Airedales’ Bowen perfect leader for defensive coordinator Jones
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
Trey Bowen is surprised he leads the team in tackles. He shouldn’t be.
“Really?” he said.
Indeed, Trey.
“That surprises me,” Bowen said.
“He’s definitely not close to being the best athlete out there, and maybe not even the most physical, but he’s going to be in the right spot and get his team lined up correctly,” Alma defensive coordinator Zach Jones said. “Leadership-wise, he’s the perfect ‘Mike’ (middle) linebacker.”
The Alma linebacker had 18 tackles through the first two games and will carry 21 into the Airedales’ 5A-West opener with Clarksville next week. The Alma linebacker finished fifth in tackles in 2022 with 54.
More importantly, after some tweaks following the team’s opener last month at Van Buren, the Airedales have allowed just two second-half touchdowns (14 points) in the last two games - a 38-14 win over Siloam Springs and last week’s 35-0 rout of Pryor, Okla.
“We all get along very well,” Bowen said. “We’ve all been playing together for a long time. We had some new people come in over the summer, but we all try to get along, and we get along really well.”
Jones, the team’s first-year defensive coordinator, spent a big part of the spring and early summer plugging in players here and there to complete the defense. He flipped Eric Johnson, for example from left offensive guard to nose guard. He plugged in some other kids at cornerback.
But Jones knew exactly where No. 35 would be come late August when the Airedales opened the season at Van Buren.
“He’s a guy you can trust,” Jones said. “You know he’s going to be in the right spot. He’s a good leader at Mike linebacker; he’s really vocal. You know he’s going to give a great effort.
“We know what we’re getting with him.”
“He’s a tremendous weight-room guy, and I think that’s what put in position two years ago to be a football player for us,” Alma head coach Rusty Bush said. “He’s now a two-year starter. He was a 10-game starter for us last year, so coming back and being able to get on the field for us, he can look at the front and know where he needs to be. Seeing those things over and over, it’s made him a really good player.”
Bowen is a bit of an old-school throwback when it comes to today’s players. It’s not the size of the dog (Bowen is listed at 5-foot-10 and 170) pounds, but the dog in the fight.
“To be successful, we have to live by the standard and come in and go to work every day,” Bowen said. “We have to show up on time and be at practice.”
Bowen will step in as a fullback when needed, he said. But it’s the play on defense that drew him to football in the first place.
“I played football and soccer when I was young,” he said. “Football drew me in because you could be violent and be a man.”
Bowen had a career-high 11 tackles in the team’s home opener with Siloam Springs two weeks ago. That win lit a fire within, Bowen said.
“You get that big adrenaline rush and how exciting the football team can be,” he said. “It gives you a glimpse at the potential.”