Coach Dowger is entering his 62nd season as a coach for NDCL Athletics. Dowger has coached both the Boys and Girls Tennis and Bowling teams in his career and has served as a head coach and assistant coach. He was the head Varsity Boys Tennis coach for 20 years and served as the assistant varsity coach for three years, Varsity Girls Tennis coach for 10 years and the JV coach for seven. Coach Dowger is entering his 13th season as the head coach for the Boys and Girls Bowling team, where he also served as an assistant varsity coach for six years. He has been coaching at NDCL since 1988.
Dowger is also involved at NDCL on the academic side as well. He was a Social Studies teacher for 31 years and has been a substitute teacher since 2018. In addition, he has served as the NDCL Mock Trial Team advisor for the past 17 years.
Some of Dowger’s coaching highlights include two NEOTA championships with Girls Tennis and seven tournament team & doubles champions and one NCL championship with Boys Tennis. He has one NCL championship, three LCG League Championships, and one LGC Conference Championship with Girls Bowling. Boys Bowling championships include two LCG League and two LCG Conference. Dowger has also coached 12 Individual District, four Team District, and two State qualifiers in Varsity Bowling. In Varsity Tennis, he has coached four Team District qualifiers and one State qualifying team.
Dowger was named North Coast League Boys Varsity Tennis Coach of the Year in 2005 and the North Coast League Coach of the Year for Girls Varsity Bowling in 2019.
Alex Dowger earned his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Thiel College in 1980 and earned his Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Youngstown State University in 1982. Dowger was a successful four-year member of the Men’s Tennis and Bowling teams at Thiel College. In bowling, he was a 1976-80 WPIBC Champion and two-time all-star in 1977-79.
