CWU’s own Samantha Bowman exceeded 1,000 career rebounds during the women’s basketball game on Jan. 7, making her the first ever student-athlete at CWU to surpass 1,000 in both points and rebounds. 

When asked what makes her such a great rebounder, Bowman explained that rebounding is all about effort. Crashing the boards and pursuing the ball every play is no easy feat, but she prides herself in her work ethic as well as crediting her coaching staff for her determination on the court. 

“It’s hard to continue to pursue the ball and attack the boards every play of the game, a lot of people aren’t willing to work that hard,” Bowman said. “I pride myself in my work ethic. My coaches have developed me into a really hard worker. My strength coach told me my freshman year that usually when we feel like we’re at our breaking point, it’s about 40% of what we can actually do physically.”

She then went on to explain how this is a quote she comes back to often during challenging points of her games.

“In games when I feel exhausted like I can’t give any more, I go back to that and think ‘I can physically give more, I just need to push myself mentally,’ because the first thing that’s going to go is your mind. [Once] you fix that, you can accomplish a lot,” Bowman said.

Though Bowman was aware that she may cross the milestone heading into the game, she said she had mixed feelings given the team’s fall to Simon Fraser University (SFU). 

“I actually didn’t think about my rebounds at all just because we did lose and it was a hard loss,” Bowman said. “There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’ so it really didn’t matter how well I did because it’s not about individual success, it’s about team success.”

Despite falling short, CWU demonstrated a persistent effort in their scoring attempts. Bowman led the team with 23 points, followed by Valerie “Sunshine” Huerta with 11 points and close behind Claire Heitschmidt with 10 points.

Head Coach Randi Richardson had good things to say about Bowman’s career achievements. According to Richardson, there aren’t many people out there that care as much or put as much effort into what they do as Sam. As a coach, it’s a dream for her.

“She’s been an absolute joy to coach and a major impact player for our program,” Richardson said. “She has the humility to look at her weaknesses and an eagerness to work upon them which is why you’ve seen the development that you’ve seen in Sam in her time here.” 

Richardson also expressed her conflicted emotions about it being Bowman’s final season here at CWU.

“It’s always hard to see seniors graduate, especially the ones that have been a part of your program since they were freshmen,” Richardson said. “One of the most rewarding things of my job is seeing them come in as young women right out of high school and seeing them develop into the women that they’ll be for the next stage of their life.”

Bowman’s recent efforts have resulted in her winning GNAC Player of the Week for the third time this season.