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Beach Bound: Bowers and Griffin discuss future playing careers at FSW and UNCW

Owen Bowers (left) and Altman Griffin (right) are set to begin their collegiate playing careers at Florida SouthWestern State College and UNC-Wilmington.
ROSports photo.

HAMLET – Two former Richmond Senior High School student-athletes, Owen Bowers and Altman Griffin, will soon trade the sandhills of Richmond County for the sandy beaches of two Division I universities.

Both 2018 graduates and natives of Hamlet, Bowers and Griffin are continuing their academic and athletic careers in college. Bowers is set to attend and play softball at Florida SouthWestern State College, a junior college in Fort Myers, Fla., while Griffin will hit the volleyball court at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

The two incoming college freshmen had outstanding careers at Richmond in their respective sports, with both playing for multiple programs during their tenures. Bowers, a power-hitting catcher, was also a member of the Lady Raider volleyball (middle hitter) and swim teams. Up until her senior year, Griffin was a midfielder for Bennie Howard on the Lady Raider soccer team, and she also swam her senior year.

ROSports caught up with Bowers and Griffin ahead of leaving for college, as both are reporting to campus in the coming week.

Bowers “excited” for change as she heads to Florida SouthWestern

Perhaps one of the hardest working members of the Richmond softball team last season, Bowers has spent her summer preparing for her freshman year by doing what she loves best — hitting the weight room.

“I’ve been working out five or six days a week,” Bowers explained. “And I’ve been running more long distance to help build my stamina. I’m in the weight room a lot, trying to lift heavier weights, which is hard because I’m already lifting a lot.

“My goal this summer was to stay fit, and I’ve been pushing myself,” she continued. “I’ve been eating really good this summer, which is something I’ve been doing for a while.”

While she trains to make herself more physically competitive on the diamond, Bowers has also taken the summer to strengthen her mental approach to the game — something she admitted to struggling with for the first part of her senior season.

“Over the summer, I’ve had to read a book that’s meant to help strengthen my mental game,” she said. “My No. 1 problem (last season) was my mentality. I had to write a three-page paper on it, which I think has helped me so much.”

Bowers also played in three tournaments this summer with a travel softball team comprised of mostly UNCW softball commits. Joining her was Lady Raider teammate, and UNCW commit, Savannah Lampley (2019). From playing with the team, Bowers learned that she can “fit in with a really good program with good players.”

The summer circuit helped her work on “strengthening the fundamentals” of the game, including baserunning, getting runners on and scoring them.

The Buccaneers, whose season officially starts in January, will put Bowers to work as soon as she gets to Florida on Friday, Aug. 17. Bowers explained that the team will play fall ball during her first semester, as well as hit the weight room and training facilities ahead of the season.

Bowers has enrolled with the hopes of earning a degree in the physical therapy or dietician fields. She will attend classes every day from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and is taking all general education courses this fall. Bowers is taking: biology and biology lab, human nutrition, music appreciation, sociology and a “cornerstone experience” course, which introduces freshman to campus life.

“I’m excited and ready to go,” Bowers said. “It’s going to be a definite change, but I’m way more excited than I am nervous. My goals are to play the best I can play, and try to do as good as I can.

“I want to put in as much work as possible, enjoy playing and not be tense or nervous — I want to just relax,” she concluded. “And of course I want to want to pass all my classes and learn a lot. I’ll need it when I get to the harder classes.”

In 2017, Bowers was part of a Lady Raider softball team that went 24-5 and made it to the Western Regional Finals for the second consecutive year. Getting hot at the dish in the latter part of the season, she cranked six homers over a four-game span, including two two-homer games in the playoffs.

She batted .378 during her senior season, with a .549 on-base percentage and an .865 slugging percentage. She blasted a team second-best 10 home runs, and finished her career as Richmond’s all-time home run leader with 31. Bowers had 35 RBIs on 31 hits, 19 of which were for extra bases (10 homers, eight doubles and one triple).

