Ebony Rowe and Eric Guyes working on a physics experiment.
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In all likelihood, Rowe will have the opportunity to play women’s professional basketball, following in the footsteps of Lady Raider alums like Alysha Clark and Amber Holt. However, Rowe isn’t yet committing to a plan to play professional ball. She’s as interested, she says, in beginning pursuit of a postgraduate degree or beginning her career in mechanical engineering. “At this point, I’m just trying to keep all my doors and options open,” she says. “Whether that’s playing professionally here or overseas or going straight into getting my master’s degree in engineering, I’m still undecided.”
A Dual Threat With her high GPA, passionate interest in her studies, and wait-and-see approach to playing pro sports, Rowe bursts the stereotype of the academically disinterested studentathlete. And what makes her even more intriguing is that her major is science-related—a field of study far more dense than the proverbial “basket weaving” coursework the public tends to think about when it paints studentathletes with a broad brush.
20 | Innovations
Rowe describes perceptions of student-athletes as “dumb” and science majors as “nerds” as “a sad mentality that’s just developed and is taken as truth now.” “A lot of people told me you can’t be a basketball player and an engineer. But it can be done,” she says. “I like to be different and unique, not just for myself but also for generations behind me. More people need to start showing the younger generation that competing in high-level athletics and excelling in the classroom can be done.” As a physics major, Rowe takes classes such as Classical Mechanics, Strength of Materials, and Electricity and Magnetism. Among her recent research projects was a study of the physics of free throw shooting in basketball. It’s an ironic topic for Rowe to tackle given her highly publicized troubles at the free throw line in competition. Even her coach has been publicly critical of Rowe’s free throw shooting percentage in years past, which for a time hovered below the 50 percent mark. Rowe has, however, improved dramatically over the past year and is now one of the best free throw shooters on the Lady Raider squad.