Submitted photo – Sam Cowan

By Ray Hamill — The College of the Redwoods men’s soccer team secured the services of another local standout this week, with the news that Del Norte’s Sam Cowan will join the team for 2020.

Cowan is expected to start at outside back and will give the team some much-needed speed going forward.

“He’s got a lot of speed,” CR head coach Kyle Van Dyke said of the Del Norte senior. “And we’re going to use his speed out there.”

Cowan was a member of three straight winning teams at Del Norte, including the Warriors team that made it to the North Coast Section championship game for the first time ever in 2018.

His style of play is expected to fit in perfectly at CR, where Van Dyke expects a lot out of his outside backs.

“I put a lot of responsibility on our outside backs,” the coach said. “I like to have my outside backs push up.”

Cowan is the latest local recruit to join the team, following in the footsteps of Eureka’s Cristian Bravo Sierra and Fortuna’s Geovaney Ramirez, who each committed to CR recently.

And Van Dyke is not done yet.

“We’ve got some more coming,” the coach said. “We’re still looking at a few players, and we’ve got some transfers that have shown some interest in us.”