Leaving a Legacy
University of Florida point guard Sarah Lowe wants to be remembered for being more than a top student-athlete
By Kendra Hamilton
Her favorite movies are “Crash” and “Motorcycle Diaries.” During the 2004 presidential election, she got every player on the women’s basketball squad to register to vote. Last year, she was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.
Who is this young prodigy? She’s Sarah Lowe, a 5’7” senior point guard from the University of Florida women’s basketball team and Diverse’s 2006 female Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar of the Year. And not only is she not your “typical jock,” she’s not even your typical college student.
“I guess you could say I’m pretty ambitious. I want to redefine the stereotype of what it is to be a student-athlete,” says Lowe. “For me, it would never be enough to be one dimensional — the athlete — or even to be two dimensional — the student and the athlete. I’ve always demanded the third dimension, too — being the student and the athlete and the engaged member of the community.”
If, however, Lowe were a one-dimensional athlete, she’d be a darned good one. She played high school ball at posh Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pa., and played with the AAU Philadelphia Belles for five years. Lowe also earned a finalist spot on the 2002 McDonald’s All-America team and was a 2001 All America Honorable Mention in Street & Smith’s magazine.
Named tri-captain of the squad her freshman year, Lowe was the only Gator to start every game that year, leading the team in assists and steals. Though she lost her starting position the next season, Lowe has remained a team captain and “the heart of the team,” according to head coach Carolyn Peck, who in just four years has over-seen the most dramatic turn around in the program’s history.
The Gators were 9-19 in 2002-2003, then 19-11, playing the third toughest schedule in the country, in 2003-2004. The team struggled in 2004-2005, posting a 15-16 record; but this year they were 21-9 and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
