The powerhouse that is Bowie girl’s softball season came to a close, narrowly losing to New Braunfels 14-13 on May 11. The Lady Bulldogs were led by star junior Anya German who is committed to Crieghton to play softball. The Bulldogs had countless All-District players, 15 to be exact, of those 15, four of these girls, sophomore Kate Bookidis, freshman Josie Busceme, sophomore Valeria Feeny, and junior Anya German, made the First Team, All-District as well.
Bowie Softball has always been in the 6A bracket, and this season was no different. After a shaky start, the team finished strong and ran the table making it all the way to the third round of the playoffs.
German and the rest of the Lady Bulldogs have been playing together for a long time and as a result, have created lifelong bonds.
“It gave me lifelong friendships and lessons about how to deal with life, failure, and everything which I think will help me in the long run into my adult life,” German said.
German has been excellent and because of this play will be playing for Creighton University in college. She has been a huge leader to the younger kids, helping them find their place on the team, according to other players.
“I had to take a leader role and I feel like helping the younger girls was a big part of our success this year,” German said.
Assistant coach Karl Lauer didn’t know what to expect going into this year, as Bowie would have plenty of new starters, but Lauer’s worries were ultimately not true as the girls ended up stepping up.
“We had a lot of first-time starters. We were pretty freshmen and sophomore heavy,” Lauer said. “We came together and put it all together because we had a lot of growth, peaked at the right time, and went three rounds in the playoffs when it looked at the beginning that you know, playoffs were not a sure thing.”
The graduating Lady Bulldogs are passing the torch onto the incoming talent. With many of these young players becoming starters, the program is anticipating to have successful seasons in the future.
Lauer has high expectations for next year after a surprising season this year filled with tons of excitement and ups and downs.
“I think we have a really good team and everyone’s young,” Lauer said. “We are really going make some noise next year I believe and think we have one of the best chances softball has had in years to go far in playoffs.”

Bowie Baseball finished a stellar season, ultimately falling to Johnson 12-3 on May 12. The season wasn’t in vain however, as multiple first year starters shined and made impacts for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs were led by a three-headed pitching monster of junior Cole Miller and seniors Lucas Bole and Jonathan Gonzales. Head coach Degalia had tons of praise for the pitching this season.
One of these pitchers, Cole Miller, was especially exceptional in his second year on varsity expressing tons of praise for his team
“I think we did really great as a team,” Miller said. “I think we played great defense. John [Gonzalez] had a great season on the mound. We hit the ball very well.”
Miller, who was one of the only sophomores on the team last year, had to step up as a leader and knew his ability to help the team went beyond the field.
“I knew coming into this year I had to be more of a leader to some of the younger guys,” Miller said. “I wanted to be the best leader that I could be for the team cause I knew that was a way I could help the team.”
Miller is not the only junior who took on the responsibility of being a leader, the team has multiple standout athletes.
“We got about six or seven other guys that can come in and help us win games,” Degalia said “Anytime you’ve got depth at pitching. You’ve got a chance to win ball games and fortunately for us we had the guys.”
The goal was always to win the district games, which Bowie fell just short of, finishing third in the district behind Westlake and Lake Travis.
“We got out of the first round of the playoffs and we made it to the second round of the playoffs,” Degalia said. “That was a goal that this team set along with trying to win the district championship. We were actually in that that all the way up till the last week of the season.”
The Bulldogs finished well overall with wins over teams like Westlake, who played for the state title earlier this month, being one of the many bright spots this season.
This marked the end of Degalia’s 10th year and it even though they lost in the second round of playoffs he still sees this season as a success.
“Our season was a pretty good little season and a lot of fun,” Degalia said. “This is my 10th year as the head coach, we didn’t reach our goal but we finished second in the district behind Westlake. It was a pretty successful year for us.”