For the first time in a quarter century, Gregory Hatzisavvas isn’t coaching the William Paterson bowling team.

The man who led the Pioneers to a national club championship last season stepped down and gave way to one of his former all-tournament players, Dylan Kowaleski.

“This team can contend in many tournaments, but it all starts with their mechanics,” Kowaleski said in a text. “They need to stick with the plan and execute.”

So far, Kowaleski’s plan has seen mixed results.

The new coach recruited three prominent freshmen in the offseason, Ethan Bromley, Matt Jinks, and Ryan Lashlee. William Paterson came first on Oct. 20 at a tournament in Kingston, New York. But the Pioneers fell to NJIT in Aberdeen, New Jersey, on Oct. 26, and finished fifteenth at the Bowlero Southern Collegiate Classic in Marietta, Georgia, on Nov. 2-3.

Players are still adjusting to the coaching change from Hatzisavvas, whom they called GH.

“Dylan coaches a lot differently from GH,” said bowler Ben Darrow, who made the winning roll at the 2024 championships. “He’s new to being our head coach, so he doesn’t make himself feel affirmative. For us to be at the best of our abilities, he needs to get strict rather than loose.”

Kowaleski also faces a challenge his predecessor did: getting students to know the bowling team exists.

The bowling program has a prestigious history. Since its founding in 1982, the team has reached the Intercollegiate Team Championship national tournament 19 times, with a national championship in 1992 and a national runner-up finish in 2016 that led to a television appearance on CBS Sports Network. The Pioneers took back-to-back collegiate club championships in 2017 and 2018. A William Paterson bowler, Brandon Vallone, captured the 2022 ITC singles title.

William Paterson has three other club sports teams, in cheerleading, dance, and ice hockey. None have witnessed the same amount of success.

But the team lacks the funding and awareness that comes with NCAA athletics. Title IX regulations, which require educational programs to provide equal opportunities for men and women, have led the NCAA to sponsor only women’s bowling, not men’s. The club status lowers their campus profile, too.

Asked about the Pioneer bowlers, junior Nick Vigilante said, “I didn’t know we had a team until moments ago.”

Junior David Gordon said he’d be in the dark too if he hadn’t happened to become friends with some bowlers. “The only reason I know of the bowling team’s existence,” he said, “is because I’m on our campus’s radio station with a couple of them.”

The bowling team hasn’t done much on social media to escape anonymity. Its Facebook page has posted only three times in three months since the fall semester began. The team hasn’t published on Instagram since April and on X, formerly known as Twitter, in almost three years.

The lack of publicity has frustrated freshman bowler Will Gifford.

“What I’m trying to do is have our school represent our team,” Gifford said. “We are always recognized here rather than an afterthought because we are the best team this school offers.”

Another freshman bowler, Andrew Orr, said more social media posting “wouldn’t hurt.”

“We put in a lot of effort and time, and not being posted as much as a team like football or basketball isn’t a great feeling by any means,” Orr said.

On the lanes, the Pioneers have faltered after a strong start.

At Kingston on Oct. 20, freshman Ryan Lashlee placed second overall and was named to the all-tournament team, helping William Paterson defeat rivals including the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Stony Brook on Long Island, and Millersville in Pennsylvania.

“I was nervous coming into the tournament,” Lashlee said. “It was my first time bowling in college, and I felt all the pressure in the world.”

Senior captain Bradlee Pase placed ninth.

But in Aberdeen on Oct. 26, Stony Brook finished first overall, knocking off about 400 more pins than the Pioneers.

William Paterson lost again in the Bowlero Southern Collegiate Classic in Georgia on Nov. 2-3. “Very proud of how this very young group of athletes handled adversity all weekend long,” the team posted on Facebook. “They worked hard all weekend and never gave in.”

The Pioneers play next at the Northeast Classic on Dec. 7-8 at Lodi Lanes.