Shannon O'Keefe

Shannon O'Keefe (née Rondeau, born January 27, 1979) is an American professional bowler and bowling coach now living in Jacksonville, Alabama, and is currently the head coach at Jacksonville State University,who has competed in the United States and internationally.

O'Keefe began competing on the PWBA Tour in 1998, and was runner-up for the Rookie of the Year award in 1999.

The PWBA Tour ceased operations in 2003.

After giving up her professional status shortly after the original PWBA folded and waiting to regain her amateur status, O'Keefe won the New York State Queens Title (twice) along with three Rochester, New York Queens titles.

She is an 18-time member of Team USA (2005–2022) and an eight-time World Champion (Individual titles in Singles in 2007 and All-Events in 2013, also the 2013 Doubles, 2011 and 2017 Trios, and 2011 and 2015 Teams at the World Championships; plus the gold medal in Singles at 2022 World Games in Birmingham, AL).

She earned a spot on Team USA in her first attempt in 2005, and was a member for 18 years before retiring from international play in 2022.

Other bowling highlights include a fifth-place finish in the 2007 USBC Queens Tournament, and a runner-up finish in the 2007 U.S. Women's Open.

She bowled a 299 on television in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, and at the time tied a record for the most consecutive strikes in a row on television (18 over two games).

After moving to Texas in 2008, she won the Texas Bluebonnet Queens three times in a four-year span (2011, 2012 and 2014).

She was an exempt bowler in 2009 in the PBA Women's Series, which was sponsored by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC).

She made the quarterfinals of the 2009 PBA Women's World Championship, which was the first women's World Championship under PBA sanction.

In 2010, against mostly male competitors, O'Keefe won a PBA Regional Tour title at the PBA Southwest Region Del-Mar Lanes Challenge.

She finished in fifth place in the 2011 U.S. Women's Open, and in third place at the 2012 U.S. Women's Open.

O'Keefe has won numerous gold, silver and bronze medals in international competition as a member of Team USA.

O'Keefe was part of Team USA in 2011—the team that went to the WTBA World Women's Championships in Hong Kong and took home gold for the United States in the team event for the first time since 1987.

O'Keefe announced early in 2022 that she would be retiring as a Team USA member, after 18 consecutive years representing her country in international competition.

She capped her career wearing the red, white and blue with three medals at the PanAm Bowling Champion of Champions event held August 22–25 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

O'Keefe won gold in Doubles with partner Bryanna Coté (part of a USA Doubles sweep, as Kris Prather and A. J. Johnson also won gold in the men's event), while also taking gold in All Events.

She won silver in the Singles event, finishing behind Clara Guerrero of Colombia.

Since 2014, she has also been the women's bowling coach at McKendree University.

Her teams have won two NCAA Women's Bowling National Championships.

After a long association with Hammer Bowling, O'Keefe is now a member of the Roto Grip pro staff.

She is also sponsored by VISE grips, Coolwick sportswear and BowlerX.com.

The PWBA Tour was relaunched in 2015.

Shannon was one of several previous PWBA members to re-join the tour.

Through 2022, she was the only player to have won at least one title every season since the re-launch.

On August 2, 2015, Shannon won her first PWBA title in the Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles championship, teaming with PBA player Bill O'Neill to take the top prize.

In the 2015 U.S. Women's Open, O'Keefe qualified as the #1 seed but had to settle for her second runner-up finish in this tournament, as she was defeated by Liz Johnson in the September 6 final by a single pin, 190–189.

O'Keefe won her first PWBA singles title, and second PWBA title overall, in the Nationwide PWBA Sonoma County Open on May 26, 2016.

Qualifying as the #2 seed, she defeated Singapore's New Hui Fen in the semifinal match before besting Kelly Kulick in the finals.

Later in the 2016 season, O'Keefe led the Pepsi PWBA Lincoln Open wire-to-wire (from opening round of qualifying through to the finals) and captured her third PWBA title on June 26.

On July 31, 2016, O'Keefe and Bill O'Neill repeated as champions at the Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles championship, giving O'Keefe her fourth PWBA title, and third of the 2016 season.

On August 6, 2017, O'Keefe won her fifth PWBA title in the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Open, defeating Colombia's Clara Guerrero in the final match.

The win qualified O'Keefe for the season-ending Smithfield PWBA Tour Championship, which she subsequently won on September 6 by defeating Kelly Kulick in the final match.

This was O'Keefe's sixth PWBA title and first career major.

O'Keefe finished the 2017 season ranked third in points (behind Liz Johnson and Kelly Kulick), and second in match play appearances with 10 (one behind Liz Johnson).

She also won the 54th QubicaAMF World Cup in 2018 in Las Vegas.

O'Keefe has 15 titles on the PWBA Tour, including three major championships, and is a three-time PWBA Player of the Year (2018, 2019 and 2022).

O'Keefe won her seventh PWBA title on May 5, 2018 at the PWBA Sonoma County Open, winning a high-scoring final match over England's Verity Crawley, 268–266.

Shannon also won the 2019 Doubles gold medal at the Pan American Games in Peru.