Defiance College to Welcome Several New Sports
By: Hanna Young
Defiance College will be welcoming a handful of new sports for the 2025-2026 school year. These sports will add new opportunities for both men and women on campus. This will increase the number of varsity sports at Defiance College from 8 Mens’, 7 Womens’ and 2 Coed Sports to 9 Mens’, 8 Womens’, and 3 Coed Sports. The first of these sports will unveil itself during the winter of 2025.
Women’s Bowling will be the first new sport to debut for the Yellow Jackets. Leading the team will be Head Coach, Doug Miller. The announcement for this new program came on December 6th 2024. South 66 Lanes in Defiance will be the home to the program. Recruiting for this team has begun and earlier this week the first future Yellow Jacket Bowler has signed her Letter of Intent for the program.
A Co-Ed Powerlifting team will also be coming to Defiance during the 2025-2026 school year. While this is not a sport that the NAIA currently sponsors, it will compete as a club team while the sport continues to grow. The Powerlifting competitions are sprinkled throughout the school year and are not set in just one season. While their Championship meets are set for the Spring. Levi Hoffman has been chosen to coach the program.
Starting in the Spring of 2026 Defiance will welcome a Men’s Volleyball team. Their season will last from January to April and they will compete as a varsity sport. This is a quickly growing sport and will be a great addition to the Defiance College Sports lineup. Head Coach, Jeremy Thornburg will be the driving force behind this program.
The future is bright for Yellow Jacket Athletics with the addition of several new sports programs. The last program to be added to the Defiance College roster was Esports in 2018. Where its popularity has stayed strong since the start of the program.
