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“I think he’ll go down as one of the best athletes in history at Cassville,“ said Wildcats baseball coach Brandon Cobb.
Bowen Preddy competed as a multi-sport athlete in his time at Cassville. He’s most known in the fall for his impact as a two-way player on the football team, which led Cassville to a second-place finish at state.
“I felt that we were good, but when we went to state that was just awesome,“ Preddy said.
But each year come spring, he swaps out his football jersey for a baseball cap — like he’s committed to do next year at Evangel. with an equal love for both sports he hoped for equal success on the baseball field this spring.
“He was actually 26 hits away from the school record and 12 stolen bases away from the school record,“ Cobb said.
“Yeah, I felt like I could’ve done it halfway through the season with how motivated I was,“ Preddy said.
Those baseball records weren’t the only records he wanted to break, and his coaches planned to work the schedule so he could break a couple track records as well.
“We were talking about him as a senior having a chance to come out for one meet if not more, and try to break the school record and either the 100m dash or 200m both. Which I think he could’ve possibly done,“ said Cassville track coach Clay Weldy.
“I think he be close right now. He works extremely hard, but he’s pretty naturally gifted,“ Cobb said.
Bowen hasn’t been training for the 100m dash. He hasn’t even ran track since his freshman year. Back then he was only .3 of a second from beating the school record, so we thought we’d come down to Cassville and put him to the test.
“I think I’ll be pretty close I think, I mean if I don’t get it at least I got a chance,“ Preddy said.
Football coach Lance Parnell and Track coach Clay Weldy taking the time.
“I had you 11.32, he had you 11.28,” Parnell said.
The school record is 11.01, but getting this close speaks for itself.
“The fact that he got up and off the street and did that is pretty impressive,” Weldy said. “I think if he would’ve been able to train he could’ve possibly been a sub-11 kid this year possibly.”
“I mean I can live with it. It was close,“ Preddy said.
Hopefully this can bring bowen a little closure on what would’ve likely been a record-setting season.
