Western Illinois University Athletics is pleased to announce the hiring of three coaches to the women’s bowling and track and field/cross country programs.
Women’s Bowling
Derek Sapp ’03 was hired as the inaugural head coach of the Leatherneck Women’s Bowling program, which is set to begin competing during the 2025-2026 season. Sapp is no stranger to Macomb and WIU, having graduated from the Macomb campus in 2003.
As an undergraduate, Sapp competed for WIU’s men’s club bowling program, earning some of the highest honors in the sport. Sapp was a four-time collegiate All-American, a two-time Intercollegiate Bowling Championship MVP (2001, 2002), a member of the two-time WIU Collegiate Club National Championship teams (2001, 2002), and the 2002 Bowling Writers Association of America (BWAA) Collegiate Bowler of the Year.
“I’m incredibly proud to be back home at WIU,” said Sapp. “We have a very proud history of bowling here and we all take a lot of pride in that. I’m honored and grateful for the opportunity to lead this new NCAA program and my goal is to bring back the glory days that we are so fond of. I can’t wait to get started!”
Sapp’s bowling career continued after his time at WIU, and he went on to win seven Professional Bowling Association (PBA) Regional Titles, earn the 2008 Midwest PBA Player of the Year award, and became an exempt player on the PBA National Tour for the 2009-10 season.
Sapp finished third at the 2009 PBA Cheetah Championship, was a three-time member of Team USA (2000, 2004, 2005), won four gold medals and one Bronze medal in international competition for Team USA, was the 2003 ABC Tournament doubles champion, bowling an 857 series, which was a record at the time. He also has six top-five finishes at the ABC/USBC Open Championships to his credit. He has 100-plus 300 games and over 70 career 800 series.
Before returning to WIU, Sapp served as head coach of the men’s and women’s bowling programs at Culver-Stockton College (CSC) since June 2020. During his tenure at CSC, the men’s teams won one tournament, placed second in tournaments twice, and had five third-place finishes. His women’s squads have a tournament win, one second-place, and four third-place finishes.
Sapp has coached four First Team All-Conference players, four Second Team All-Conference Players, an Honorable Mention NAIA All-American selection, a First-Team NAIA All-American, and the NAIA Rookie of the Year. He was named Women’s Conference Co-Coach of the Year in 2022 and Coach of the Year in 2024. He was also named Men’s Co-Coach of the Year in 2024. He led the men’s and women’s programs to a trio of USBC postseason appearances in four seasons.
Track & Field/Cross Country
Scott Barnes was named head coach of the Leatherneck men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs over the summer. Matthew Rosado joins Barnes’ staff as an assistant coach for both cross country and track and field. Barnes and Rosado replace former Head Coach Trey Brokaw, who stepped down earlier this year, and his assistant coach.
Barnes comes to Western Illinois after serving as head coach at Briar Cliff since the 2018-19 season. During his time at Briar Cliff, Barnes coached 41 national meet qualifiers, three national champions, two national meet runners-up, 14 All-Americans and two-time United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association Midwest Regional Athlete of the Year and Great Britain Olympic qualifier, Ben Jefferies.
In 2022 Barnes’ track and field team finished 26th nationally at indoor and outdoor meets. In 2021, his squad was 13th at the national indoor championships. Before coaching at Briar Cliff, Barnes was head cross country coach at Indian Hills Community College from 2014-18 and head track and field coach from 2015-2018. As cross country coach at Indian Hills, Barnes coached 11 All-Region cross country runners. In 2015, his squad was ranked 24th in the NJCAA Cross Country Rankings. The 2016 women’s team placed 20th at the NJCAA National Championships.
As track and field coach, he coached 26 national qualifiers, including signing the 2021 Olympic Silver medalist in the 200 and 2024 Olympic qualifier, Kenny Bednarek. He also coached 13 All-Americans and two national runners-up. His men’s indoor team placed 25th at the NJCAA National Meet during the 2016-17 season and his men’s outdoor team placed 18th at the National meet in 18th.
Academically, his men’s indoor track and field lead ranked tops in NJCAA in GPA in 2015. He also coached 32 cross country/track and field Academic All-Americans at Indian Hills. Before becoming a head coach, Barnes was the assistant men’s and women’s cross country coach at Muskegon Community College from July 2013 to January 2014 and the assistant men’s and women’s cross country and track and field coach at Grand Valley State from June 2012 to June 2013.
He ran collegiately and graduated from Central Michigan University where he was Academic All-Conference and All-Midwest Athletic Conference in the mile. Barnes received his masters degree from Arkansas State.
Joining Barnes’ staff is Matthew Rosado, who comes to Western Illinois after serving as head cross country and track and field coach at Dakota Wesleyan since 2021. As track and field coach at Dakota Wesleyan, Rosado coached two outdoor All-Americans, 14 NAIA Indoor National Meet qualifiers, 15 NAIA Outdoor National Meet qualifiers, and several school record holders.
As a cross country coach, Rosado’s teams were thrice named NAIA Academic All-America. He also coached three NAIA National Meet qualifiers and has several runners atop the program’s top 10 record list.
Before coaching at Dakota Wesleyan, Rosado had stints as head track and field and cross country coach at Roosevelt University and Calumet College. He also served as an assistant coach at Calumet College from January 2018 to August 2020. Rosado graduated from Calumet College with a degree in Integrated Studies.
***Courtesy of Western Illinois University***
