University of North Carolina Athletics
Meet Katie Bowen: UNC's New Zealand Treasure
November 15, 2015 | Women's Soccer
By Matt Hodgin
UNC Athletic Communications Student Assistant
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – For Katie Bowen, it's not winning a national championship, having the opportunity to play professionally or even playing for the New Zealand national team on the world's greatest soccer stage that she cherishes most about the past four years.
For the senior midfielder, it's the friendships and it's the family that she has gained in her time at UNC that she will value above any great achievement made on the pitch.
“It really is a family environment,” Bowen said of the women's soccer program. “Where, yes, winning and soccer is very important – but at the end of the day it's about the friendships and the relationships that you form.”
In her final season, Bowen is nearing the completion of a decorated Tar Heel career. A career that has included a national championship as a freshman, a starting spot for New Zealand in the 2015 Women's FIFA World Cup and first team All-ACC honors in each of the past two seasons, honors which are more telling than meets the eye according to Head Coach Anson Dorrance.
“I think anyone that is a first team All-ACC player is among the best of all time at North Carolina,” Dorrance said.
That is high praise coming from a man who has won 22 national championships and has coached the likes of Mia Hamm, Heather O'Reilly, Tobin Heath and many other Tar Heel greats as the head coach of the women's soccer program.
It is, however, the stories beyond those great accomplishments that provide insight into the character and the career of Katie Bowen.
She began playing soccer at a young age, always challenged by a sibling rivalry and a desire to compete with the boys.
“I started out influenced by my brothers because they played,” Bowen said. “So from the age of four up until I was 17, I played on a boys team.”
From there Bowen got called in to play for the U-17 and U-20 New Zealand national teams – evidence that she possessed talent beyond the average footballer.
“I think it really hit home when I got called into the under 17s and I was just 14,” Bowen said. “It's always kind of hard to measure yourself when you are playing with the boys.”
When asked if her brothers were at all jealous of her accomplishments, Bowen said they have shown her nothing but support.
“They're really proud, and so is my sister,” she said. “They always jokingly call me the golden child. Those two are good footballers as well, and it's cool because we can play together.”
Bowen's father, a London native and a former professional soccer player himself, has also been a huge influence on Katie's growth as a player.
“I think a part of the reason she does read the game so well is she was brought up watching the game on her father's knee,” Dorrance said. “And he certainly knows the game.”
Coming to the U.S. to play soccer had long been a dream for Bowen growing up, and despite not knowing much about the soccer landscape in the U.S., being called into the national teams gave her confidence that she could make that dream a reality.
“I knew from a really young age that I wanted to come (to the U.S.) for football if I was going to go anywhere,” Bowen said. “I didn't know anything about what schools were good because you just don't hear about that kind of thing. I didn't know who Anson Dorrance was; I didn't know the 21 national championships. I knew Mia Hamm, but that was about it.”
Bowen actually had her sights set on the University of Portland, as they were the team she and her family had been in the most conversations with before UNC contacted her towards the end of her recruitment.
“The year before I committed, UNC offered me to come on a visit,” Bowen said. “So then of course my parents and I went on the Internet and were like, 'Whoa, Mia Hamm went here, and there's 21 national championships. This dude's won a World Cup.' It was legit. So we thought, 'Yeah we've got to go on a visit, gotta check it out.' And then as soon as I came here I was like, 'I definitely want to go here,' and then didn't even go on a visit to Portland or anything, just committed then and there.”
While the soccer credentials of the university were impressive, Bowen said that choosing UNC came down to more than the on-field possibilities.
“It was more the place, and more the people,” Bowen said. “I knew it was going to be a hard transition in moving from New Zealand because I had never lived away from home, and then to live halfway across the world is a little bit difficult. But immediately I felt that family environment, and they embraced me so much. The place is awesome. It's very green like New Zealand. I don't think I could go to a school like UCLA, where it's a big, huge campus, so this was a perfect fit for me.”
Coach Dorrance said that while he never saw her play while his staff was recruiting her, he was immediately impressed with Bowen when she arrived on campus.
