School: Neshaminy
Softball
Favorite athlete: Lisa Fernandez
Favorite team: Phillies!!!!
Favorite memory competing in sports: I came in as a relief pitcher for my travel team when we were in a big game in Colorado. We were playing the Southern California Breakers, and we were losing. I held them long enough for my team to tie the score. The last batter kept fouling balls off until I finally struck her out swinging.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: Once when I was pitching, there was a giant beetle that was buzzing around me. I start swatting at it, and when it hit the ground, I stomped on it. By the time I killed it, I realized that everyone watching was laughing at me.
Music on iPod: Collective Soul, Green Day, Taylor Swift, U2…favorite song right now is “Needs” by Collective Soul
Future plans: Graduate from college, get a Doctorate, become an astronaut, have a family – not necessarily in that order.
Words to live by: ‘Do Work!’
One goal before turning 30: Travel to Ireland
One thing people don’t know about me: I like to sing very loudly to country music when I am driving (by myself).
In Kathleen Houser’s stack of priceless memories, there’s a photo of Sarah McGowan – then an eager freshman – holding a plastic chair that had broken when she sat down at a team pasta party in the former Neshaminy coach’s home.
In the photo, McGowan is wearing a Princeton t-shirt. Three years later, Houser received a text from the now Neshaminy senior saying she had received her letter of acceptance to the prestigious Ivy League school.
“I got chills when I read it,” Houser recalled. “I wrote back, ‘I’m so proud of you. You will do great in whatever you do.’
“As a freshman, Sarah already knew that was what she wanted to do. That became her goal, and nothing was going to stop her. That was it.”
McGowan has made a habit out of setting goals for herself and then going out and attaining them. Her dazzling resume speaks for itself. The Neshaminy senior – who earned her black belt in karate in third grade – has done it all, and she’s done it all extremely well.
A four-year varsity starter in softball, McGowan has earned all-league and all-state honors as a pitcher. She also is an accomplished musician and was first chair in the school orchestra as a freshman and sophomore and third chair as a junior when time constraints forced her to give up music lessons.
A member of the National Honor Society, McGowan – who takes a full course load of honors and AP classes – is ranked in the top five percent of her class.
“I have to sacrifice a lot,” McGowan said. “My social life compared to most of my friends is very minimal.
“I love my friends dearly, and I get a small amount of time with them out of school, but it’s a lot of late nights, sometimes a lot of coffee and just really saying to myself, ‘This is what needs to get done, and then I can enjoy myself later.’”
It’s the kind of mindset that has propelled McGowan to the top in literally every facet of her life, and it isn’t hard to imagine the Neshaminy senior – who has her sights set on becoming an astronaut – one day walking in space.
“I have always been very interested in space,” said McGowan, who will major in astrophysics in Princeton’s Engineering College. “I wasn’t one of those little girls that wore dresses and played with Barbie dolls, and if I did, they were either in astronaut suits or fighting dinosaurs.
“I have always been looking to the stars, and I have gone to seminars and such.”
On Nov. 16, 2009, McGowan was in Florida for the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis for a mission to the International Space Station. Her cousin, Randy Bresnik, was a member of the crew.
“It was really a life-changing point,” McGowan said of the experience. “It was just so amazing.
“I can just remember that day and not just seeing but feeling the launch – it was like a switch went on in my heart. I have to at least try. Whether I’m the person fueling the tank for the spaceship, I want to be part of it because it’s just so magnificent.”
McGowan lists AP Physics as her most enjoyable subject and admits she even considers the principles of physics when she’s in the batter’s box.
“When I’m batting, I can think about the motion that I’m using,” she said. “It just proves that I’m a total geek at heart, no matter where I am, but I’m proud of it.”
The Neshaminy senior, according to her coach, boasts an unparalleled work ethic.
“Sarah McGowan could play any position she wanted and be good at it,” Redskin coach Dave Chichilitti said. “If she knows she’s not pitching the next day, she’ll ask to stay after practice and take ground balls at third base. If you’re putting her in the outfield, she’ll ask to stay and field balls in the outfield after everyone has gone home.
“That’s the kind of kid she is. Obviously, she’s one of the premier pitchers in the area, but she has an incredible work ethic. She really, really works hard each and every day to get to the status of being one of the best pitchers around. She’s also one of the best hitters in the area.”
McGowan has been playing softball since she was six years old, and back then, there was nothing to suggest she would one day be a star.
“I was one of those little kids out in the outfield picking daisies and chasing butterflies,” she said.
