Orchard Lake St. Mary’s only needed one more stop in last week’s Michigan high school Division 3 quarterfinal game against Dewitt. The Eagles had clawed back to take a 35-28 lead after trailing 21-14 at halftime, but they needed their defense to come up big one more time.
Then the Dewitt quarterback’s pass sailed over his receiver’s head and into the outstretched arms of Iowa State defensive back commit Richard Bowens with 1.2 seconds on the clock. An interception for Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, sealing the Eaglets third straight trip to the state semifinals.
The back-to-back defending state champions will take on Dearborn Devine Child at West Bloomfield High School on Saturday afternoon for the right to play for another state title.
“What’s been going well for me is I’d have to say I’m in better shape to run up and down the field and keep my technique as put together as I want it,” Bowens told Cyclone Fanatic on Wednesday. “As a team, our camaraderie is starting to come together and we play well together and we’re having fun, too.”
Bowens, a 6-foot-0.5-inch, 170-pound three-star prospect (according to 247 Composite) committed to Iowa State on Apr. 13. He pledged to the Cyclones over offers from Iowa, Western Michigan, Toledo, Minnesota, Syracuse and a handful of other schools.
He said he hears from somebody on the Iowa State coaching staff quite often.
“Recently, it’s been pretty often, almost every day (cornerbacks) Coach D.K. (McDonald) texts me,” Bowens said. “Every now and then, Coach (Matt) Campbell texts or calls me, but I talk to Coach D.K. almost every day. He asks how I’m doing, how’s my family doing and I ask him how team’s looking and he’ll tell me the game plan for the week and where they play.”
Bowens said he has kept up with most of the other Iowa State commits and listed Josh Johnson, O’Rien Vance, Kam White and Devon Moore by name. He also mentioned that he’s kept in touch with Florida defensive back, and former Iowa State commit, Quran Hafiz.
Rated as the No. 87 cornerback in the class by 247 Composite, Bowens said he’s been able to watch Iowa State quite a bit this season.
“I’m actually impressed,” Bowens said. “Honestly, I feel like their record doesn’t show how good they really are. I feel like they’re young and with the coaches being new. That second half, not having much depth kind of hurts them. The first half, I can see great fight. They have a really good team. They’ve lost close games that I really feel like we’ll win in the next year or so.”
Not surprisingly, Bowens, who is also the two-time defending Division 2 state champion in the 300 meter hurdles in track, has continued to hear from schools since his commitment. That said, he’s not wavering from his pledge to Iowa State.
“I’m hearing from a couple other schools like Kentucky and Purdue and MSU. I still hear from a couple other schools as far as like Twitter wise and random mail. I get mail from Iowa still. I got mail from Notre Dame not too long ago,” Bowens said. “As far as where my head is at right now, I’m with Iowa State.”
