On May 18, 2017 Daemen College director of athletics
Bridget Niland announced that
David Zajac will have the interim tag removed from his title, officially making him the college's head women's bowling coach.
"David came to us in trying times and had to adapt quickly to a new situation. He has proven himself to be a skilled coach and recruiter, and we are confident that he can take this young program to new heights in the coming years," Niland said.
Zajac took the reins of the program on an interim basis last fall, just days before the team opened its second season of competition at the Bud Whitman Memorial Tournament hosted by Kutztown University. After going just 2-9 at that opening tournament, Zajac presided over the team's resurgence, going 14-18 over the remainder of the season to finish 16-25 overall, a two-win improvement over the team's record in its inaugural season (14-31).
While the job at Daemen represents Zajac's first head coaching experience at the collegiate level, he brings a wealth of experience from previous coaching stops and from his own playing career. He served as team captain at both Erie Community College and Saginaw Valley State University, and was a two-time National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-American at the former. He helped the ECC Kats capture the 2011 NJCAA national championship after averaging a national tournament-best 224 pins per round.
Zajac got his start in coaching at the scholastic level, spending time as an assistant coach for his alma mater, Niagara Falls High School, as well as at fellow Niagara Frontier League member Lockport High School. He also spent time assisting the program at Niagara County Community College, before becoming the head varsity coach at Kenmore East High School, a post he held from 2013-15. In 2015, Zajac led the Kenmore East boys' team to a fourth-place finish in the New York State tournament, winning the school's first Section VI championship since 1968 in the process.
Daemen is set to return nine of the 10 players from its 2016-17 roster, losing just senior
Hayle Scanlan (Indianapolis, Ind./Perry Meridian) to graduation. The returners include the team's top three performers - team captain
Kaitlyn O'Hara (Clarence Center, N.Y./Clarence),
Katie Good(Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier) and
Rachel Steele (Rensselaer, N.Y./Columbia).
