Ben Sowers never planned to play soccer at Boyce College. One spring afternoon, while Sowers played a pick-up game with friends, Boyce Head Men’s Soccer Coach Billy Ward spotted talent for the fall roster.
Before arriving at Boyce, Sowers had already made peace with losing his competitive soccer career. Due to suffering an injury in his senior year of high school, a college roster spot fell through. He also recognized an aspiration to enter pastoral ministry. With his attention pulled away from the sport he’d played his whole life, he enrolled at Boyce on his pastor’s recommendation.
That spring, Ward approached Sowers. But Sowers turned the offer to join the team down.
“I think I’d just kind of made peace about not playing anymore,” Sowers said.
Sowers spent part of that summer overseas teaching English in Cambodia. But something shifted as he played soccer daily with locals who loved the game as much as he did.
“I realized I would have regrets if I passed up the opportunity to play competitive soccer for a little bit longer,” he said.
From a patch of cell service in Southeast Asia, he called Coach Ward and asked if the offer still stood. It did. Sowers joined the team that August and captained the Bulldogs from his very first season, a role he held all three years he played.
What followed became one of the most decorated careers in Boyce soccer history. Sowers scored 71 goals over 50 games, netted nine game winners, and helped drive the Bulldogs to the national championship game twice. In his final season, he led the NCCAA in goals (24), points (55), and shots (76), while adding seven assists and 51 shots on goal. He collected three NCCAA Student-Athlete of the Week honors, First Team All-American recognition, the Select Golden Ball Award, and a spot on the NCCAA All-Tournament Team.
That body of work earned Sowers the NCCAA Game Plan 4 Life Male Student-Athlete Character Award. The top NCCAA male athlete award.
“Boyce Athletics congratulates Ben Sowers,” said Boyce Director of Athletics Michael McCarty. “Ben has demonstrated exceptional dedication and hard work on the field, helping lead the Boyce soccer team to tremendous success. More importantly, Ben has set an outstanding example of Christ to his teammates and throughout our campus community.”
Coach Ward echoed that assessment.
“He’s a man with integrity and a servant’s heart,” Ward said. “He always wants to pray with the opposing team, even opposing players. Ben unashamedly shares the Gospel with our team, with other teams, with refs, and on campus.”
The awards tell only part of the story. Sowers carried a 3.77 GPA while finishing the five-year Pastoral Seminary Track in three and a half years, graduating early with certificates in biblical counseling and church history. He interned in the President’s Office, served as vice president of the Boyce College Student Preaching Organization, led Bible studies and events for his residence hall as an RA, and stayed active in FCA and his local church.
Sowers deflects the praise.
“I kind of blush at awards and achievements,” he said. “I just want it to point people to the Lord. He’s good and kind and the giver of all gifts.”
Reflecting on his time at Boyce, Sowers credits the community and kindness of the Lord for helping his faith flourish.
“Boyce offers the tightest group of like-minded people you’ll ever rub shoulders with and live with,” he said. “If you give yourself fully to that community, you’ll grow and flourish in your faith in that season.”
Sowers met his wife at Boyce and found a church home at Clifton Baptist Church, a connection that shaped his next step. This fall he begins a PhD in church history at Southern Seminary, studying under Clifton pastor and Southern Seminary professor, Shawn Wright. “I couldn’t say enough wonderful things about my time at Boyce,” Sowers said. “So much of what my life looks like right now, I owe to the Lord’s providence in bringing me to Southern and to Boyce.”