Bowman excelling in tennis, baseball all at once
April 27, 2018
Jarrett Bowman is the guy who walks the hallways with neon outfits and a smile.
He also walks the mound and across the court in the spring, which is nothing new to him.
“I started T-ball when I was three or four, and then I started tennis in eighth grade because a lot of my friends were doing it, and I had known my dad did it in high school,” Bowman said.
Bowman is a multi-sport athlete, like many others. But he’s a rare two-sport, same-season athlete.
And take it from him — it’s time consuming.
“It’s very tough,” Bowman said. “For me personally, to do those two and keep up with school is very difficult. What I did this year to make sure I didn’t miss as much school work is I don’t have a fifth block either day, and that’s when you get out for sports. Maybe it would work better if you’re a senior than a junior when you can have empty blocks,”
Managing a schedule for two teams in the same season could be symbolized by watching a tennis match from the sideline watching the ball just bounce back and forth.
“That is the fun part, not really fun but, before the season started I just kind of alternated days between practice,” Bowman said. “Now that it’s like well into the season, I make sure the day before a tennis meet I’m at tennis practice. Same thing with baseball.
Unless I have back-to-back days, like one day is baseball next is tennis, which happens a lot. And I’m still kind of struggling to kind of fix the kinks there, but I’m trying to do my best.”
Besides the swing of an arm, tennis and baseball could be total opposites, including the physicality.
“You run a lot more in tennis I would say,” Bowman said. “At least for me. I’m a pitcher only when it comes to baseball, so I don’t do much running. There’s a lot of sprinting back and forth — I get tired more in tennis I would say. It’s more physically demanding I think than baseball. You have to be more physically fit in tennis than in baseball.”
Bowman signed with Barton Community College in December for tennis after his high school career turned out better than he originally thought when he started.
“I just kind of wanted to see if I was good at it and I turned out a lot better than I expected,” he said.
It might be challenging, but Bowman’s passion for both sports is what made the decision easy to play both sports again.
“I just like being at the games,” he said. “They’re two sports that I really enjoy. I just kind of told myself before my senior season, I knew I was going to go to college for tennis, and this is gonna be my last season for baseball. I’m just going to enjoy every moment of it, it doesn’t matter if it’s going good or bad — just enjoy it.”
