Meeting students is often a challenge for incoming presidents, but not for Coker’s Robert Wyatt.

At Coker, where about 35 percent of the students are athletes, the newly hired Wyatt broke the ice with undergraduates by challenging their coaches to a high-stakes game of bowling.

Gathering at a local alley, Wyatt and his team of randomly selected student-athletes took on six battle-hardened coaches. Both teams represented the Coker Cobras’ six NCAA Division II fall and winter sports, none of which is bowling.

More than 100 students came out to watch the Presidential Bowling Challenge, with Wyatt’s student team topping the coaches with a score of 913 to 899.

As the losers, the Coker coaches will now have to perform a short routine at a future basketball game choreographed by the college’s dance and cheerleading coach.

“It was awesome,” said senior Beeze Chastain of Greenville, South Carolina. “To see the president get out there and play was great.”

Winning the Presidential Bowling Challenge was not as easy as Wyatt anticipated. It turned out that a student on his team was the high-scorer and the key to their victory in the final frame.

“It was closer than I wanted it to be, but it was great fun,” said Wyatt, who bowls several times a year. “For me, the competition exemplifies the Coker community – we work hard and we play hard together.”

Earlier in the fall, Wyatt test drove his bowling idea when he handily beat Cobras baseball coach Dave Schmotzer in a similar challenge. His victory got the baseball team out of a dreaded traditional two-mile run.

With his success at bowling, Wyatt is not giving up the Presidential Challenge any time soon.

“We’ll do some sort of other challenge with students in the spring,” said Wyatt. “I’ll be back.”

− Coker SID Christian Striker