The player whose preparation was lauded as “meticulous” by his coaches and teammates was thrust into a situation for which he could not anticipate. Today, he should have been making his final preparations to play Dartmouth on Princeton’s Sherrerd Field. Instead, Sowers, along with Madalon and Mitchell, are fielding messages from college coaches around the country.
“I have told coaches that I am going to be very disorganized, especially in the next couple days, because I never considered a Plan B,” Sowers said. “I never thought that I would need one.”
Sowers does not know the exact number of coaches who reached out to him but did say the outpouring was huge.
“I am super grateful,” he said. “It's like the recruiting process, but obviously a bit more unique. It has been overwhelming how generous these coaches are. The hardest part for me is that I can only pick one school at the end of the day. Unfortunately, that school can't be Princeton where my heart is and where I poured the last four years into.
“My heart is at Princeton. Those are the guys that I want to play with, and I put my heart and a lot of hard work into the last four years.”
The most difficult part of yesterday’s news for Sowers was realizing that he would not be returning to Nassau Street and get one more chance to play with the same group. Still, the two-time captain who Madalon described the week before the 2020 season started as “over-thoughtful” and a “selfless superstar” wanted to make sure the conversation did not dwell on his situation.
“There are other people at Princeton and outside the Ivy League who are not going to have the opportunity to go play at another school,” he said. “It’s just the reality. I think that’s the most devastating part of this whole thing. There are so many kids that love their sport and what they do, but they’re never going to get the opportunity to play it again.”
While there will be many questions to answer in the coming weeks, Sowers does know what he’s looking for wherever he gets the opportunity to play next.
“Great academics, obviously, but I want to go win a national championship,” he said. “That’s been my goal since I’ve been at Princeton. I want to win a national championship and bring one to a group of guys that is a special locker room. That’s what we had at Princeton. I want to provide that spark to a locker room and fit into a culture where I can put a program in the best position to win a national championship.”