Norfolk State University Athletics

Wilhelmenia Harrison on the NSU Bowling Program

Now entering her 15th season as the head coach of the Norfolk State bowling team in 2019-20, three-time MEAC Coach of the Year Wilhelmenia Harrison has significantly raised the profile of the program to become one of the top teams in the conference on an annual basis. Light years ahead of where it stood in her early days, Norfolk State continues to excel each year under Harrison.
 
The Spartans won their first-ever MEAC title in 2012 and took home four straight MEAC Southern Division titles from 2010-11 to 2013-14. It is certainly a far cry from Harrison’s first years leading the program, when she roamed the halls of the university looking for anyone who could bowl. Now a perennial top-20 nationally ranked program, NSU’s steady rise hit its peak there in 2012.
 
At the MEAC Championship that year, the Spartans found themselves in a hole after a slow first day of competition. Needing to bounce back quickly on Day 2, the Spartans did just that, advancing unscathed to the championship match. In front of an ESPNU audience on the third and final day of the tournament, the Spartans swept Bethune-Cookman by a 4-0 score to capture the championship crown in their first-ever title-match appearance.
 
Harrison was named the MEAC Championship Outstanding Coach following that performance. Thanks to the program’s steady improvement, Harrison was named the MEAC Coach of the Year three years in a row from 2010-11 to 2012-13.
 
The Spartans reached as high as No. 10 in the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) coach’s top-20 poll in 2011-12, the best ranking in school history. The Spartans also easily surpassed the previous school record for wins in a season. NSU’s 91-40 overall record in 2011-12 topped the 67-win total from each of the prior two seasons and included a 25-game win streak between December and January.
 
In an eight-year span from 2010-18, Harrison won better than 60 percent overall (506-322, .611) and 70 percent in the conference (134-52, .720).
 
Three years after that championship run in 2012, the Spartans made back-to-back trips to the MEAC tournament final. NSU defeated higher-ranked opponents Delaware State and North Carolina A&T a combined three times to advance to the final in 2015. The Spartans then made another finals appearance in 2016. They topped higher seeds North Carolina A&T and Maryland Eastern Shore, the latter the defending conference champion, to advance to the championship round for the third time in five years.
 
The Spartans finished the 2016-17 campaign 62-44 overall, the sixth 60-win season in an eight-year span. In 2012-13, NSU posted a 63-34 overall record and a 21-3 mark in the MEAC, the program’s best-ever conference record by winning percentage. The Spartans also ended the 2013-14 season 58-44 overall and 19-5 in the MEAC, once again capturing first place in the South.  In addition, NSU was nationally ranked in the top 25 at some point for 10 straight seasons from 2008-18. The team finished with a winning record the last nine of those campaigns.
 
Harrison’s record during her 14 seasons at NSU sits at 674-644 (.511) overall and 188-145 (.565) in the MEAC.
 
The 2012-13 campaign was highlighted by NSU’s first-ever national championship appearance. The Spartans finished fourth at the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Intercollegiate Team Sectional in mid-March, qualifying for the USBC xbowling Intercollegiate Team Championship a month later. It marked the first time NSU had ever qualified for either the NCAA Championship or the USBC Championship, the latter considered to be the more elite of the two because it consists of both NCAA and non-NCAA programs.
 
While at the USBC Championship, NSU downed defending national champion Webber International before watching its season come to a close.
 
The program’s rapid rise, not coincidentally, aligned with the career of NSU’s most accomplished bowler, Thea Aspiras. A four-time All-MEAC first-team honoree, she was instrumental in leading the program to its current height. She earned All-America recognition by the NTCA twice, including honorable mention in 2013.
 
Aspiras garnered numerous all-tournament team, tournament MVP and MEAC bowler of the week honors during her time at NSU. The highlight came in 2014, when she earned the MVP award at the Kutztown Invitational for having the highest average among a field that included 14 ranked teams.
 
