Competitive spirit, positive attitude lifts Bowers to top of her
class One of the first things most people notice about Juliette
Bowers is she
’s always smiling. Whether she’s at the net playing a crucial
point in volleyball, or on the mound getting ready to toss a pitch
in softball, she invariably has a big smile on her face. To the
unaware observer, Bowers’ smile may seem like a reflection of her
ever-cheery personality, an outwar
d reflection of her good nature. Not entirely. While Bowers does
exude a perpetually upbeat attitude, her smile is about so much
more than that, reflecting a deep-seated competitive nature not
obvious to all. “When you smile, the other team can’t tell what
you’re thinking,” Bowers said. “A
nd, if you strike out (an opponent), it can make them mad, and
take their minds off the game. “I’m really competitive and I like
to win. I hate to lose.” No kidding. Bowers has smiled and battled
her way to a stellar high school sports career that included
earning all-league honors in both vol
leyball and softball in both her junior and senior years, and
leading both sports deep in the postseason. For those
accomplishments, Bowers is the Morgan Hill Times’ Female Athlete of
the Year.
Competitive spirit, positive attitude lifts Bowers to top of her class
One of the first things most people notice about Juliette Bowers is she’s always smiling. Whether she’s at the net playing a crucial point in volleyball, or on the mound getting ready to toss a pitch in softball, she invariably has a big smile on her face.
To the unaware observer, Bowers’ smile may seem like a reflection of her ever-cheery personality, an outward reflection of her good nature.
Not entirely.
While Bowers does exude a perpetually upbeat attitude, her smile is about so much more than that, reflecting a deep-seated competitive nature not obvious to all.
“When you smile, the other team can’t tell what you’re thinking,” Bowers said. “And, if you strike out (an opponent), it can make them mad, and take their minds off the game.
“I’m really competitive and I like to win. I hate to lose.”
No kidding.
Bowers has smiled and battled her way to a stellar high school sports career that included earning all-league honors in both volleyball and softball in both her junior and senior years, and leading both sports deep in the postseason.
For those accomplishments, Bowers is the Morgan Hill Times’ Female Athlete of the Year.
While Bowers experienced many individual highlights and accomplishments during her high school sports career, she said she will remember the relationships she formed and the success of her teams above all else. A talented and experienced club sport athlete in volleyball and softball, in which she competed at top levels, Bowers said she appreciated the camaraderie of her high school teams more than anything.
“I really enjoyed the experience of high school sports,” she said. “I was able to be with a lot of different groups of girls and form some great friendships. We were able to spend more time together as a team (in high school).”
And, Bowers said she learned an important lesson while leading the Acorn volleyball team into the NorCal playoffs for the first time in school history as a junior, then leading a very young LO softball team to an improbable CCS title as a senior.
“If I learned anything it’s that whatever team has the most heart will win,” Bowers said. “You have to want it.”
Despite her competitive nature, and perhaps partly because of it, Bowers was an absolute dream to coach, according to her LO mentors.
“She has such a great attitude as a leader,” LO softball coach Barry McDonnell said. “And, for a player to not only have the talent but the attitude is a real advantage for a coach.”
“It makes it fun because she’s such a great kid,” Acorn volleyball coach Laura Coleman said. “She doesn’t have an ego.”
Bowers also shined in the classroom, where she took AP courses and kept up a 4.0 gpa.
She’ll take her great attitude and smarts across the country to play softball at Canisius University in upstate New York next season.