Like most children, the Neshaminy senior went through the litany of sports, playing everything from soccer to basketball to swimming and even one season of field hockey. One sport after another fell by the wayside, and eventually, softball was the only sport that remained.
By the time she was nine, McGowan was playing travel softball, and when she was 11, she was trying her hand at pitching.
“It was a very rocky start,” she said. “To really go through with pitching, you have to have an extreme amount of dedication because you’re the person on the field who puts the most practice in. You’re the one putting the ball out there and getting things started for offense and defense.”
When she was 14, McGowan pitched her first travel game, and as a freshman, she split time on the mound for Neshaminy’s varsity, reaping the benefits of her countless hours of practice.
She attributes her progression to her pitching coach, Roy Jenderko, and also her father, Dave McGowan.
“My dad has been the one beside me the whole entire time,” she said. “He’s the one who’s always there to catch me, he’s the one who got beat up when I first started, and he’s the one cheering me on with my pitching.
“He’s been such a great support, such a great motivator, and my pitching coach has given me all the examples and fundamentals I need, and I have been able to run with it from there.”
Jenderko admits he wasn’t sure McGowan was going to have a career on the mound.
“She just progressed slowly the first couple of years,” he said. “Part of it was confidence, and she got over that hump and started taking off when she was 13.
“Sarah’s a hard worker. She’s a very intelligent kid, and she understands pitching. She has good command of her pitches and has a lot of confidence in her pitches. She’s gotten very good over the last couple of years. She’s a great kid.”
The Redskins, thanks in no small part of the play of their senior captain, are off to a strong start this season.
“The kids listen to her and respect her,” Chichilitti said. “She’s off to a very hot start – she’s swinging a great bat. She has an incredible swing, and she has great strength for a young girl.
“Having someone like Sarah on the team is like an extension of yourself. It’s like having another coach. You also have the challenge of going out there every day and challenging her physically and mentally. It’s a challenge for me, but it’s a good thing.”
Houser acknowledged McGowan is a special athlete.
“She’s so versatile on the field, and everything she does - she does with her heart,” the Redskins’ former coach said. “It was always ‘wherever you want me coach,’ and she was willing to do whatever we needed her to do.
“She’s a great kid, and even if she’s an opposing player, you can’t hate her. I can’t say enough about her. She deserves everything she gets.”
If McGowan has any say in it, this year’s season will end a whole lot differently than last year when the Redskins – the number one seed in the district – were sent packing in their first district game.
“It put a very sour taste in my mouth,” she said. “That game was devastating, but thinking about what happened, I know what I need to fix and do in the future.
“One thing that hurt me the most last year is we were such a close-knit team, and I knew that was the seniors’ last chance. It was such a shame to see them not get it. With a team, you all lose. It was very upsetting, but with the losses, I believe you learn so much more. I have another chance, and I’m going to make the best of it.”
Ask McGowan the best part of playing softball, and she doesn’t mention winning championships (she was part of three state championship teams playing travel softball). She also doesn’t mention any personal milestones, although there have been plenty.
“Even though softball is just a piece of my life, it’s a piece of me,” the Redskin captain said. “For me, it’s hard to think of myself without softball because it’s such a big part of me mentally and physically.
“It’s just taught me a lot of things as far as life lessons. I have to thank softball for a lot of my dedication.
“I also have always had fun with my teammates, and that’s one thing I have been drawn to softball for – the team aspect. I love thinking, ‘This isn’t just me. This is the whole entire picture.’”
McGowan will continue her softball career at Princeton. She also considered Bucknell and Cornell, but Princeton was her top choice. She received her ‘likely letter’ last fall and her letter of acceptance in March.
“I really can’t explain how excited I am,” she said. “I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to go there and see what it’s like from the inside.
“I’m going to try my hardest, and whether my best is failing or my best is doing great, I’m just going to be happy with whatever it is because I get to be somewhere where people all over the world are coming to. They know it’s going to make them better, and they know it’s going to make the world better.”
At Princeton, McGowan will have the opportunity to pursue yet another dream.
“I was talking to my mom today – there are a few things in my life that I can see in the future, and there is one thing I think about and I physically ache about, and then there’s another one I have chills about because I hope I can achieve it, and that’s becoming an astronaut,” she said. “The opportunities you get from going to Princeton are just so great, and I hope to take advantage of that and really jump on the track and get to where I want to go.
“Little steps are what I’m trying to take right now. I don’t want to jump ahead too fast.”
So far, the little steps have led to big things for McGowan.
