Growing stock
By Will Hammock
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It started out as a normal lunch in the Parkview cafeteria.
Stephen Gowland and his friends were eating at school in late May when a trip from Parkview head football coach livened the mood. In Flowe’s hand was a letter.
Not just any letter.
This one was sent overnight from the Ohio State coaching staff, offering the rising senior a football scholarship. It wasn’t his first offer — Troy State got that distinction — but it was the biggest by far.
“It was kind of a shock,” Gowland said. “I expected to play somewhere in college but I hadn’t heard much of anything from them before then. It was awesome. It was pretty exciting.
“Everyone at my lunch table was congratulating me. I was just ecstatic.”
Almost three months later, the Ohio State offer remains Gowland’s premier one, although he expects more to come. Wake Forest also has offered a scholarship, and a long list of SEC and ACC schools have expressed serious interest.
The tight end, who also will start at defensive end this season, also lists Auburn, Georgia, Florida and Ole Miss among his favorites, although those schools haven’t extended an official offer.
Gowland file
Who: Parkview’s Stephen Gowland
Height: 6-4
Weight: 220
College choices: Ohio State, Wake Forest, Troy State, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Ole Miss
Gowland’s take: “Weight is probably the biggest thing I need from what (Auburn assistant Greg) Coach Knox told me. He said, ‘I know you can play in the SEC. You have the skills.’ They’re just concerned about my weight.”
Coach Cecil Flowe’s take: “He’s a three-year starter and he’s being recruited by a lot of people. He’s got a couple of offers already, and I mean they are big offers.”
The recruiters’ main concern appears to be Gowland’s weight. At 6-foot-4, he weighs 220 pounds and will need to bulk up before college football. He’s already 20 pounds heavier than his junior playing weight and hopes to get up to 235 before he reports to college.
“I’ve always been a pretty skinny kid with low body fat,” Gowland said. “I’ve been doing workouts like crazy and eating every time I get the chance. I eat a lunch third period. I eat a lunch fifth period. I eat after school.”
Gowland sparked the interest from colleges with an exceptional junior season, one where he proved to be a tremendous receiver from the tight end position. He caught 20 passes for 456 yards (a 22.8 yard per catch average) and three touchdowns. He impressed the Parkview staff with his agility and speed, quickly becoming one of the team’s top targets.
A longtime baseball player who didn’t play organized football until seventh grade, Gowland has run as fast as 4.59 seconds in the 40-yard dash and has a vertical jump of 31 inches. But Parkview head coach Cecil Flowe also praises the blocking and strength of Gowland, who bench presses 330 pounds and holds his school’s weight-class record of 370 pounds in the hang clean.
“He can catch the ball,” Flowe said of Gowland. “He’s developed his feet and he’s a real tenacious blocker, which are the things we work on every day.”
This year the Parkview coaches have worked on getting Gowland more involved on the defense, where he played sparingly last season. This year he will start at defensive end, a taxing duty for someone so involved on offense and special teams.
But he wouldn’t have it any other way. He can’t wait to get back on the field, particularly after Parkview’s painful loss to Newnan in last year’s quarterfinals, only the fourth loss ever for one of Gowland’s football teams.
“At our scrimmage, they brought in my backup and I was mad, I didn’t want to come out,” Gowland said. “It will be a little different going both ways. The stamina is the main thing because our defense is known for its relentlessness, getting 11 hats to the ball. It’s tough because as soon as you’re finished on defense, you’re on offense running pass routes. And I’m on all but one special team.”
The extra time on the field will be more plays in front of recruiters, and possibly more Division I offers. While some players are annoyed by the recruiting process, Gowland said it’s been fun and in a way unexpected.
He didn’t even realize the recruiters’ serious interest until spring practice, when Vanderbilt coaches stopped by to watch him practice.
“It’s really exciting,” Gowland said of recruiting. “A lot of guys are talking with me at school about it and Coach Flowe always has a huge stack of letters for me. It’s real fun. I’ve been working real hard for this for a long time, so it’s nice to see it come into something positive.”
