New Falcons’ football coach David Bowser sees potential at Saint Augustine’s
There is no coincidence that there has been an increase of local prep football players posting on Twitter that they received a scholarship offer from Saint Augustine’s.
Each week, multiple athletes are flooding timelines with the news and images of their offers from Falcons football. Since being named the new football coach at SAU in November, David Bowser has wasted little time with recruiting, starting with his own (new) backyard.
Bowser, an N.C. State grad, spent 20 years as an assistant coach at Fayetteville State, and his recruiting area was mainly eastern North Carolina. But occasionally he would venture into the Triangle for talent, and he knows if he is to resurrect the SAU program, he has to start with local players.
“I think if you look at the number of schools that play football in this area, quality football at that,” Bowser told the News and Observer. “I think Wake County and Johnston County, those guys don’t get the recognition they deserve. And when I was at Fayetteville State, the championship teams we had, we had a lot of kids from Wake County and Johnston County area that helped us win championships.”
Rebuilding St. Aug’s football
Bowser took over for Tim Chavous, who was let go four games into the 2019 season. The Falcons finished last year 2-9 overall and 2-5 in the CIAA. One of those two conference wins came against Fayetteville State on Oct. 26. Over the course of the past six seasons, SAU has averaged 2.5 wins a year. Its best season during that stretch was a 5-5 finish in 2017 under Chavous.
There are challenges ahead, for sure, but Bowser doesn’t look at it that way. When he looked at the job, all he saw was potential.
“The university is located in a perfect place, it’s in a city that’s growing,” Bowser said. “And you have so many (local) high schools playing quality football.”
Bowser coached various positions on both sides of the ball with the Broncos, but last served as the assistant head coach and linebackers coach in 2019. He has coaching ties in the Triangle as well. Prior to coaching at Fayetteville State, Bowser had stints on high school football staffs at Garner, Chapel Hill and Orange.
Team built in winter, spring
Since taking over the job at St. Aug’s, Bowser briefly met with the team before the players went home for winter break.. But he is excited to dive into his new position at the start of the new year.
“Seeing how they respond to the winter (workouts) and spring,” Bowser said, “that’s where your football team is built.”
The Falcons have never won a CIAA championship and have not had a winning season since 2012 when they finished 6-4 overall.
Next season, SAU returns quarterback D’Ontre Gilliard and Maurice Nelson, who were both All-CIAA honorable mentions as freshmen last season. On defense, Bowser inherits Tim Montague, another freshman who was All-CIAA honorable mention in 2019.
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 10:24 AM.
