Frontier’s Gaige Bowersock to play football at Marietta College
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NEW MATAMORAS -- Gaige Bowersock made it official on Wednesday afternoon.
The Frontier High School senior will continue his career as a student-athlete at Marietta College for head football coach Andy Waddle.
The newest member of the Division III Pioneers was a four-year letterman for the Cougars of head man Russ Morris.
Bowersock played guard and defensive end.
The 6-foot-2 now 225-pounder led the Cougars with six sacks and was recruited to be a defensive end.
"That's what I was mostly wanting to do, play defense in college," said Bowersock, who carries a 4.0 GPA at Frontier and a 3.7 GPA at the Washington County Career Center.
"I like defense better than offense. I'll play offense if they need me, but I prefer defense."
Including this spring, where Bowersock will play first on the baseball team, he'll have earned six varsity letters.
"I was 17 when I played football. I turned 18 in December," noted Bowersock, who hopes to perhaps grow a little more and get plenty stronger.
"Mostly, it's been at my house. I take a lifting class at Frontier now."
The Cougar said his financial aid package was "really good" and he's "thinking" about majoring in business or land energy management.
One of the top draws of going to Marietta College was "mostly because it's close to home and my friends and family can come and watch and it's kind of our hometown team.
"I like the campus. It's pretty nice. It's an older college, but for an older college it's really nice and the football field looks really good. The past few years I've watched a couple games there."
His senior year was quite special as the Cougars finished 5-4 overall and more importantly became the first team in four tries to win a postseason game, which the Cougars did by rolling Fairfield Christian, 54-13, in the opening round of the Division VII playoffs.
"That was at our place. We got home advantage on that one," said the first team all-Ohio Valley Athletic Conference selection who also earned all-district and third team all-Ohio honors.
"We came out with fire and everybody was dedicated to that game. Everybody wanted that first playoff win. It was something special. Everybody was non-stop fight the whole game."
Bowersock knows being a student-athlete at the next level means "I'll just have to put my head in the books a little more" but he's confident going in academically.
When asked about future goals he admitted "it would be nice to hopefully get back to my level as a high school player and earn some awards."
For the time being, though, he's dedicated to having as much success with his teammates that he can on the diamond.
"I love football, but I know it's my last year so right now I'm just trying to focus on baseball and do the best I can, and once baseball is over just get back to football mode.
"I just want to thank all my friends and family who support my decisions and made me work harder throughout my life."
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com