McLemore named MAC Girls Bowling Coach of the Year
The 2024-25 bowling season was a special one for the Cleveland Central High School Lady Wolves as they captured the Mississippi High School Activities Association 5A State Girls Bowling Championship.
The head coach of the squad is Wade McLemore who has been leading the program since the school was formed from the merger of Cleveland High School and East Side High School in 2017.
The work McLemore did with the bowling program didn’t go unnoticed as he was recently named the Mississippi Association of Coaches Coach of the Year in girls bowling.
Before last year, the Lady Wolves had been close to winning state in previous seasons as they had two state runner-up finishes (2019 and 2020) and three third place finishes (2018, 23 and 24) in their history. The MAC Coach of the Year award is McLemore’s second as he won it for boys bowling in 2022 when he led the Wolves to the MHSAA 5A State Boys Championship.
“It’s a huge honor to be chosen by my peers as girls bowling coach of the year,” said McLemore. “I really can’t put into words how proud I am of that. It represents the sustained success the team has had over the years with this being the second one. While it’s an individual accomplishment for me, it’s really a testament to the success of the program as a whole. It wouldn’t be possible to receive an award like that if it were not for the athletes that we do have in the program.”
McLemore first became a head bowling coach in the 2016-17 season when he was chosen to lead Cleveland High School’s boys and girls programs. That school had restarted its program after previously having in the 2000s decade.
McLemore, who an assistant football coach at CHS, recalled how he became bowling coach.
“It was presented to me as I needed to pick up a winter sport, an off-season sport.” said McLemore. “I was given two options. My choices were bowling and golf. I was just kind of looking around and talking to Lance Canoy. He was the Assistant AD, and Steve Wies was the AD at the time. I told Lance, ‘Y’all better give me bowling. I don’t like dealing with the cold.’ Golf started in late January, and bowling was at least indoors. I talked with Mickey Sellers because he ran the program at Cleveland High. When he retired, it kind of disappeared. Coach (Steven) Craddock wanted to bring it back.”
McLemore described what type of bowling experience he had when he took the Cleveland High School job.
“Little to none,” said McLemore. “I guess you could say bowling at birthdays or maybe in high school as a kid on Friday nights in the winter time or whatever. It was virtually none.”
McLemore remembered what it was like when he began his time as bowling coach.
“When we brought it back, I talked with Mickey a lot and talked with Eddie Gong, Clement Jee and Kedar Ballard and those kind of guys,” said McLemore. “They helped me. Eddie, Clement and I traveled around the state talking and meeting with folks about high school bowling. I had in my mindset talking with Coach Sellers that we’re going to have fun. I’m going to drive the bus, take the kids , and we would figure out the most important decision of the day which would be where we were going to eat at when the match was over with. I went into it with that kind of approach.”
It didn’t take long for McLemore to get motivated in building up the boys and girls programs.
In McLemore’s first year at CHS, the Lady Wildcats finished second in the Division 1 Central Region Girls Tournament and the Wildcats finished fourth with in the Division 1 Central Region Boys Tournament. The Lady Wildcats finished sixth at the Class I State Bowling Tournament, while the Wildcats barley missed the state tournament.
“That first year, I thought we were pretty good as we saw it,” said McLemore. “I’ve come to figure out after nine years now that we weren’t very good. The competitor in me took over, and I couldn’t just watch us do the same things over and over again and not improve and not get any better.”
After McLemore’s first year at CHS, the merger with CHS and East Side took place to form Cleveland Central High School. McLemore was named the boys and girls bowling coach at CCHS.
“I didn’t have huge expectations,” said McLemore when recalling when he first started coaching at CCHS. “I was really hoping to kind of grow the program. Leaving from Cleveland High to Cleveland Central, I want to say I had eight boys and eight girls on that team or maybe 10 or something like that. When we transitioned into Cleveland Central, I lost a couple of those along the way for whatever reason. I had some kids involved in dance or cheer or whatever, and it was a little bit more of an undertaking with a combined school. They kind of left bowling and went to do other things.”
McLemore felt the boys and girls bowling programs could grow at Cleveland Central.
“My expectation was we were getting 300 or 400 more kids added to the student population,” said McLemore. “I thought maybe we can grow this program. We had a little more interest that first year, but it was a struggle for the first couple of years trying to get a team particularly a girls team. I think we kind of hit a stride now where our success speaks for itself. Now, I’m seeing some of the growth that I thought would happen in the beginning.”
McLemore will have all of his starters from last year’s title winning girls team. On the boys side, McLemore lost some good bowlers from last year but still has some top players returning for the 2025-26 season.