In the 2024-2025 football season Omaha North Football welcomes a new quarterback, Mikey Gow, 12. He began attending North last school year. Gow is replacing last year’s quarterback Sebastian Circo, 12, after he moved to South Florida.
Growing up, Gow was originally a baseball player. He did not pick up a football until the seventh grade. Up until his freshman year, Gow was a 2-sport athlete, playing baseball in addition to football.
The throwing motion in baseball caused pain in his arm, which led him to choosing football.
“My freshman year I could’ve played so much better, but I had arm pain throughout the whole season, I felt like I needed to just choose one and stick with it.” said Gow.
Gow broke his wrist sophomore year; he had planned on using his ambidexterity to his advantage and throwing with his left arm during that football season. It turned out his plan would not work.
“Even if I played in a cast, if I got hit wrong it could’ve gotten to the point where they would have had to amputate my arm.” Said Gow
Gow differs from most quarterbacks due to the fact that he is ambidextrous. This means he can throw with both arms. Some other notable ambidextrous athletes are tennis player Maria Sharapova, as well as basketball players such as Lebron James and the late Kobe Bryant.
Gow discovered he was ambidextrous at age 8. During a baseball game, he threw 60 pitches, which ended up tearing the growth plates in his right arm. He did not want to miss out on the season, so he started to work on throwing with the other arm.
“I used that opportunity; my mom told me to just start throwing with my left hand since I couldn’t throw with my right,” said Gow.
Gow started his high school career at Bellevue East High school where he began playing varsity football in 9th grade, becoming well known around the metro.
The summer before his sophomore year, Gow had a video of him showing off his ambidextrous skills, go viral. The video was originally posted by @theqbplug, Gow’s Instagram follower count grew rapidly to a whopping 31,700 thousand.
“A lot of coaches have talked to me just from that video. Coaches that didn’t even know who I was.” said Gow
In response to the video and seeing Gow’s skills, Lamar Jackson, the quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, said “Gow is the future number 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.”
Gow grew up watching football which is what initially inspired his love for the game. He is a fan of the Minnesota Vikings football team because his dad is originally from Minnesota.
Gow has had many great experiences with playing football, going to camps and being able to take part in things that others do not get the chance to.
“I have met a lot of great people,” Gow said.
This past summer Gow spent time in Canada for a U20 football camp with the U.S National Football Team (USNFT). He ended up not being able to play after being marked “ineligible” because he was not over the age of 18.
Although he was ineligible his experience in Canada was positive and benefited him substantially.
“Meeting people was good, connecting with people was good,” said Gow
Gow is inspired by people such as Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the New York Jets, Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for Kansas City Chiefs, and Jordan Love, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.
In the future his biggest aspiration is to go to the National Football League (NFL), other than that he would like to go to college on a football scholarship. He is hoping to stay in the football world, planning to major in something such as sports communication.
