What do you call a team captain and four-year varsity starter who led her team to league titles all four years and played on a state champion girls’ soccer team in 2023? Wait, that’s not all: she also sports a grade point average over 100, earned top scores on all her Advanced Placement tests, and is a member of the National Honor Society.
Maybe you’d call her a superwoman. Her coach, Rich Savage, calls her Bowyn Brown.
“Bowyn has consistently demonstrated outstanding leadership, skill, and dedication,” Savage said. “Her superb footwork, remarkable field vision and ability to connect with teammates have been instrumental in her team’s success. Bowyn’s dominance in the air and her dribbling prowess make her a standout on both ends of the field.
“Over her four years, she helped lead Rye to four league titles, three Section I Class A championships, two trips to the NYS Final Four and a NYS Class A state title. Bowyn’s impact on the program exemplifies her commitment to excellence, making her a well-deserving recipient of this honor.”
Her latest honor was bestowed by the Rye Lions Club when, acting jointly with the High School Athletic Department, named her Rye’s Athlete of the Month for November.
Not only was Brown on the field for the Garnets’ 4-2 Sectional title win over Somers on Nov. 2, she led the team through regional play, shutting out New Paltz 4-0 on Nov. 7 and whitewashing Chenango Valley 6-0 two days later. Rye also took the lead against New Hartford in the New York State Final Four on Nov. 16, before the season came to an end with a 2-1 loss.
No one was more clear-headed about the loss than their captain.
“We suffered a couple of late losses like that this season,” Brown said. “It wasn’t due to stamina and fitness, I think it might have been a brief loss of focus. Still, everyone on the team played as hard as they could. And that bond as a group is thanks to Coach Savage.”
Turning to the classroom, Brown shared her favorite class: “I’ve always been a big one for language and literature, but I’d have to say AP Government. Our teacher, Kristin Warner, really keeps you motivated.”
Brown, whose heritage is half-Canadian, hasn’t made a final decision about where she’ll attend college, but she’s considering McGill University in Montreal, where her older brother goes.
She’s a member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a club that raised money for cancer research by running a soccer clinic for kids ages 6 through 13. Her community service also includes co-founding Partner Against Parkinson’s Always, a group that’s raised over $6,000 for Parkinson’s research.
“My grandfather passed away from Parkinson’s,” she said, “and it left a big hole in my life.”
Altogether, Brown’s community service, academic, and athletic success makes for an uncommon combination. Perhaps equally uncommon is her first name, Bowyn. So, how did her parents land on the name?
“It’s Irish,” she said. “My mother’s side of the family is Irish, and they didn’t want me to ever forget that. And I won’t.”
As with the other Athlete of the Month honorees, Bowyn is eligible to be named Rye High’s Athlete of the Year award when the Lions Club holds its annual Awards Luncheon at the end of the year.