The 2022-23 NCAA Division II National Player of the Year had served in a part-time assistant coaching role with the Wildcats program last winter, and she expressed her interest to Director of Athletics Dennis Francois about sticking around if any full-time positions became available.
As luck would have it, the full-time assistant coach job opened up for the 2025 season, and Bowman ('23, '24) jumped at the opportunity.
"I started working with the team last offseason and really enjoyed myself," said Bowman, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's all-time leading rebounder. "I told Dennis that I would be interested in staying with the team, so we sat down with the new coach, John Hawks, and they offered me the full-time assistant job."
Bowman grew up playing basketball and volleyball, but she has always had an appreciation for soccer. The tactical nature of the game is similar to basketball, with the biggest differences being more players on the field and fewer opportunities to score.
Going into the recently completed season, she felt like she could help the rebuilding Wildcats improve their mental game and teach them to develop a winning attitude after the program struggled to keep pace in the GNAC over the past few seasons.
"Being a successful athlete takes a certain level of grit, and these girls all have it in them," Bowman said. "My job isn't really to teach them the technical skills of soccer; it's more about the other 5 percent, the mental game. Our goal this season was to push the limits of what the players thought they were capable of, and realize they could accomplish so much more than they thought."
Under Hawks and Bowman, the Wildcats showed significant improvement this fall, winning three more games than in 2024, including two GNAC contests, and finishing 4-7-6 overall. Hawks is pleased with the progress the team made this season, and while he admits there's much work left to be done, he believes they are on the right track.
"We were a better team year over year, but we're not nearly where we want to be," he said. "The good news is that the girls are motivated and encouraged, and we're starting to see some tangible results after five straight losing seasons in league play."
Assistant Coach Sam Bowman works with the CWU goalkeepers in early September.
Hawks, who joined the CWU staff as an assistant coach in 2024, credited Bowman with bringing a winning mindset to a program that seeks to return to the standards it set in 2016, when the 'Cats went 14-6-1 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division II West Regional.
"Winners are winners for a reason, and Sam is the definition of a winner," Hawks said. "One thing I've noticed about high-level athletes is the way they consistently go about their craft. Sam embodies that elite level of discipline, and when you surround yourself with winners like her, it's infectious. That's why I'm so excited to have her on our coaching staff."
Hawks also pointed to Bowman's ability to relate to the players on a number of different levels — as a woman, as a college athlete, and as a peer.
"It's so valuable for our players to see how Sam goes about her business," he said. "She meets them where they are while also helping them understand what they can do as individuals and as a team to help us achieve new levels of excellence. Sam knows what it's like to operate at an extremely high level, and we are very fortunate to have her expertise in our locker room."
Winning Mindset
Hawks joined the CWU staff in the summer of 2024 after spending five years with GNAC rival Northwest Nazarene (NNU), serving as associate head coach for two seasons before assuming the role of interim head coach in 2023.
CWU senior captains Casey Park, left, and Annelise Bauman created a locker room culture this year that coach John Hawks called "awesome to witness."
He stepped into a leadership position with the Wildcats late last season when former head coach Lindsey Lee was on maternity leave, overseeing the offseason training and recruitment programs before Lee stepped down in March.
Hawks said he has noticed many similarities between this year's Wildcats and the NNU teams he helped lead from 2019-23.
"That program had one winning season in 20 years, and after showing some improvement in year one, we had four winning years in a row," he said. "Just like this team, we had a great group in the locker room; they just needed to learn how to win."
In Hawks' second-to-last season at NNU, the team finished second in league play and pushed eventual national champion Western Washington to the limit in the GNAC championship game.
Now that the expectations have been set, he believes the Wildcats can take another positive step next season if they commit to a strenuous offseason training regimen.
"I'm super excited because I see a lot of similarities in the spirit of this group compared to the teams I had at NNU," the coach said. "Everyone is contributing in their own unique way, and they're learning to compete at a high level every time they take the field. That has been super encouraging for me to see."
Hawks applauded senior captains Annelise Bauman and Casey Park for their leadership this season, crediting them with building a culture that made everyone — all the way down to the 11 freshmen on the roster — feel like they were essential to the team's success.
"The behavior and competitive spirit our captains modeled could be seen with the entire group by the end of the season," he said. "They were phenomenal leaders for us, and they really set the tone in the locker room. Instead of being top-down, they built a collective leadership structure that really helped us level up. It was just awesome to witness."
