It’s been a busy spring for Drayk Bowen.
For the second spring, the two-sport star has balanced baseball and football, but this year is a bit different as Bowen is also traveling with Shawn Stiffler’s club.
Notre Dame’s road trip to North Carolina this weekend will be the first road trip and series Bowen will miss with his baseball teammates as he’ll be in South Bend to take part in a crucial scrimmage with Marcus Freeman’s team.
Bowen, a former MLB Draft prospect, has appeared in three games with one at-bat and scored one run for the Irish this spring, but if nothing else, the St. John (Ind.) native has shown he’s committed to playing baseball.
“Busy,” Bowen said of the last three months. “Traveling with baseball on the weekends has made it a lot busier as far as going from football to class to baseball and back to football on Monday mornings, getting back on Sunday nights.”
The Fighting Irish baseball team also travels a little differently than football, as there aren’t charter flights on most weekends. Notre Dame buses to Chicago before they step on a plane, which also means they have to bus back to South Bend.
That means Sundays are long for everyone in the baseball program. It’s not easy getting back past 2:00 am and going to class, but in Bowen’s case, he’s often at football workouts early in the morning on Monday and hasn’t missed a football workout.
“I haven’t missed any practices,” said Bowen.“I haven’t missed any weightlifting or anything like that. I haven’t missed anything with baseball. It’s been a pretty good schedule for me as far as football and baseball.”
There is also the 20-hour rule and yes, Bowen does need rest every now and then. Tuesday is his scheduled off day, but Bowen was on the practice field by choice this week.
“Anything I do is optional,” Bowen said of why he practiced on Tuesday.“Anything that I want to come to, I told the coaches that if I want to go, but it’s optional. They both agreed that it’s optional. So, anything I want to do is optional, but most of the time, it’s just stealing a few hours here and there.
“On the weekends, just sleeping in as much as I can, taking a nap when I can. That’s really been what I’ve been able to do.”
On the football field, Bowen has worked as Notre Dame’s starting Mike for all of the spring as JD Bertrand is off to the NFL. That means Bowen’s taking a much higher workload and holds more responsibility in Al Golden’s defense in 2024.
Bowen also has to take on a leadership role, whichincludes taking ownership of the defense and covering upmistakes.
“I think it’s just being more of a leader on the team,” Bowen said of having more responsibility. “Being able to learn where everyone is going to be at and making sure they are in the right spots and playing off of them if they’re not.”
The 6-foot-2, 234-pounder learned a great deal from JD Bertrand a year ago and is soaking up knowledge from Jack Kiser this spring.
Perhaps the biggest observation Bowen took from his freshman year was how Bertrand knew the entire defense and was able to know when to take risks or when his help was needed. Bowen’s focus this spring is becoming Bertrand-like in that area of the game as he looks to run the Irish defense.
“When I first got here, I was trying to learn my position, the linebacker positions and what everyone did,” explained Bowen. “As I progressed in the fall and now, I learned what everyone’s supposed to be doing, where everyone’s fitting. That helps me if somebody’s not fitting where they’re supposed to be or not where they’re supposed to be, I can make them right and see that pretty quickly.”
Notre Dame linebackers coach Max Bullough isn’t concerned about Bowen’s schedule as his linebacker has proved he can handle it while also being a productive football player.
“He did a good job last year,” explained Bullough. “He came in, he's a true freshman. He was able to handle the defensive and, by fall camp, he was someone that we were confident to put in the game. So, that in and of itself within the first six months of being here, tells you something, right? Then his ability on top of that is what's kind of pushed him through.”
Bowen arrived at Notre Dame known for his big hits and athleticism. That’s only improved over the last year as he’s added between 12-15 pounds of muscle.
“I feel a lot stronger,” Bowen said. “Being able to go up against linemen that big and as good as our linemen are, you have to be strong. You have to be able to move them and not be moved. That’s definitely helped being in the middle a lot. You have to be in the line more than most. I feel like that’s helped me to really be in the box and play against the big linemen.”
The schedule might be brutal for some, but Bowen was up before 6:00 am in high school doing workouts to prepare to play two sports in college.
In fact, Bowen has been working toward this opportunity for years in advance of college and now it’s on him to make the most of it.
“I’ve trained my whole life for this,” said Bowen.“I’ve wanted to do this my whole life. This is something that I’ve dreamed of ever since I was a little kid. I feel like I’ve always prepared for this moment. I just gotta go take it.”
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