Bowers and Smith Hits Their 100th Win Receiving Gamers of the Week Honors
Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc. and The Putnam Herald are pleased to present this week’s male Gamers of the Week to Seniors, William Smith and Dyson Bowers the Winfield High School wrestling team.
This has been one crazy year with hybrid learning, virtual classrooms, and the delay of winter sports, but that has not stopped two seniors from Winfield High School from reaching their 100th win in their wrestling career. Dyson Bowers and William Smith are both senior captains for the Winfield High School wrestling team with this being Bowers second year leading the team.
Bowers has been wrestling since elementary school and enjoys the individual aspect of the sport very much. During the off-season, Dyson spends most of his time training in the gym along with his teammate William. Smith has been wrestling for the past seven years and got into wrestling when he moved to Winfield and wanted to try a new sport. Smith comments, “I like the individual aspect of wrestling because you’re basically relying on yourself out there.” Bowers added, “And if you lose, it’s on you and it’s not really on anyone else.”
Senior Dyson Bowers is a two-time State Qualifier and Cardinal Conference Champion. His current record is 23-2 on the season for the 138 lb. weight class where 9 of his wins were by way of pin. Bowers received his 100th win at a quad hosted at Poca High School on March 16, 2021 and is currently sitting on 103 total wins. Bowers said the night he got his 100th win, he came into it with 97 wins and would face 3 opponents that night, thus he had to win every match that night to get his 100th win. “It’s cool to see all the people I once looked up to on the team, the upperclassmen, who did make it to 100 wins and to be on the poster with them is pretty cool as well.”
Senior William Smith is a three-time State Qualifier. His current record is 20-3 on the season for the 120 lb. weight class where 6 of his wins were by way of pin. Smith received his 100th win at a quad hosted at Williamstown High School on March 20, 2021 and expects several more wins before the season is through.
Coach Mike Cochran commented on Bowers and Smith’s 100th win. “The 100th mark, the century mark is a pretty big milestone for wrestling because you have to average at least 25 matches or wins a season and that’s kind of difficult when you have a pretty good schedule. We usually have a fairly competitive schedule so there is nothing guaranteed. There’s very few easy wins and forfeits to pick up those victories.” “It was business as usual for their achievements. They just wrestled like they were supposed to and got their victories.” Says Coach Cochran.
Coach Cochran also commented on how it has been a great four years working with Dyson and William. “They’ve worked really hard, and you can tell by the way they conduct themselves that wrestling really means a lot to them, and most of the time I can pretty much count on them.” Bowers and Smith were voted as team captains by the rest of their teammates at the beginning of the season. “They’ve been pretty good role models and have the respect of their fellow teammates. They try to lead by example and by work really hard the previous three years, have carried them through to their senior year which has been a crazy year.”
Both Bowers and Smith plan to qualify for states this year in hopes of placing in this year’s state tournament. As captains, their goal for the team is to get as many people to states as possible. Bowers commented, “We’ve been doing pretty well in the past few years. We are getting a decent amount of our weight classes to states.” Smith adds, “It would be pretty cool to have a couple place this year too.”
After high school, William plans to attend West Virginia Tech where he will major in engineering. Dyson plans to attend West Virginia State University, but his major is currently undecided.
Please look for other local high school athletes to be named in next week’s male Gamer of the Week Sponsored by Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc., and The Putnam Herald.