“The thing that we noticed right out of the gate was her composure coming out of the back, her ability to read the game, her ability to run with the ball with speed, and we knew we had a real player once we saw her in preseason,” Dorrance said.
Bowen's time at UNC has been filled with many highlights, but also some more frustrating stretches – 'frustrating' being a relative term when put in context with the history of the program.
“Obviously, my freshman year we won the national championship,” Bowen said. “Then the following two years were a bit disappointing, because obviously once you taste that victory, and you taste that championship, obviously you want that every time, and so when you don't succeed you are left disappointed.”
Prior to arriving at UNC, Bowen faced struggles with her own play at the international level. After starting two games for the national team at the 2011 World Cup in Germany, at only the age of 17, Bowen began to lose confidence and began making consistent mistakes, something that was out of the ordinary for her.
“I was not playing how I could play,” Bowen said. “That was the most frustrating thing because I knew what I needed to do and I knew what I could do, but I couldn't do it.”
Coming to UNC appeared to be just the antidote for her play that Bowen needed.
“I think the biggest thing is that Carolina has given me the confidence that I needed,” Bowen said. “I would always go on to the national team frame kind of doubting myself, questioning every single move I made, afraid to make mistakes. But now I feel like it has matured me as a player, and now I know what I am capable of and what I aspire to.”
She said that mistakes are something she has learned to embrace, recognizing that even the greatest players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Mia Hamm have never had a perfect game.
So when Bowen took the spring semester off from UNC in order to train for this past summer's World Cup, she was only hungrier to play a larger role for the national team.
“(I) trained everyday, worked my butt off,” Bowen said. “I would say this time around I wasn't surprised that I made the squad, but you kind of make it and then you want more. You make the squad, you want to start. You start, you want to score.”
Bowen started in one and played in all three of New Zealand's match-ups this past summer. For her, the most memorable was playing in front of a sold-out stadium against the home nation Canada.
“The World Cup was a great experience,” Bowen said. “I had so much fun, but I was ready to come back here, and I was ready to take this season on. In the spring, I really missed Chapel Hill; I missed the team; I missed the coaching; I missed everything. I wouldn't say that I was rushing to come back here, but I was never upset at the fact that I was finally heading back to North Carolina.”
Despite losing in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament, there is still plenty of history that can be made at the end of Bowen's senior season, for her and for her team.
Bowen said that she is focused on the season right now, but in the back of her mind she knows she wants to play professionally. She also has plans beyond soccer: hopes of moving back to New Zealand, starting a family and beginning a career that she has been dreaming about since she was little.
“I've wanted to be a special needs teacher since I was about 12 years old,” Bowen said. “It's awesome to think I can accomplish that, but I can also follow this path for a bit, have fun and play pro, hopefully go to the Olympics and World Cups to come.”
When Bowen leaves the Carolina program, the championships and the accolades will not be what she remembers the most. It will be the people that she met and those that impacted her life.
“The legacy I'm going to leave is in the relationships I've built at this university,” Bowen said.
Summer Green, a fellow senior on the team, and also Bowen's best friend and roommate, knows well what Bowen's impact has been beyond the soccer field.
“She has the biggest heart and I can never express my gratitude to her parents for allowing her to come here and be my best friend,” Green said. “I don't know where I would be without her.”
Bowen said that she will miss her teammates and coaches, but also knows that their friendships are not ones that will end at graduation.
“There is an unspoken bond between all of us now.” Bowen said. “So if I don't speak to someone for a year, I can see it being exactly the same if I meet up with them.”
In her four years at UNC, Katie Bowen has certainly established a legacy, not only as a player but also as a person – a legacy that she hopes will inspire many young footballers back in New Zealand to follow in her footsteps.
“I truly cherish Chapel Hill from the bottom of my heart,” Bowen said. “It was so cool, on senior day, to have the New Zealand national anthem sung. I do think I am representing my country, and especially to be the first player to win a national championship from New Zealand. I'm hoping that inspires girls back in New Zealand to follow my footsteps. I'll yell it from the rooftops to anyone in New Zealand that this was the best decision of my life.”
