Students at the Philip W. Sugg Middle School in Lisbon were anxious Monday afternoon. It’s not every day a professional baseball player comes to visit.

“I know there were a lot of people that were telling me, like, ‘Oh my gosh, my stomach hurts,’ like, ‘I’m so nervous,’” Maizy Atwood, an eighth grader, said. “And, like, I was nervous too, but I was also excited because not a lot of people get this opportunity to meet people before they become at a much higher level.”

Cody Bowker didn’t disappoint, encouraging the students to be themselves and put their intentions into action.

Bowker, a 21-year-old Bowdoinham native, was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies this summer.

Fresh from Florida, where he is in training, Bowker was in Lisbon at the behest of Assistant Principal Michael Toomey, who is also the adviser to the Captain Council, the student leadership group that hosted the pro pitcher.

Toomey has a personal connection to Bowker and thought he would have a lot of good insights for his students on how he developed the leadership skills necessary for a professional baseball career.

“It’s important when I have the opportunity to be around incredible people to do my best to get those incredible people in front of you,” Toomey told the group.

The students in grades 6-8 took diligent notes while Bowker answered their questions, impressing on them to have discipline to achieve their goals, and to be a kind leader.

When Bowker was in middle school, he did not consider himself a leader. He described himself as someone who would follow other peers’ behavior, sometimes resulting in him talking out in class and causing disruptions.

But through his youth he learned the value of being himself and trusting who he is, which helped him become a professional athlete.

His message resonated, said Atwood, 13, who is president of the Captain Council. She has struggled with being herself, she said, so it helps to look up to people like Bowker who have overcome those struggles.

Bowker also talked about the importance of following through on intentions. Using his goals as a baseball player, he had to develop ways to encourage himself to follow through on training when he was trying to develop his pitching skills, he said.

Sometimes he would wake up early in the morning to fit in an early practice. Following through on actions helped him achieve his athletic goals, he said.

“It’s one thing to say, ‘I’m going to get better at hitting,’ but it’s another thing to actually do the steps to make sure that happens,” Bowker said. “I think that’s something you guys can apply, like whether it’s to this group or really to anything in life that you want to move forward with.”

He also impressed on the kids the importance of being kind and respectful when giving people feedback or improvement advice. Being mindful of how they approach people about things can help gain trust and be more effective as a leader.

During Bowker’s freshman year at Georgetown University, Toomey, who has a background in coaching high school and college baseball, helped him with pitching training and setting goals. Toomey said that through that experience, he saw in Bowker good leadership skills.

The Captain Council is Toomey’s creation. When he first came to Philip W. Sugg Middle School, he set out to develop a group to help students grow their leadership skills, he said.

He developed the council the first year with eighth graders, and opened it to sixth and seventh graders the following year. This year there are eight eighth graders, seven seventh graders and eight sixth graders in the group.

The Captain Council attends two statewide student council conferences a year, one that all students on the team attend at the University of New England and another that only a portion of council attends to compete for election to the state student council.

Through organizing donations for the local food pantry and a LEGO drive to raise money for families in need over the holiday season, the Captain Council is active in trying to address problems in the community, Toomey said.

After the talk, Atwood said she thought Bowker influenced her and her peers in a positive way, and they enjoyed what he had to say.

“I think the things he said were really like, for me, they were really empowering and it was really good,” she said.