Jennifer Channell
It started with a simple enough request.
Twenty-five years ago, then-Hardin County High School Athletics Director Anthony Gilchrist had a simple ask.
“My husband (David) and I at the time owned the bowling center here in town,” Jennifer Channell recalled. “The athletic director, Mr. Gilchrist, came to us and said, ‘Hey, the TSSAA is starting bowling as a high school sport. Would you be interested in helping us start our program?’
“We said, ‘Sure. Sounds great.’”
That unassuming answer has evolved into an incomparable dynasty in Volunteer State high school excellence.
Jennifer Channell has helped coach her alma mater, Hardin County High School, to a Sweet 16 of TSSAA State Bowling Championships, the last dozen in a row.
She’s also been named the TSSAA Distinguished Service Award winner for December.
“It’s just a lot of good kids that buy in and work hard,” Jennifer Channell said.
“It’s a great experience to be able to share it with (David), something that we both love and are able to do it together. Working with the kids and to just love sharing bowling with the kids, it’s something they can do for years to come and it’s always good to see a new group accomplish a goal that they’ve set.
“It’s just fun watching them grow and get better.”
It has been a family affair for the Channells, who have transformed bowling excellence into transcendent opportunity.
Their oldest daughter, Ashley, garnered a bowling scholarship to pay for her college at Louisiana Tech University; younger daughter Kaileee then obtained a bowling scholarship to prestigious Vanderbilt University, where she helped the Commodores claim an NCAA National Championship.
They are but two of the several bowling standouts to, well, strike an opportunity to continue their education by competing at the college level.
“Working with the kids and I just love sharing bowling with the kids, something they can do for years to come and it’s always good to see a new group accomplish a goal that they’ve set,” Channell said. “It’s just fun watching them grow and get better.
“A lot of boys and girls are going to be able to further their educations with bowling.”
But, this is no casual passion. It takes work.
“Most of them bowl league on Mondays, with three games that day,” she said. “We meet together on Tuesdays and Thursdays to have organized practices of some sort, working fundamentals, spare shooting, something along those lines, and then they bowl on their own usually on Fridays and Saturdays.
“It’s a lot of games.”
Ultimately, it’s a lot winning.
TSSAA proudly salutes Jennifer Channell for her more than two decades of coaching student-athletes in the sport of bowling.