Florida Southwestern State, coached by Robert Iamurri, the winningest high school softball coach in Florida’s history, went 53-5. The Buccaneers won the Suncoast Conference with a 19-1 record, and also won the FCSAA state title, before being eliminated in the NJCAA national playoffs.

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Griffin looking to “prove” herself with playing time at UNCW

Staying a little closer to home, Griffin will trade the green and gold of Richmond for the teal and gold of the Seahawks. A recruited walkon who committed in April, Griffin will be one of six outside hitters competing for playing time in 2018.

Set to head to the coast and move in Tuesday, Griffin has spent the summer preparing for her freshman season.

“I went to camp at UNCW from July 12 through July 25,” she said. “I helped coach some of the campers, and I was able to play some. In open gym, I got a feel for what it was like to play with my teammates, which was really good.

“We have also been working out together a lot, and doing every we can to prepare for the season,” she added. Griffin also took a psychology summer course at Richmond Community College, which she noted as giving her a jump start on her classes.

Understanding that she’s a freshman, Griffin is looking forward to growing with the Seahawks program over the next four years. Three of this year’s outside hitters are seniors (Halle Hunt, Maddy Kline and Katie McCullough), which gives Griffin a chance in the future to earn a starting role.

“I’m a recruited walkon, and playing time is still going to be tough to get this season,” Griffin said. “There are six outsides on the team, so it’ll be especially tough this first year. But I think in the next few years, if I work hard, I’ll see the court a lot more.”

Unlike Bowers, who plays a spring semester sport, Griffin’s volleyball season is only a matter of weeks away from beginning. When asked about her feelings of starting a new chapter, she said she was “excited and a little nervous.”

“We start on Aug. 8,” Griffin said. “I’m looking forward to being with the team, forming a bond with them and playing more volleyball. This is the most volleyball I’ve ever played or practiced — which I’m glad to be able to do. Preseason will be a lot of work in just 10 days, and our first match is on Aug.18 (exhibition against UNC-Greensboro).

“I definitely feel like I have something to prove,” she added. “I don’t have as much experience as some of the other girls, and I need to show them I deserve to be on the team. I want to show the coaches they made the right choice, and hopefully I can do that.”

Griffin explained that UNCW requires a certain number of hours to be earned before students can officially declare a major, but she is leaning toward the exercise science program. This fall, her schedule is “crammed,” as her volleyball schedule dictates a lot, as she can’t have courses before 8 a.m. or after 3 p.m., and Fridays need to be open so she can travel with the team.

Some courses Griffin is taking this semester are biology, philosophy and theater — all general education classes that are required for the exercise science program.

“I’m excited to be in a bigger city, which is funny to say because some of my teammates are from Orlando, Raleigh and Los Angeles,” Griffin said. “I told them how big I thought Wilmington was and they laughed and said it wasn’t that big. But compared to Hamlet it’s huge and it has so much more to offer — it makes me appreciate Richmond County and tight-knit community.

“With school, I want to maintain good grades, and get all As hopefully,” she concluded. “I’ll transfer after four years to go into a physical therapy program, but I hope to get a feel for it at Wilmington. Athletically, I want get some playing time, but I don’t expect a lot (this season). I just want to see how it is and say that I played.”

As a junior and senior at Richmond, Griffin was an instrumental part of a momentous run that resulted in back-to-back conference championship teams, including a historic 25-0 run during the 2017 regular season and Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament. During both of those seasons, Griffin was named to the all-conference team, and nabbed the conference “player of the year” honor twice. She also racked up a team-high 259 kills last season.

The Seahawks, coached by Amy Bambenek,  will enter the 2018 season against UNCG looking to rebound from a subpar season in 2017 (11-17), which was its first losing season since it posted the same record in 2012.

ROSports would like to wish both players continued academic and athletic success in college.



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Kyle Pillar is a 22-time North Carolina Press Association award-winning sports editor with The Richmond Observer. Follow the sports department on X @ROSports_ for the best in-depth coverage of Richmond County sports.