Canton’s McGowan honored as Gatorade MA Football Player of the Year

In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade has announced that it has named Owen McGowan of Canton as its 2020-21 Massachusetts Football Player of the Year. A standout linebacker at Catholic Memorial High School, McGowan is headed to Boston College to play for the Eagles this fall.

Owen McGowan poses with his Gatorade Player of the Year trophy.

McGowan is the first Gatorade Massachusetts Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Catholic Memorial. The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes McGowan as Massachusetts’s best high school football player.

McGowan joins an elite group of past state football award-winners that includes Emmitt Smith (1986-87, Escambia High School, FL), Matthew Stafford (2005-06, Highland Park High School, TX) and Christian McCaffrey (2012-13 & 2013-14, Valor Christian High School, CO).

The 6-foot-1, 230-pound senior linebacker, running back and emergency quarterback led the Knights to a 4-0 record during an abbreviated spring season, culminating with a second consecutive Catholic Conference championship. McGowan recorded 45 tackles, two sacks, one interception and one forced fumble on defense. As a signal-caller, he passed for 161 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 222 yards and another two scores. The 2019 Catholic Conference MVP and both a Boston Globe and Boston Herald All-Scholastic selection, he concluded his prep football career with 362 tackles and 12 touchdowns. He also won two Division 1 south titles and appeared in two MIAA Super Bowls (2018 and 2019) during his four-year run at CM.

“Without Owen’s leadership and his athletic ability, they would not have been undefeated,” said Al Fornaro, head coach of Xaverian High, one of CM’s Catholic Conference rivals. “He put the team ahead of himself, showing what a true leader is.”

An A student in the classroom, McGowan is a member of the National Honor Society and was recognized this spring as Catholic Memorial’s Scholar Athlete of Year. He is also active in the community, volunteering locally as a peer tutor and as a lifeguard at a senior center.

McGowan joins Kalel Mullings (2019-20, Milton Academy), Mike Sainristil (2018-19, Everett), Sal Frelick (2017-18, Lexington), and Bobby Maimaron (2016-17, Duxbury) among the state’s list of recent Gatorade Massachusetts Football Players of the Year.

He was also recognized as the 2020-21 All-State Offensive Player of the Year by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston.

The middle of three brothers in a family of accomplished athletes, McGowan is following in the footsteps of his father, Brian, a former CHS football standout who went on to play at Central Connecticut State, and older brother Jack, a former Catholic Conference MVP (CM ’17) and now a senior linebacker at Harvard. McGowan’s younger brother Brady is a rising junior at CM and also plays for the Scarlet Knights, while their mother, Kelly (West), played field hockey at Northeastern and went on to win a national championship as the head coach at Bentley University.

Now off to BC on a football scholarship, McGowan joins one of the strongest recruiting classes in school history as the Eagles look to build on a promising 2020 campaign (6-5).

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Posted by Canton Citizen on Jul 2 2021. Filed under Beyond CHS, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.