Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Beating the odds
Bowen has breakout season two years after illness
SPRINGDALE — For two weeks, Cole Bowen did not know if he would ever leave the hospital, walk or use his arms again.
“I really thought I was dying,” Bowen said this week, more than two years later.
It was a few weeks before the start of his sophomore season at Springdale Har-Ber when Bowen’s symptoms started. And they progressed rapidly and without warning.
Bowen did not know it at the time, but his nervous system was shutting down.
“I was at a friend’s house riding four-wheelers,” he recalled. “We’d been riding most of the day, and I
took a break to use the restroom, but I couldn’t go. I thought ‘Well, I’ll try again later.’ When I got home, I tried to go again and still couldn’t, so I told my mom about it and she took me to the emergency room.”
Bowen said they used a catheter to drain his bladder, but that was when the rest of the symptoms began to start.
“If your leg has ever gone to sleep, that’s what it felt like,” he said. “It started in my feet, and they started going numb. That’s when they rushed me to Arkansas Children’s in Little Rock.”
The numbness steadily moved up Bowen’s body from the lower extremities to his arms and hands, he said.
“It was scary because they had no idea what was causing it,” he said. “They actually never figured it out. They ran a bunch of tests on me. I actually couldn’t move my legs and arms. I couldn’t urinate; I couldn’t do any of that. My autoimmune system was attacking itself.”
For two weeks the family was in limbo as doctors at Arkansas Children’s worked frantically to diagnose the illness that took an otherwise healthy 15-year-old and turned him into a bed-ridden invalid in a matter of hours. A spinal tap was performed. He had a CAT scan and multiple other tests and scans, he said.
Eventually, Bowen started to regain feeling in his extremities, but the process was far from over. He had to teach himself how to walk and use his arms and legs again through rigorous physical therapy.
“I went through a lot of rehab,” Bowen said. “It was awful. I had worked so hard that summer to get to play for Har-Ber, and I lost everything.”
Slowly he regained his health and was able to play on the Har-Ber basketball team. But football is Bowen’s love, and he longed to pull on that blue Wildcat football helmet.
That spring, and against the wishes of his mother,
Bowen rejoined the football team and went through spring practices.
“She really did not want me to play, but it was my decision,” Bowen said of his mom. “I love this sport, and the doctors had cleared me, so I wanted to play.”
Bowen ultimately worked his way back up the Wildcats’ depth chart and earned
a starting spot at cornerback last season, where he recorded 33 tackles and 2 interceptions for a Har-Ber team that struggled and ultimately missed the playoffs after being forced to forfeit several games.
Now a senior, Bowen (5-foot-10, 160 pounds) is enjoying a breakout season as the Wildcats (8-3) are in the Class 7A quarterfinals tonight at North Little Rock against the No. 2 seed from the 7A-Central Conference.
“Last year, it just wasn’t a good year or the kind of year we’re used to,” Bowen said. “We had to come back this season and turn that around.”
Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said Bowen has played his two best games of the season in the last two weeks, a 27-6 win against Fayetteville that clinched the No. 3 seed for the Wildcats and last week’s 16-10 win against Little Rock Central.
In the closing minutes of last week’s win, Bowen made what might be described as the play of the year for the Wildcats. Clinging to a sixpoint lead, Har-Ber was backed up against its own
goal line as a fumble gave Central a chance to pull out a stunning win.
On fourth down inside the Har-Ber 20, Bowen knocked down a pass to end the Central threat, and Har-Ber earned the program’s first playoff win since the 2016 season.
“Cole has just continued to play well in the secondary,” said Wood after Friday’s game. “What’s been really nice about Cole is he’s a HarBer guy. He’s going to raise his level, and he’s going to compete. He’s put two really good back-to-back games. The Fayetteville game he played really well, and he carried that over into tonight.”
Bowen also had an interception in the win, his third of the season.
Tonight the Wildcats face another tough assignment against the 2017 state champions but don’t expect Bowen to be intimidated by the physical play of the Charging Wildcats. He’s already overcome far greater odds in his young life.”