Radnor’s Dave Bowen is Big 33 Bound

Validation came in a phone call during dinner in San Francisco. It came from a familiar voice, one that believed in him when many didn’t.

All Dave Bowen could do was smile when the 6-foot-7, 275-pound Radnor High School offensive tackle heard from 3,000 miles away that he had been selected to play in the Big 33 game, a prestigious high school all-star football game played in June, pitting the best players from Pennsylvania against the best from Ohio.

Put it this way, every Super Bowl has had at least one former Big 33 player in it, and the lengthy list of Big 33 alumni includes Joe Montana, Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett. The Boston College-bound Bowen will be added to that list after the June 18th Big 33 game is played at HersheyPark Stadium.

Bowen will become the first Radnor player to take part in the Big 33 Game in almost 30 years. Chris Sydnor, a current Radnor football assistant coach played in the 1982 game and went on to play for Penn State.

What makes Bowen’s selection so amazing is that he wasn’t even supposed to be in this position. Flash back to a year ago at this time and no one thought Bowen would be selected to any all-star game, let alone the Big 33.

Though Bowen had size, he needed work—a lot of work. He was coming off a junior season in which he barely played, starting only the last four games of his junior year.

But Radnor head coach Tom Ryan and offensive line coach Mick Bonner saw some things in Bowen that the teenager initially didn’t see in himself.

“I learned to dial things up on the field. I’m the nicest guy you’ll want to meet off the field, and you have to want to hurt somebody when you’re on the field. Let’s just say I was challenged in unique ways by the coaching staff this past year,” Bowen said.

“Every game Coach Bonner would challenge me to play to the best of my abilities. It fired me up. I thought it was good. I come from a family that plays golf and wouldn’t hurt an ant. That pretty much sums it up,” he continued.

Bowen began working last off-season with Bonner, developing his fast footwork—a strength considering how large he is—and working on his technique. He also attended a number of summer camps, and Boston College scooped him up, giving him a scholarship offer seemingly based more on Bowen’s potential than what he had accomplished on the field.

But since then he finished as a first-team all-Central League selection, a first-team all-state offensive lineman and narrowed the canyon-like chasm from “project” status to the player Boston College envisions him to be.

“There were definitely a lot of guys last year talking some trash about me going to BC… I heard a lot of different stuff, from BC is going to cut me, and things like I have to show them something better than that, which came after I pancaked the kid who said it,” said Bowen.

“I know I had a lot of doubters out there thinking BC wasted a scholarship on me.”

It was Radnor head coach Tom Ryan who first called Bowen with the Big 33 news. Bowen was in San Francisco with his father, Steve, there to watch Boston College play Nevada in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. A few minutes later, offensive line coach Mick Bonner also called to tell him about the selection.

Ryan said that Bowen’s “transformation” goes back before his junior year season when Bowen and Bonner spent hours training one-on-one.

“When I had heard that Dave made the Big 33, I immediately called him. I was thrilled, the coaching staff was thrilled. It was pretty cool for me to hear: Dave Bowen, Radnor High School, to be announced for the Big 33,” Ryan said.

 “All Dave’s hard work is paying off. My whole staff is going up for the game. We’re going to try and get as many Radnor people up there as possible,” he said.

 For Bowen, being a Big 33 selection was validating.

 “Playing in the Big 33 is something I can’t wait for; things are a lot more real now than when I committed orally to BC in August,” Bowen said. “Now I’m getting ready for Boston College and I’m trying to keep it sane and trying to stay humble about everything. This is all hard to describe, really. I’m getting ready to compete with some of the best athletes in the country. It shows I proved myself this past year—and obviously playing in the Big 33 proves some of the doubters wrong.”