Along with Aspiras’ first-team designation, senior Chelsea Krall was voted to the All-MEAC second team in 2012. In 2016, Alexa Rodriguez was named the MEAC Rookie of the Year five years after Aspiras took home the honor in her rookie season. Rodriguez and teammates Carrie Hickey and Briana Gardner were named second-team All-MEAC in ’16, marking the first time the Spartan program had three all-conference bowlers in one season.
 
A year later in 2017, the Spartans repeated the feat with Rodriguez (first team), Gardner (second team) and Aubrey Conrad (third team), with Rodriguez joining Aspiras as the only first-team honorees in program history. Rodriguez and Gardner repeated as All-MEAC honorees in 2018, joining Aspiras as the only Spartans to earn all-conference honors at least three times.
 
In addition to her accomplishments in the coaching ranks, Harrison also performed double duty from 2011-18 as the assistant athletics academic coordinator. In that capacity, she assisted in the academic support efforts of the NSU athletics department during the day before shifting her attention to the bowling program.
 
No stranger to the athletics department or the university during the last 30 years, the NSU graduate helped the team reach new heights in 2010-11, starting with the program’s first official Southern Division title. Aspiras capped off the season by earning a spot on the NTCA All-America second team. All four honors achieved that year – Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year, All-MEAC first team, NTCA All-America – were each a first for the NSU bowling program.
 
Along with NSU’s numerous accomplishments on the lanes, Spartan bowlers have also performed well in the classroom. Aspiras earned a spot on the 2013 NTCA All-Academic Third Team, while the organization named NSU bowlers all-academic a total of 28 times from 2011-18 for having individual GPA’s of 3.40 or better. NSU was also recognized by the NTCA five times in a six-year period from 2013-18 for having a team GPA above 3.20.
 
The team also took home the women’s All-Scholar Award in 2017 and ‘18 for having the highest GPA among all women’s teams at NSU in addition to having the highest GPA among all 15 of Norfolk State’s sport programs. The Spartans have also posted NCAA APR single-year scores of 1,000 each of the last two years.
 
Norfolk State bowling has also been heavily involved in community outreach initiatives, earning the athletic department’s Spartan Cup Award two years in a row from 2015-16 for having the most community service hours among the women’s athletic teams.
 
The Spartans finished the 2010-11 season with a 67-49 record. It certainly stands as quite the turnaround for the program, considering NSU went 21-112 in Harrison’s first two seasons. The program then made a huge jump during Harrison’s third year following an upswing in recruiting, finishing 41-54 in 2007-08 and within one game of the MEAC Championship round.
 
The successful 2010-11 campaign came off the heels of a 2009-10 season in which the team posted a 67-56 overall record. Sheila-Marie Smith was named to the All-MEAC second team for the second straight season, becoming the program’s first-ever all-conference bowler. In 2008-09, the team also garnered its first national ranking at 18^th overall.
 
Prior to taking the reins of the Spartan bowling program, Harrison was the head coach of the women’s volleyball and softball programs at Maryland-Eastern Shore during the 1999-2000 school year.
 
Harrison has a diverse history at Norfolk State. She was a graduate assistant volleyball coach at NSU from 1979-84. After assisting head coach Honey Lamb with the team again from 1990-91, Harrison took over the head coach position from 1992-99.
 
She compiled more than 200 victories as head coach and at one point won four consecutive CIAA Northern Division regular-season championships. Her team finished as runner-up in the CIAA tournament in each of those seasons. She coached two Academic All-Americans and numerous All-CIAA players during her tenure, a period of time in which the Spartan volleyball program achieved its greatest success in its 30-plus year history.
 
Harrison also served as a swimming instructor while she was a student at NSU. She later became the first black female water safety instructor in the South Atlantic Region for the American Red Cross.
 
Harrison earned her bachelor’s degree in physical education and recreation from NSU in 1984. She was selected to attend the prestigious NCAA Women Coaches Academy for professional development in June of 2008.
 
A Norfolk native, Harrison has two daughters, Lynn Wright Davis and Lea Harrison.