Bellevue East sophomore quarterback Mikey Gow has had quite the summer after originally going viral on social media for being ambidextrous and then spending the better part of the last month going to college camps around the country.
Now, Gow prepares for his sophomore season and hopes to continue to help lead a culture change in the Chieftains program.
The video, which has over 2 million views on SportsCenter’s Twitter page, was also quote-tweeted by Heisman Trophy winner and NFL MVP Lamar Jackson with the caption “#1 Overall pick (fire emojis).”
“When it first blew up I didn’t have words, I still don’t have words,” Gow said. “It put me on the map, it got me exposure from different schools that are super far away from me that would follow me and hit me up. … With Lamar, he helped to put me on the map.”
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For Gow’s dad, Jim, the two days after the video was posted were some of the most stressful he’s experienced.
“I don’t care what people say about me, but when it comes to my kids, I really do care,” he said. “(What) I learned from that, from a parent’s perspective, is having a microcosm of fame and whether you’re noticed or not, it doesn’t change what you do, who you are. I think if Mikey has more success and ends up on a higher stage in college, which is the plan, then he’s going to be more prepared for that.”
To get to that stage, an important step is playing in camps put on by colleges. They traveled over 12,000 miles, as far south as a camp at the University of Florida.
For Gow, the experience was “very long and cool,” and he found himself getting better and better as each camp went by.
“Each camp I got more and more comfortable, and I accepted a kind of a leader role at every camp,” he said. “It was just really cool, especially these last camps, like the Manning Passing Academy was super cool.”
At the MPA, Mikey got a chance to talk to NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, and he also met with “about every top starting QB you could have.”
“To talk to (Peyton) for about 10 minutes was surreal,” Gow said. “Alabama was a good one, because that’s the nation’s premier team. ... Iowa’s camp was really cool because they wanted me to throw lefty, not a lot of colleges did. ... Oklahoma was really cool because I got to meet (offensive coordinator and quarterbacks) coach (Jeff) Lebby and then (head coach Brent) Venables followed me on Twitter.”
Gow had also received a personal invite to the camp from Venables, and he finished summing up his favorite camps with the Nebraska and Florida camps.
“Homestate, second time meeting (new offensive coordinator Mark) Whipple,” he said. “The last one I’d say is Florida because that’s probably the furthest school I went to. ... It was cool to compete with those players down south and just show off my talents and compete with them and be in front of those coaches.”
His father’s surreal moment was standing “a foot away” from Alabama head coach Nick Saban while Mikey threw.
“My moment with Mikey that was a very unreal moment (was) to have Nick Saban there watching him,” he said.
He added that his son’s play at the camps was “more confirmation of who he is” and what he sees every day.
“The character, the ability, and the confidence in himself, and like Mikey said he got stronger as the camps went on,” Jim Gow said. “I was worried about his arm, I know Mikey was a little bit worried about that, because some of these camps were four or five in a row. But it was very cool to see Mikey get stronger and stronger and more accurate and to see his lefty ability take off. He’s been nervous to show that to the world.”
The Chieftains quarterback added that at the camps this summer, other quarterbacks would come up to him asking if he was the one from the viral video.
However, the fame and exposure that comes from this can also cause some concerns, one of which is the critics.
“One of my biggest challenges and one of my biggest fears when that video came out was all the haters,” Jim Gow said. “I’ve always lived my life where I don’t care what people think about me, what people say about me. But in the age of social media, it’s really hard to get away from that.”
He said that Mikey’ Gow’s desire for the spotlight has been there since he was a young child and helps as he steps into a bigger spotlight.
“In diapers, Mikey used to do dances, he used to want to be Justin Timberlake,” Jim said. “He used to do plays, he did dance, he did all kinds of things that normal kids his age didn’t want to do, or wouldn’t do. But Mikey’s always wanted to be on stage. He’s always wanted to be the center of attention.”
He added that in conversation with his wife, they have discussed needing to guard Mikey, and have kept an open line of communication with him about how to deal with negative statements and being able to ignore it.
“Just ignoring it as best you can, and forgiving the ones that you can’t,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing is forgiveness. We’re a pretty spiritual-based family, and all of this is rooted in faith. All of this is rooted in there (being) a purpose to all this. And no one can change it, no one can determine it. So for Mikey, my advice to him has always been, just ignore it and keep pushing forward. Follow your dream.”
Mikey Gow added that he thinks social media has “changed the way people live their life” and he knows doubters will always be there.
“There’s always going to be haters. Like I said, there’s going to be doubters, but if you just ignore it, if you don’t hear them, they don’t say anything back so if you don’t see them, they won’t see you,” he said.
“It’s more of what’s real and what’s not real,” his father added. “And I have always considered social media not to be real. I was raised with ‘sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you.’ That’s not true. We’re seeing words cut and if it gets to the point where the words are hurting, then you just stop reading the words. So social media is pretty easy to deal with.”
One of the criticisms Gow has dealt with is coaches telling him that he shouldn’t throw with his left arm. With Gow throwing with his left arm as young as nine, Jim said this hurt his confidence.
“So getting on more of a national stage with some of these big time coaches, and having the confidence to go out there and do it was just awesome to see, very proud of him,” his father said.
Gow understands that a challenge is getting his left arm accuracy to be more consistent, but sees more advantages to the unique playing style.
“Rolling out to your left, you don’t have to throw across your body,” he said. “That’s the biggest advantage, that’s what I’m focusing on right now, trying to master so that I can do it in the game consistently.”
He continued by saying that it’s easier to throw to the right side of the field with his right arm, and to the left side with his left arm. he added that being able to throw with either arm provides an advantage against defenses trying to force him to a certain side of the pocket.
“(An advantage is) when you move in the pocket and they don’t know what you’re gonna do next,” he said.
Against the backdrop of a tough 2-7 record in his freshman season, Gow learned that the game is “way faster than I ever expected it to be.” He also learned to be better with time management.
Going into his sophomore season with new head coach Aaron Thumann, who has “changed our mindset,” Mikey said the lessons he learned certainly helped him.
“I just learned a bunch of stuff, it helped me going into my sophomore season so that this year, I can be more successful and our team can be more successful,” he said. “This year, we got a new head coach, new offense really, it’s really positive. It really changed our mindset and how we can do things. I’ve always said it’s a culture problem at East, and if we can change that then I really think that we can get something going here.”
Originally supposed to go to Bellevue West, Mikey chose the tougher path and opted in to East.
“He saw an opportunity to help turn the school around and change the culture,” his father said. “Mikey is basically of the mindset, ‘Why not us, why can’t we win?’”
However, he said the camps taught his son that coaches “don’t care about” the record or score of the game compared with “how you compete.”
“The biggest opportunity going into his sophomore year is going to be to take that lesson and always compete and teach other kids that it’s one play at a time,” Jim Gow said. “His excitement is really getting that mentally spilled over to all the kids. And don’t get me wrong, a lot of them want to win, it’s just they’re used to a culture where they don’t.”
The Chieftains 2022 season, which Gow said looks more winnable than last year, will kick off on Saturday, Aug. 27, against Lincoln Northeast.
“Once we win those games, I’m confident we will ... we’ll have even more confidence to go into those games that I said we weren’t supposed to (win),” Gow said. “You got to take it like it’s your last game you’ll ever play. I really think that we have a shot this year. I think anyone has a shot, but I think if we prepare well enough like we are right now, then we can really take it far.”
