. “We want our kids to have fun, learn and we want them then to promote this sport so we can grow and improve the numbers.
“We’re not looking to set the world on fire our first year. But we want to establish this program.”
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