Three years after he graduated from Walker Valley High School and nearly five years since his last season behind center, Seth Bowers is set to begin his college football career as a Glenville State quarterback.

Bowers is heading to the NCAA Division II school in West Virginia today to get settled in before training camp starts Aug. 5. He figures he’s waited long enough.

A 6-foot-2, 150-pound junior quarterback when Walker Valley won its first region championship in 2003, he moved to receiver with the arrival of transfer Corey Boatman the next year. He put in a year and a half or so studying at Cleveland State and Lee University, where he played intramural flag football, and has spent two years digging ditches and installing sprinkler heads in new construction and commercial jobs for Kaylor Irrigation in Cleveland.

“He has worked like a dog. Hard work sometimes motivates a kid in the right direction,” said his father, Mickey Bowers.

Seth is a little bigger (6-3, 175) and a lot stronger from the experience, and he thinks he’s considerably more mature. He knows he’s more motivated to get a college degree.

“The work I’ve been doing let me know I need to get my education. The football scholarship is just icing on the cake,” Bowers said Friday.

Googling “spread offense” on the Internet, he said Glenville State “popped up.” He called the head coach, Alan Fiddler, who invited him up for a tryout in April. From there came an offer with both athletic and academic grant money.

“They’ve got a quarterback coming back who was the starter at least the second half of last season,” Bowers said. “I know who he is, but I don’t know the other quarterbacks. But I’m as excited as I can be to get this chance. The Lord’s really blessed me.”

The Pioneers have a 21-9 WVIAC record for Fiddler’s four years.

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