43
YSU’s Dowd student of game
Video
Senior graduated in three years, now in grad school
youngstown
Youngstown State softball senior outfielder Sarah Dowd isn’t your typical senior. In fact, she’s only a senior athletically. Academically she’s already in grad school.
But it’s not as if Dowd is some bench warmer who is just helping keep the team’s grade point average high, she’s a force on the field as well. She’s second in school history in home runs (30) and is a career .298 hitter.
The pressures of school and athletics make for a stressful combination for any student-athlete, but for Dowd it took a lot of extra work to complete her undergraduate degree in psychology in three years.
“I really had to speed up my classes,” Dowd said. “I had to take one or two summer classes each year and then take a full classload each semester. I think I would take 17-18 credit hours each semester when 12 is the minimum. I had to take a lot more at once.”
The graduate is now studying counseling and it’s safe to say if sports and school weren’t taking up pretty much all of Dowd’s life as an undergrad, they’re definitely her life this season.
“Right now sports and school is pretty much [my life],” Dowd said. “I wake up, go to practice, go to class, practice again and go to bed. That’s pretty much it.”
As a consequence, her social life had admittedly can’t be her main focus with sports and academics taking up so much of her time.
“I had to give up a lot in terms of my social life,” Dowd said. “If I wanted to go bowling on a Friday maybe I couldn’t because I had to get a paper done or something. I had to make that conscious choice to prioritize about what was important to me.”
YSU head coach Brian Campbell said he’s been coaching for colleges for 21 years and has never had one of his players complete a degree in three years and move right along to graduate school.
“To do what she’s done is nearly unheard of,” Campbell said. “I know it’s not easy as a student. Many times players get college credit in the junior and senior years at high school but I’ve never seen someone do what she’s done.”
Dowd’s wisdom isn’t lost on her teammates. Many of the younger teammates look to her for advice while others may take a good-natured jab at her plethora of experience.
“I’ve been called the mom of the team a few times since I’m older than the younger girls,” Dowd said. “All of the seniors are looked at as the grandmas on the team. We’re old, we’re falling apart and we have the life skills to give out.”
On the field, Dowd has quite the resume. She was named the Horizon League’s Freshman of the Year in 2014 and is a three-time Horizon League second-team selection. She has the most career grand slams (5), has the fourth most runs scored (117), is seventh in all-time slugging percentage (.532) and is seventh in career RBIs (102).
Still, despite her five RBIs in the team’s first five games this year, Dowd said she has a lot to work on this year.
“I need to be better with runners in scoring position,” she said. “I also just need to focus on seeing the ball better and hitting it. After our first road trip, it normally gives us things to work on so that on our second road trip we can be a little more prepared to play.”
Still, Campbell thinks Dowd will bring a lot to the table for a YSU team that is expected to compete in the conference this year. The Penguins were picked fourth in the preseason poll.
“She’s a real table setter and reaching some of those achievements is what she’s able to do,” Campbell said. “She gets on base and a lot of the time she’ll pop one to take a 1-0 lead when she’s leading off. She’s excelled in the role we’ve put her in.”
YSU’s next road trip is Feb. 25-26 at Winthrop (S.C.), where the Penguins are scheduled to face East Tennessee State, Winthrop, Eastern Kentucky and Mount St. Mary’s.