Billy Bowlen, wrestling
Billy Bowlen plans to turn his passion for wrestling into a career choice. In fact, he is well on his way.
A senior at Carmichaels, Bowlen wrestles in the co-op program with Jefferson-Morgan. He played football (LB and TE) as a freshman and sophomore at Carmichaels, and also plays third base and pitches for the Mikes鈥� baseball team.
Bowlen maintains a 3.9 GPA and plans to study dietetics at Seton Hill University, where he will also wrestle.
鈥淚 will study dietetics and nutrition,鈥� Bowlen said. 鈥淭he main reason is wrestling. My whole life has been about getting to and staying in a nutritious state. I kind of like it and it has become my lifestyle.鈥�
Bowlen is Carmichaels winter sports male selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program. The son of Toni and Bill Bowlen, of Carmichaels, he has two older siblings, Courtney (25) and Jordan (20).
Wrestling is his future, as he is the top recruit at Seton Hill University and coach Brian Tucker. His record heading into his senior season was 113-28. He won WPIAL championships at 170 as a sophomore and at 182 as a junior after wrestling at 160 as a freshman and placed as high as sixth in the state. He still wrestles at 182 this season.
鈥淚 knew all along that wrestling was my passion,鈥� Bowlen said. 鈥淚 really liked playing football, too, but wrestling was the reason I gave up playing football. Wrestling was what I wanted to do in college, so I felt I had to focus more on that. It鈥檚 what I was going to college for and it has helped me out.鈥�
So, too, has wrestling at Jefferson-Morgan.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very different,鈥� Bowlen said. 鈥淭o be honest, we are rivals with them in everything else. The tension was kind of there at first, but then the guys relaxed. I鈥檝e gotten really close with a nice group of guys over there. They make it fun and I give a lot of credit to my coaches, too. I鈥檝e wrestled since I was five years old. My coaches knew that once I got to ninth grade that I would be in someone鈥檚 starting lineup.
鈥淢y biggest goal right now is winning states. The kid I lost to last year in the semifinals is ranked No. 1 in the country at 182. I only lost to him, 1-0, so I think that, by making the right moves and getting the right training, I can beat him this year.鈥�
Bowlen calls Seton Hill鈥檚 wrestling team 鈥渦p and coming.鈥� And, he is glad to be going there.
鈥淭hey have gotten some good recruits, myself included. Coach Tucker reached out to me via Facebook. We started talking and messaging each other back and forth. I got to know him and he鈥檚 a pretty good guy. Then I got to meet him on campus. I got to visit and we sat down and talked. I liked it when he told me he would likely keep me close to my current weight, so I wouldn鈥檛 have to cut much weight. That was big to me. He said I would wrestle at 184 and that I would have a spot. That helped a lot and, of course, the money they offered didn鈥檛 hurt. I鈥檓 getting about half of the cost for athletics and the other half for academics, but my college tuition is totally paid for.鈥�
Bowlen knows already that there is more to proper nutrition than avoiding fast food restaurants and eating lots of salads.
鈥淵ou can slack off here and there, don鈥檛 get me wrong, but weeks and days leading up to a match, you鈥檝e got to treat your body so well,鈥� Bowlen said. 鈥淵ou have to eat all of the right foods. You don鈥檛 want the carbs and all of this certain stuff. I鈥檝e often thought about some day opening my own nutrition place.
Perhaps another reason Bowlen chose Seton Hill to continue his academic and athletic careers was that his girlfriend is Seton Hill softball player and J-M graduate Reagan Rush, who was previously honored in this program.