New Town QB Signs with Grambling State

As Dari-Lee Barnes began to co-sign a National Letter of Intent for her son to play football at Grambling State University, the pen New Town quarterback Shawheem Dowdy used moments earlier abruptly ran out of ink.

“Uh oh,” said Dowdy, playfully pretending to be worried. “Do we have a back-up pen?”

Brief technical malfunctions weren’t about to bring Dowdy down on a morning that otherwise could not have gone much better for Dowdy and his mother.

After three-and-a-half years of hard work at —both in the classroom and on the football field—Dowdy agreed to attend Division I-AA Grambling State in the fall, .

“The first thing that comes to mind is no tuition,” said Barnes, who couldn’t help but smile through much of the morning as her 17-year-old son put pen to paper on National Signing Day, which was aired on the high school’s morning announcements Wednesday.

“This is big,” she continued. “He puts in a lot of work in terms of he needs to do for football and school.”

Dowdy, who immediately changed into a Grambling State hoodie following the signing, said he loved the weather in Louisiana when he visited the school nearly two weeks ago.

He also loved the make-up of the football program’s staff.

“All the coaches that coach there all previously were in the NFL,” said Dowdy, hinting at his future aspirations. “They’ve been there before.”

Joe Holland, New Town’s head football coach, said Dowdy was fortunate to play at Grambling State. He’s the first player Holland has coached in his four years at New Town High School to be signed by a Division I program.

Dowdy earned his scholarship offer, Holland said, after dedicating himself to football and the classroom following a freshman year in which he was ruled ineligible for bad grades. 

But Dowdy grew up in the next three years, ultimately turning himself into a solid student and a leader on Holland’s football team. 

“He dedicated himself in the off seasons,” Holland said. “This year, everything culminated and it showed on the field.”

Dowdy, , said he grew up in the last several years.

“New Town made me a mature young man,” Dowdy said. “They taught me how to be a leader.”

Dowdy will have to learn a few new things at Grambling State, where he’ll major in sports marketing with a minor in mass communications.

Aside from living away from home and managing a college course load, he’ll need to learn how to play defense, too.

Though Dowdy was an , Grambling State is more interested in the 6-foot-3, 222-pound athlete as a free safety, a position the senior said he’s more than willing to play.

Not that Dowdy is giving up on being the Tigers’ future signal caller.

“My heart and soul is as a quarterback,” Dowdy said. 

Regardless of what position Dowdy plays on the field, his mother said she would try not to miss a single home game. She said her home in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where she gave birth to Dowdy before moving to Owings Mills 12 years ago, is at the top of her list for vacation spots, but Grambling, LA, will move up that list during football season.

“I told him to actually go where is heart tells him,” Barnes said. “And Grambling is where he wants to be. It paid off.”

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