Familiar faces return to coaching roles

St. John’s and St. Ben’s are adding a couple of familiar faces to their coaching staff this year.

Longtime golf coach Bob Alpers, who stepped down last year to prioritize his role as athletic director, is back to lead the Johnnie golf team this year. Over at St. Ben’s, longtime SJU tennis coach Jack Bowe is back on the sidelines to coach the Bennie tennis team.

Alpers is stepping back into the role he previously held for 28 years. Alpers decided to step down last year because of the COVID hiatus made his athletic director job much more time-consuming.

“I stepped down because of COVID and all that went along with it. It magnified every piece of the athletic director job to the point where I was unable to get to practice very often, and I had a very capable assistant coach who was interested in the job,” Alpers said.

But ultimately, for Alpers it was an easy decision to return.

“I missed the guys like crazy, I love coaching and when the previous head coach told me he was unable to travel to team tournaments, it was a very easy decision to make,” Alpers said.

Dating back to his first season in 1993, Alpers has guided the Johnnie golf team to 2 Division III championships (2007 and 2008), 12 MIAC titles, and 19 NCAA appearances. The Johnnies have finished in the top 10 at nationals 11 times.

Only one school in Division III has appeared in the NCAA Championship more times than SJU in the last 20 years. In his career, Alpers has coached 33 AllAmericans, 47 Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) Scholar All-Americans and 13 MIAC Golfer of the Year athletes. Alpers was the 2007 Eaton Pride National Coach of the Year and was inducted into the GCAA Hall of Fame in 2010.

He has won GCAA Region Coach of the Year five times and MIAC Coach of the Year 13 times. As for the upcoming season, the Johnnies look to compete for another MIAC title and another trip to the NCAA Tournament.

“We are a veteran team, we’ve returned four out of the five starters from last year, and I think probably eight of our top nine” Alpers said. “I am very pleased with how we are coming along. I’m excited to see us keep growing and getting better every time, attitudes are great, guys are playing their tails off, and it’s a lot of fun.”

At St. Ben’s, Bowe returns to the role he held for seven years from 1990 to 1997 as head coach for the CSB tennis team. In those seven years, he led the Bennies to five top-five seasons in the MIAC, including a 16-5 record (9-2 MIAC) in 1994-95. Bowe also earned MIAC Coach of the Year in 1993.

After leaving CSB in 1997, he took over as head coach for the SJU tennis team and has coached there ever since. In his 25 seasons leading the Johnnies, he has recorded a 228-231 overall record, including a 115-103 MIAC record. The Johnnies have placed top-five in the MIAC standings five times in the last seven seasons.

At the helm of SJU tennis, Bowe has won MIAC Coach of the Year 3 times (2003, 2019, and 2022). With the addition of coaching CSB tennis this year, Bowe won’t be stepping away from his duties at SJU. Bowe will be the head coach at St. John’s and St. Ben’s, coaching two teams in the same season, a feat not many coaches have done. As for the upcoming season, Bowe is excited to get going and see what the team can accomplish.

“I’m feeling really good,” Bowe said. “I’m excited to be there. The team’s working hard. We’ve got five returners and five first-years with one athlete studying abroad.”

The CSB tennis team had not made the MIAC playoffs since 2015 before finally breaking the 6-year drought last season. But the team has not won a MIAC playoff match since 2011, and is looking to return to the playoffs and break another drought.

“There’s no reason we can’t win with the squad we have,” Bowe said. “The returners are playing well; I think we have a real good shot at making the playoffs and winning the first round.”