Basketball, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Kevin Durant
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: North vs. South basketball games
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Last year I threw a baseball from center field and hit my coach at home plate during warm-ups.
Music on iPod: A little bit of everything
Future plans: Go to college and major in business
Words to live by: “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”
One goal before turning 30: Graduate college and start a career.
One thing people don’t know about me: I enjoy reading in my free time.
By Mary Jane Souder
Chris Rowland is a ‘program kid.’
The Council Rock North senior went through the ranks, paid his dues and is reaping the benefits.
“He developed up from the freshman team,” coach Derek Wright said. “He didn’t feel any entitlement, and he wasn’t given any position.
“He worked his way up through the program like old school, the way it used to be. We take a lot of pride in seeing a kid like Chris succeed.”
A two-year starter, Rowland is a captain and leading scorer on this year’s squad, and he is an advertisement for the value of hard work.
“Chris has been one of our most improved players throughout the 12 years I’ve been at North,” Wright said. “He’s made a ton of progress.
“He’s gone from a kid that was physically a little weak and was really just one dimensional in that he was just a really good shooter, but if he missed a couple of shots in a game, then he would kind of disappear and put his head down to really being one of the hardest workers we’ve had in this program on both ends of the floor.
“He’s learned the game immensely on both ends of the floor as well. He’s become our leading rebounder and one of our leading assist men. He’s no longer just a catch and shoot guy. Most importantly, his attitude has been terrific.”
Rowland’s leadership was especially significant this season when the Indians – with a new nucleus of players – stumbled out of the gate to a 3-6 start.
“It’s really been good for the kids to go through the life experience of dealing with adversity and not getting what you want right away and being able to work through it,” Wright said. “(Tri-captains) Chris, Josh McWilliams and Tyler Madison have been really good. We’ve communicated a lot about where we are as a team, where we want to go, what we need to do.”
That low point of the season, according to Rowland, was a 39-30 loss to Bensalem, a loss that proved to be a turning point.
“After that, we all looked at ourselves in the mirror and were like, ‘What can we do better individually to help the team?’” he said. “We had talks with the team about what we needed to do.
“It was focusing on some of the negatives but also looking at the positives and how we need to keep working on those as well as focusing on developing the things we’re not doing well. We put in a ton of work and got after it during practice. We knew what we were capable of. We just had to start playing like it.”
The team responded to the Bensalem loss with a five-game winning streak and boasts a record of 9-8 as the season heads down the home stretch. The Indians’ record might not match some of the glory years of the recent past, but it’s impressive for a squad that lost three all-league players from last year’s team with Rowland the lone returning starter.
“In the past few years, we’ve had those guys who could score whenever they want and can create their shot,” Rowland said. “This year, with (first team guard) Rip Engel leaving, we lost a bit of scoring, and we had to pick that up as a team.
“There’s not one person who was designated to make up all those points, so we kind of just spread it out over the team. Everyone has to step up and assume a bigger role. The identity of our team this year is definitely focused on defense – pressuring teams and frustrating them.”
As a senior captain, Rowland was asked to change his leadership style.
“He’s always led by example – the way he plays, the way he practices is a great example to set, but we challenged him to be more vocal this year, to show his enthusiasm and his passion a little bit more,” Wright said. “He’s stepped up. He’s done a nice job.
“We’ve really made some progress this year, and it’s because of his leadership.”
Rowland admits that with the captain’s title comes responsibility.
“It’s different,” he said. “I’ve definitely had to be more vocal on the court with everybody.
“I’ve tried mostly to lead by example and show the guys how hard they need to be working, so when I leave, they know – ‘Hey, Chris worked this hard, so I should work as hard as him,’ so the younger guys know how hard to work.”
Rowland, according to his coach, is one of those players both coaches and teammates enjoy being around.
“He doesn’t take himself too seriously,” Wright said. “He doesn’t have an ego that sets himself apart from anybody else.
“I think he has a nice balance of competitiveness, but at the same time, I think he puts things in perspective. He garners a lot of respect from his peers and with the younger kids in the program. He’s a real likable kid. He’s got a lot a lot of friends – not just basketball players but just students in the building and community.”
Rowland’s answer when asked what he has enjoyed most about his years with the basketball program hardly comes as a surprise.
“Definitely my teammates,” he said. “Every year it’s always a different group of guys, and it’s always different how everyone reacts around each other.
“I’ve really enjoyed each season. It’s always been a different group of kids. I just love being around the guys.”
Rowland has been playing basketball since he started shooting hoops in his driveway as a four-year-old. He also played baseball and soccer and even swam for a short period of time. He stuck with both basketball and baseball, and he will play baseball for the last time this spring with his high school team.
Basketball, however, has always been his favorite.
“I liked the energy in it,” he said. “None of the other sports I played really compared to it because it’s 32 minutes of just running up and down the court and playing. It’s high octane.”
Much as he loves the sport, he will not be playing at the collegiate level.
“I’m probably going to try and get involved in a club and definitely play intramural and pick-up,” Rowland said. “I’ve been playing five days a week for many months.
Every day I wake up, and it’s like, ‘What time is practice?’ There will be a gap in my life. I’ll have to find something to replace it.”
Much as he loves basketball, Rowland is hardly one-dimensional.
An honors student, Rowland is a member of the National Honor Society and also SHARE, a community service group affiliated with the school. He has narrowed his final choices down to Penn State and James Madison with plans to major in business with an interest in accounting.
