Dick Bowzer Dec. 8, 2008

Bowzer named NCAA Division III Assistant Coach of the Year

PELLA—The American Football Coaches Association has named Central College’s Dick Bowzer as the NCAA Division III Assistant Coach of the Year.

He recently completed his 41st season as an assistant for the Dutch football squad, the longest tenure at one school for any assistant in Division III.  He also serves as associate professor of exercise science.

Bowzer is the second Central coach to win the award. Veteran Dutch defensive coordinator Don De Waard was cited in 2000. Bowzer will be honored at the AFCA Convention Jan. 12 in Nashville, Tenn.

The AFCA award was first presented in 1997 and was created to honor assistants who excel in community service, commitment to the student-athlete, on-field coaching success and AFCA professional organization involvement.

“There are very few people in this world who are as committed to an institution as Coach Bowzer is to Central College and Central football,” coach Jeff McMartin said.  “He does a tremendous job of working with the young men in our program and making them the best they can be. And he takes the same passion into the classroom. They say that coaching is teaching and Coach Bowzer exemplifies that.”

A Jackson, Mich. native, Bowzer followed his high school coach, Ron Schipper, to Central, where he played end for the Dutch and earned 11 letters while competing in football, basketball and tennis. He was a part of two Iowa Conference championship football squads as a player. Bowzer completed his master’s degree at Michigan State Univ. before joining the Central staff in 1968.

During Bowzer’s tenure the Dutch football squad has made 19 NCAA Division III playoff appearances and won 20 conference titles, winning the 1974 national title and finishing second in 1984 and 1988. Players he has coached have received all-conference honors 125 times, with seven league MVP awards.

Bowzer has coached nearly every position on the team. He was Central’s defensive coordinator briefly before serving as offensive coordinator for many years and now works with quarterbacks and receivers.

“The game has evolved and he’s evolved with it,” McMartin said.

Bowzer also was assistant men’s basketball coach at Central for 10 seasons, helping  the Dutch win four league titles, and was head men’s tennis coach in 1974 and 1989.

“This is really a nice honor for Coach Bowzer, who has been a major contributor to the success of the Central football program for decades,” said athletics director Al Dorenkamp, who was a linebacker during Bowzer’s tenure from 1971-74. “He’s been a constant over the years and is flexible enough to coach any position and serve any role. He continues to have a passion for the game and for the young people he coaches.”

Matt VerMeer, a senior wide receiver from Montezuma and a co-captain of this year’s Dutch football team, said the players value Bowzer’s contributions.

“Coach Bowzer knows more about football than you can possibly imagine,” he said. “He spent a lot of time with me individually, behind the scenes. He taught me a lot.”

Also Central’s exercise science department chair for many years, Bowzer received the Outstanding Faculty Performance Award for Effective Teaching from the college for 2003-04.

Bowzer is firmly committed to service as well. He is serving his third 3-year term as a deacon on the consistory of Pella’s Second Reformed Church and has twice spent terms on the church’s executive committee while also serving many years on various church councils. Bowzer spent a summer remodeling the church’s basement and has participated in mission work trips to Kentucky, Michigan and Missouri. He’s been involved with community service projects as well and launched the Pella Open tennis tournament, helping it become among the largest city tennis tournaments in Iowa.

Bowzer was the first Division III representative on the AFCA Assistant Coaches Committee, serving three years, and was a member of the AFCA Coach of the Year Committee.

“Coach Bowzer has been an amazing role model and resource for the past 41 years,” McMartin said. “Our players and coaches can apply his philosophy of continuous learning, caring about others, keeping things simple and understanding one’s role, to their professional careers and daily lives.”

The AFCA was founded in 1922 and has more than 10,000 members from high school, college and professional football.