Erie, PA- Garrett Owens, a former Mercyhurst football standout, has since furthered his football journey and started a career as a country musician. Along the way, through the ups and downs, Owens has always remembered one thing which is that athletics will fade, but character and integrity can make positive impacts in people's lives. Adopting this mentality into his everyday life, Owens launched GOLife, which is an effort to bring people together, build relationships, and to make a massive impact for the local community.
Beginning his collegiate football career at Mercyhurst in 2016, Owens became a standout and graduated with a finance degree in 2020. Owens then earned his master's degree from Duquesne University while finishing his eligibility on the gridiron.
His time on the football field didn't end at Duquesne, as Owens then went on to be selected as the 9th overall pick in the 2023 XFL Draft, which was followed up by a conference call from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson welcoming him to the league.
In the off season, Owens moved back to Erie, PA and started playing music, which was a hobby that developed during his freshman year at Mercyhurst. Bookings started filtering in for concerts big and small, anywhere from 40 to 4,000. He now has plans to record an album in Nashville leading up to his opening shows this summer for national touring artists.
As Owens found success both on and off the field, he took a step back to see how he could give back and found himself wanting to create environments where people could come together, build community, build relationships, do something challenging and fun, all with the purpose of making a positive impact in the local community.
As the GOLife movement was created, Owens is now proud to promote its first event, which is a Run & Plunge, with a major portion of the proceeds benefiting the Shriners Children's Hospital. The event will include a 5K Run with a Cold Plunge following thereafter. The event will be at the Rotary Pavilion inland from Beach 7 at Presque Isle State Park from 10am–2pm on Saturday, April 20th.
If interested in joining in on the GOLife event, registration details can be found here.
