Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

sports:

To get ahead, football star will stay behind

Instead of starting high school career at Bishop Gorman, 13-year-old quarterback will repeat 8th grade with hopes of becoming better student, player

Micah Bowens

Christopher DeVargas

Micah Bowens

Some would consider the decision unorthodox.

The flip side

There have been plenty of athletes who have excelled despite being younger than their competition.

Chase Jeter, who in May graduated from Bishop Gorman and was a basketball McDonald’s All-American, won’t turn 18 until Sept. 19, less than two weeks before the cutoff for placement in a younger class. The 6-foot-11 post player, who will play for Duke in the winter, was the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year after averaging 16.8 points and 10.8 rebounds per game as a senior. Imagine how he’d dominate with another high school season?

Robert Stanley, a redshirt sophomore at Fresno State, was just 16 when he played his senior season at Gorman. He still received scholarship offers.

But for the parents of 13-year-old football player Micah Bowens, having their son repeat eighth grade despite having graduated Del Webb Middle School last month with a 3.0 grade point average was an easy decision.

Micah is following a growing trend among college-recruit hopefuls nationwide. His parents say the extra year will give their son time to further develop athletically and academically, and will put him in a better position to earn a scholarship to his dream school, Stanford.

The idea began to take shape this spring at a camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Bowens was one of the best performers at the invitation-only event featuring 68 quarterbacks in the class of 2019, his previous graduating class. But because most of the players were already 14 years old — and some 15 — the 5-foot-8, 150-pound Bowens was at a disadvantage physically. He won’t turn 14 until September and always has been one of the youngest students in his class.

That will change in the fall. Bowens will redo eighth grade through the virtual Northstar Christian Academy and play another season with the Henderson Cowboys youth team. He’ll go from being one of the youngest to one of the oldest students in his class when he starts attending Bishop Gorman High School in August 2016.

“In the end, you have to do what’s best for your kid,” said his father, also named Micah Bowens. “He’s just 13. Did we want him to go to college as a 17-year-old?”

Once they started investigating holding their son back a year, the Bowenses quickly realized it wasn’t uncommon. Some college football players, including top recruits, were 19 when they graduated from high school. And, at the camp in Florida, some players had repeated a grade.

Staying back to get ahead happens in other sports, too. Fifteen of the 24 high school basketball McDonald’s All-Americans in 2015 will turn 19 before their college season begins in fall. Three already were 19 during their senior seasons of high school. For the 2014 graduating class, the top four basketball players in New Jersey each repeated a grade in middle school, the Star-Ledger reported. One of those players, Karl-Anthony Towns, was the first overall pick this year in the NBA Draft.

“What Southern Nevada football players need to understand is they aren’t competing for scholarships against other kids from Las Vegas,” said Jim Petrie, Bowens’ coach. “They are competing against kids from across the country. They are competing against some a full year or 18 months older.”

Bowens has excelled in a few of those competitions. Regardless of when he enters high school, he is expected to be a top performer.

In February at the Nike SPARQ combine in Los Angeles, his score of 38.93 was 20th best out of 200 middle-schoolers competing in the 40-yard dash, 20-yard agility shuttle, vertical jump and kneeling powerball toss.

For players from the class of 2020, Bowens’ new graduating class, his score was second overall and best among quarterbacks. For 2019, his score would have been second-best for quarterbacks.

Last fall, Bowens quarterbacked both the Cowboys’ 12-under and 14-under teams to city championships. In June, the Cowboys won a tournament in San Diego, beating teams from Arizona and California. The week before the tournament, he was at Duke to attend the camp of David Cutcliffe, one of the nation’s most respected quarterbacks coaches whose students include the Manning brothers.

“Micah, he’s one of the hardest workers,” Petrie said. “If he’s not at our practice, he’s speed training or attending a camp.”

That effort needs to extend to the classroom, his father says. Micah’s sister graduated from high school with a 4.2 weighted grade-point average but was not admitted to Stanford.

Forget about having an extra year to become a better quarterback; repeating eighth grade, first and foremost, is about being a better student, the Bowenses say.

“We know a 3.0 isn’t going to get him to the schools he wants to go to,” his father said. “We aren’t counting on football. Like football, you need to get reps in it. I’m hoping that repeating eighth grade will (provide) a similar setup.”

In late August, when Bowens’ former classmates start high school, Bowens will head online. His virtual school requires online weekly sessions between students and teachers, but most of the week is unscripted.

“I don’t know how it’s going to be without a regular schedule,” Bowens said.

The family knows the decision could draw criticism. But they also know it’s only the beginning of what could be life under a microscope. Recruits consistently are evaluated, measured and pitted against one another for scholarship spots. And, once in college, the cycle continues in a fight to earn playing time or a spot in professional football.

“You’ll have people with opinions regardless,” Bowens’ father said. “He plays quarterback. They go under intense scrutiny.”

The Bowenses also stress Micah’s role in the decision. If he wants to go high school in a few weeks, they’ll gladly oblige. Micah, though, doesn’t plan on changing his course and is excited about what the coming year has in store.

“It gives me a chance to get to the school I want to get to,” Micah said.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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