SELINSGROVE, (Pa.) - Shikellamy High School career passing leader and 1998 second-team All-Pennsylvania Big School selection Mike Bowman of Northumberland will continue his academic and football careers at Susquehanna University.
The 5-11, 170-pound Bowman earned all-state honors as he led all area quarterbacks in passing as a senior last season, completing 136 of 279 passes (48.7%) for 2,229 yards with 22 touchdowns against just 13 interceptions. Combined with his 2,310 yards and 28 passing TDs with just seven interceptions as a junior, Bowman became Shikellamy's career passing record-holder by completing 277 of 555 passes (49.9%) for 4,584 yards and 50 touchdowns against just 20 interceptions (124.7 pass efficiency rating).
In addition to his all-state selection, Bowman was chosen last season for the Platinum 33 Team honoring prep seniors by The Patriot-News newspaper, the All-Anthracite Team by the Reading Eagle-Times - earning Outstanding Offensive Player honors, the second-team All-Stars by The Daily Item newspaper, the first-team Central Susquehanna Conference All-Stars, and was named the Northumberland County Most Valuable Player. As a junior, he was a first-team All-Star by The Daily Item, and was a second-team CSC All-Star.
In addition to earning three varsity football letters, Bowman was a three-year letterwinner and starting guard on the Shikellamy boys' basketball team - breaking the school record for career assists while finishing fifth in career scoring with 1,024 points. He was a first team CSC All-Star as a junior, with this season's team yet to be released. He was a two-year team captain in basketball, also serving as a captain in football last fall.
"We are extremely delighted to have Mike with us. He is an excellent student and one of the best quarterbacks in the state. He'll be a very good college football player," says Susquehanna head football coach Steve Briggs, who completed his ninth season last fall and is the winningest coach in program history at 61-31 (.663).
"He can break every one of my passing records there - probably in three games," mused Shikellamy head coach Ernie Tyler, a 1972 Susquehanna graduate who was inducted into the school's Sports Hall of Fame in 1977 after being an All-Lutheran and All-Middle Atlantic Conference quarterback at the school. "Susquehanna is getting a quality football player and real fine young man."
Bowman will be a mathematics major at Susquehanna and is the son of Rich and Jan Bowman of Northumberland.
He will join a Susquehanna football team that shared the school's first Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth League title in 1998, finishing 4-1 in the league and 6-3 overall. The Crusaders won at co-champion Widener, 28-24 in the season-finale, to earn a share of the title in the six-year-old league.
Long-time Shikellamy head coach and Susquehanna Hall of Famer and 1958 graduate Dick Purnell coaches the quarterbacks at Susquehanna. Sophomore Shawn Dodge is also a returning letterwinner at split end from Shikellamy, while Bowman's quarterback predecessor at Shikellamy, Josh Pahl, is a free safety with the Crusaders.
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