By Mario Martinez—

After a outstanding outing against conference foes at the James Brown Invitational two weeks ago, New Jersey City University’s Women’s Bowling team is currently 45-37 overall, 10-8 within the conference and hold the 5th spot in the Northeast Conference. With one more innovational (9 matches) left this weekend to end the regular season, the NJCU women’s bowling squad has control of their own destiny and look to finish within the top 8 in order to make the playoffs. Having had a solid overall season, the NJCU women’s bowling is also on the brink of 750 victories under Head Coach Frank Parisi, which is the most of any women’s athletics at NJCU.

With a remarkable comeback victory at the James Brown Invitational, which is a Baker style tournament (where each bowler on the team rolls 2 frames until the all 10 frames are complete), NJCU’s women’s bowling team finished 13th in the nationally ranked National Tenpin Coaches Association (which is the most prestigious bowling association in the nation) and are on the verge of being playoffs bound again. Amassing 741 victories since 2005, along with back to back (2006-2007) NTCA Coach of the Year honors, coach Parisi, who has his eyes on the third Northeast Conference event happening this weekend, can’t ignore the clamor of being on the brink the magical 750th win.

Coach bashfully laughed and said “I’m not big on personal goals but I did know about that. It goes hand in hand though with the team. As a team we’ll have 750 wins, which apparently a magic number and is a great accomplishment for the program. Nine more victories are definitely doable. We have nine more matches this weekend and then we go to Nashville and we’ll have 15 more matches there, so it’s certainly within reach. I’ll be very happy if we get it of course, because it’s a testament to the program as a whole and all the players who have played here.”

The 2012-2013 NJCU’s women’s bowling team, who will head to the non-conference Music City Classic in Nashville Tennessee after the NEC Invitational, has beaten every opponent in the conference at least once this season. After being own 3-0 in a best of 7 series, NJCU pulled off an incredible comeback win against conference adversary Monmouth University, and are 3-1 against them this season. NJCU then went on to cruise past Hampton University to finish 13th NTCA. With growing confidence and a never-give-up attitude, coach Parisi’s Gothic Knights have their eyes locked on the playoffs and now are looking to put pressure on other competition.

“We never quit and never give up. That’s our motto. We’ve gained confidence. No matter what the situation is, we know we can come back from the anything now. If you start putting pressure on other teams, and make they make mistakes, anything can happen. If we keep focus on what we can do and start bowling well, who knows what the opponent might have pressing and they might make some mistakes.”

Though attributes the team’s persistence, discipline and work-ethic as being quintessential to their success, Coach Parisi also says good coaching and good-fortune has undoubtedly impacted his tenure at NJCU.

“I’ve been very fortunate that high school bowling in New Jersey is very big and the combination of being able to recruit very good high school players who are coachable along with my assistant coach Rusty Thompson, who is phenomenal bowler, coach and teacher who knows way more about the sport than I do. He really transitions them from being a very good high school bowler to a very good college bowler.”

However, despite the victories, acclamations and good-fortune, coach Parisi is mostly proud of his athletes for their academic prowess which to him is the most important and most gratifying.

“We’ve got a long season. We go from October to April and our team academically is amongst the highest. We’ve won the academic award from the athletic department nine years in a row and I’m as proud of that as any other accomplishment along the way. They are student-athletes and the student comes first and they’ve shown they excel at both parts. That’s not an easy balance. It’s a long season but they are disciplined enough to know what their priorities are.”