If you want to locate Christian Galvan, he’s probably working diligently in the Bothell High weight room or on the school football field.
On a recent day, he lifted with his teammates in the morning, participated in a half-hour practice and then had two more training sessions set for later that morning and in the afternoon.
The Cougar senior joked that he fits in some eating and sleeping each day. It’s mostly football, though, he added with a smile.
If fans keep an eye on No. 5 in blue under the lights on game night, they’ll witness Galvan blazing up field as if wearing winged shoes in the vein of mythic speedsters Mercury or Hermes.
Last year’s 4A KingCo Crown offensive player of the year, first team running back and second-team returner has three scholarship offers in his reach from Georgetown University, Columbia University and Central Washington University. The 5-foot-9, 180-pounder is also weighing his options by speaking with a couple of other schools in the running.
Summer time is football time for the Cougars, who attended Camp Gridiron at Evergreen State College in Olympia. Galvan — whose team finished 9-3 overall last season — said it was a great growing experience for the team, which got in plenty of repetitions during two to three daily practices.
“We’re definitely feeling really good about all the talent we have,” said Galvan, who also plays cornerback and sometimes takes on a wide receiver’s role. “Coach (Tom) Bainter always says the best teams that he had are the closest and we’re definitely a close group of guys who have been playing together since we were 8 years old.”
Former Cougar ball boy Galvan remembers being exposed to Bothell High football while watching his older brother Wendell (class of 2011) make his mark on the field. Christian saw his brother utilize his talent to the maximum, a goal that has stuck with him until this day.
Galvan played some varsity ball as a freshman and then earned second-team all-league running back honors his sophomore season.
The speedy Cougar credits his teammates for opening holes for him to shine during his junior season.
“I wouldn’t have (awards) if I didn’t have them. They push me and I push them. That whole competitive environment is what helps certain players succeed throughout the season and obtain awards like that,” Galvan said.
Pondering his senior season on the horizon, Galvan said it’s crazy to think how fast the time has gone. As always, the Cougars’ goal is to notch a KingCo championship and Galvan feels they’re on the right track thus far.
“It’s gonna be leave everything out there this year — there’s no regrets,” he said.
The Reporter asked Galvan a series of questions to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his life:
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
When I was really young and it was my first year of football, it was from one of my teammates’ dads I didn’t even know very well: He just saw me playing and saw how I always kind of went about all drills a little bit differently than most kids, and he told me that, “You have a lot of talent, don’t let it go to waste like everyone else.” I even think about that to this day although it’s been years and years. Hearing that at such a young age, that really makes you think like, everyone does have talent in their own ways and everyone is talented, but it’s about what you do with that talent. I wanna just take as much advantage (of) what I’ve been blessed with and I don’t wanna throw any of that away.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the Bothell area?
Qdoba, for sure. You’ll always find us there.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Probably just when people complain. Especially about little things that they’re gonna do anyways, why complain about it? No one really likes to be around people that complain; it brings you down just by complaining yourself.
If you could go to dinner with one person, who would that be?
Michael Jackson, greatest artist of all time.
What special skill would you like to learn?
I know how to play a couple songs on the ukulele, so maybe if I could learn to play more, just get better at that, at least.
Maybe the fight song or something like that, some kind of school thing. Like after a game, you pull that out with the crowd at Pop Keeney, that would make for quite a scene.
(Laughter)
What’s the best thing to do with a group of friends?
We like to go out to the lake or swimming or rope-swinging. Hiking in the woods. Anything outdoors.
What’s your favorite movie of all time?
My dad always makes fun of me for this, ‘cause whenever he’s with my friends, they’ll all talk about movies, but I never really have watched that many good movies. Probably “When the Game Stands Tall.” It’s a football movie, it’s about a team from California, a high school football team that had the longest winning streak of all time (De La Salle, 151 games). And they lost, and it was about how they came back from that, and their coach had a heart problem. (Bellevue beat them, 39-20, to end the streak on Sept. 4, 2004 at Qwest Field in Seattle.)
