During Athens Academy’s football team’s push to the 2015 playoffs, then-freshman Payton Bowles sat and watched as his teammates fell in the first round.

Bowles’ suffered a broken ankle in the middle of October of last season that cost him all but four games of his freshman year.

One year later, Bowles was off the crutches, rehab complete, and leading the Spartans to their first playoff win in four seasons last Friday night in a 37-21 win over Savannah Country Day.

Bowles was a constant threat for the Spartans that night. After taking a screen pass and scoring on a 71-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage, Bowles carried the ball 26 times for 108 yards while adding four receptions for 78 yards and two more scores.

His performance Friday night has made him this week’s Ellis Pain Center/Oconee Enterprise Athlete of the Week.

Bowles played the second half of Friday’s game angry after a fumble in the first half, and the physical nature in which Bowles returned to the field ignited the Athens Academy sideline and helped the Spartans retake momentum.

“I did fumble on one of our drives where we had run the ball pretty well, and around the 20-yard line I just slipped it right out of my hand,” Bowles said. “I had gotten pretty angry before just knowing not to fumble, I hate fumbling so I just wanted to make up for it.”

Bowles is finishing what is truly his first full season playing varsity high school football, and he is getting stronger later in the season as he hopes to help run the Spartans to Atlanta.

“Last year I had only played four games and then I just stopped playing,” Bowles said.

“So, this is my first full season of full-time playing time and just getting reps at running back every game. I think that’s been pretty important to me knowing that I could step up as a sophomore, but coach Alexander just let me know that sophomores can take over games sometimes and I really like to think about that a lot and that’s what I try to do."