Ben Bowman named girls’ basketball coach at Cheltenham

Cheltenham on Tuesday announced that 1997 graduate Ben Bowman has returned as the new head coach of the girls' basketball team.

"Mr. Bowman has coached at a very successful girls program at Souderton Area High School, and we believe that success will carry over to CHS," athletic director John Creighton said in a statement. "Thank you to former coach Brendan Nolan for his years of service to the CHS boys' and girls' basketball teams, and I wish him good luck in his future endeavors."

Bowman spent the last 13 years with the Souderton girls' basketball team, including a 131-38 record as the junior-varsity coach and a 7-0 mark during an interim head-coaching stint with the varsity. In his final two seasons at Souderton, the Indians qualified for the PIAA Class 6A state semifinals. Last season, the team finished 29-3 and won the District 1 tournament before falling to the eventual state champion, Upper Dublin, in the state semifinals.

Bringing a "flexible but consistent approach" to Cheltenham, Bowman said, "We will do some run-and-gun but also slow things down to run offensive sets when needed."

At Cheltenham in 1997, Bowman was the starting point guard for coach and mentor Scott Eveslage when the squad made it to the second round of the district playoffs. According to Bowman, the team's crowning achievement that season was defeating undefeated Plymouth Whitemarsh, the eventual District 1 champion.

Bowman graduated from Rider University with a degree in communications in 2001. He has been a pharmaceutical researcher for Bristol-Myers Squibb for the past 15 years. The next girls' basketball season will begin for Cheltenham on Dec. 7 at the Owen J. Roberts Tip Off tournament.