Jacob Rowe said he grew up in Seymour playing sports, so it was an easy choice for him to be involved in several sports at Trinity Lutheran.
He is in his fourth season playing basketball, he just completed his third year as a member of the football team, and in the spring will spend his third season on the track and field squad.
“Sports have been a big part of my life,” Rowe said. “I’ve always thought going to a small school I can help out any program that I could, and being involved in a small school like this is very important and crucial to really the whole part of being here.”
In basketball, Rowe was a role player his sophomore year and is in his second season as a starter.
“I play on a wing,” Rowe said. “I don’t handle the ball much, but if I need to that’s what I do. I’ll take a ‘3’ anywhere. If we’re in our fast break our coach always tells us to run the sidelines just to make the court open a lot more, so if it’s within the flow of the offense and I’m open, I’ll take it.”
Rowe has helped the Cougars break the school scoring record twice this season. His high-point game this winter has been 24 points against Hauser, and last season he scored 21 against Christel House.
“The thing I enjoy most about our offense is how much we flow off of it,” Rowe said. “If AJ (Goecker) is hitting we’ll get the ball to AJ, everybody else is worried about their own man because of how offensively gifted we are. When AJ hits, somebody sucks up on him and we get it to Trent (Shoemaker) and Trent drives and kicks. We have plenty of options and that’s what I love about it.”
He said the type of defense the Cougars face depends on the opponent.
“It does make it challenging when we play bigger teams because we are very, very small,” Rowe said. “We do like playing against a zone because we can pick apart a zone very easily, but since we are smaller, and a little bit faster than some of the bigger teams it’s kind of fun to play against man, too.”
On the schedule, Rowe looks forward to the games at the Bollinger Athletic Complex.
“There’s more students showing up, and I love that,” he said. “I love when the pep band plays. The atmosphere is great. I love hearing all the fans being out there and supporting us.”
He also enjoys competing in the Edinburgh Holiday Tournament.
“It makes us all pull together and really focus on getting these crucial wins during the holiday season,” Rowe said. “We play a strong schedule. At the beginning it gives us a wake up call. In January is when all our sectional opponents come in, hopefully we can make a big difference there. I’ve always loved playing basketball. Hopefully I can go play at a college somewhere.”
In track, Rowe has been competed in high jump, the 300 hurdles, and 4×400 and 4×800 relays
“I like the high jump, my best is 5-8, so I was one inch off the record,” Rowe said. “I want to break the school record.
“My coach says I do a really good job (in the hurdles) making sure I stay in the flow of how I run and make sure I get my last three steps down before I jump over. My best time has been 46 seconds, but that can go way down.”
He said his favorite relay is the 4×400.
“It’s the last race of the meet,” Rowe said. “Everybody is watching, everybody is cheering you on and that’s what keeps you going the whole way around the track.”
He was a two-way starter in football last fall.
“I went from quarterback my junior year and part of my senior year to playing a little bit of wide receiver, and playing a lot more defense my senior year at safety and corner back,” Rowe said. “Being a wide receiver gave me more opportunities on the field because as a quarterback my coach would kind of keep me back conservatively on defense. I thought it was more fun to play wide receiver.”
This fall Trinity lost its first five games before winning the last three.
“We definitely improved,” Rowe said. “We knew coming in our schedule would be tough the first five games, and we knew that the end of the season would really be a crucial time for us to start getting in some wins, and look forward to next year, so all the freshmen could really say after those first three or four games, ‘Hey, we have varsity experience,’ so we don’t have that excuse anymore to be a young team.”
Regulation football lights were installed at the Trinity field prior to the 2017 season and Rowe said he enjoyed the home games.
“I loved the feeling of getting out and having our name back on the jerseys, having ‘Trinity’ back on it, and starting up something new,” Rowe said.
Rowe’s brother, Josh, has been a teammate in football and basketball, and will be in track this year.
Having him as a teammate “is great,” Rowe said. “I love it. We can connect on so many things, we hear each other out whether it be on the court or the football field. We’ll listen and go out and make something happen.”
Rowe said he has enjoyed being as student at Trinity Lutheran.
“I am definitely glad I came here,” Rowe said. “The first moment I saw a picture in my church, at Redeemer Lutheran, I looked at it and said, ‘Dad, I definitely want to go there.’ I love the religious aspect of it, being able to freely, whether it be in theology, literature, or accounting or math, there is always that aspect of Christ through whatever we do. I am definitely proud to be a Cougar.”
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Name: Jacob Rowe
School: Trinity Lutheran
Parents: Tim and Heather Rowe
Sibling: Josh
Sports: basketball 4 years, football 3 years, track 3 years
Athletic highlights: football-played in National homeschool Tournament in 2016; basketball-helped team break single game scoring record.
Organizations: National Honor Society, Chess Club, Euchre Club, Student Ambassador, Events Team, Drama.
Plans after high school: attend Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, major in accounting, minor in finance.
Favorite food; mashed potatoes
Favorite movie: Hacksaw Ridge
Favorite team: Chicago Cubs
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