There is no more devastating way to conclude a sports season than through injury. That is compounded when it’s a career-ender in your senior year of university or college.
That happened this past week to hockey forward Joel Lowry at Cornell and basketball post Shalie Dheensaw at Washington State, two of the most high-profile Island-associated athletes from the U.S. collegiate NCAA recruiting class of 2011.
Overlooked by the WHL, Lowry emerged through two successful seasons with the Victoria Grizzlies of the B.C. Hockey League. After garnering 67 points in 42 regular-season games for Victoria in the 2010-11 BCHL regular-season at the Q Centre in Colwood, adding another 17 points in 12 Grizz playoff games that spring, Lowry was selected in the fifth round of the 2011 NHL draft by the Los Angeles Kings.
The six-foot-two left-winger’s senior year at Cornell has been cut short by back surgery. Lowry was leading the Big Red in scoring despite experiencing pain for much of the season.
“Obviously, he’s disappointed. It’s his senior year, and not to be able to finish it on the ice is very disappointing,” said dad Dave Lowry, head coach of the Victoria Royals of the WHL.
“But it [Joel’s back] was not getting any better. Sometimes you have to make life choices.”
It is believed the surgery will clean things up to allow Joel Lowry to pursue his pro career in the Kings organization this fall.
Brother Adam Lowry is an NHL rookie with the Winnipeg Jets, while Dave played 19 seasons in the NHL.
“Joel will come out of it [hockey] with something neither I nor his brother has — an Ivy League degree [in business],” said Dave Lowry.
Meanwhile, senior Dheensaw was leading Washington State of the Pac-12 in rebounding (7.2 boards per game) and blocks (29 season total) when she went down on the last play in a game at Oregon State in Corvallis with a Cougars-career ending injury to her right-knee.
The six-foot-four Claremont Secondary graduate was a key piece of the puzzle that has Washington State at 12-6 and in the hunt for its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1991. The Washington State fans showed their support during Friday night's game in Pullman against Utah.
“It was nice to see the signs [in the arena reading] ‘Play for Shalie,’ ” Cougars head coach June Daugherty said in her post-game news conference.
“Those are heartfelt emotions and you can feel it from the fans. People close to our program realize what a loss this is. Not just on the court but also off the court, with Shalie being such a great leader. We’ve got to keep battling and keep our spirit. We’re going to have to go more small ball, but I think we can do that.”
Dheensaw’s wingspan carried the Claremont Spartans to the B.C. Triple-A high school semifinals in Grade 10 and Grade 11 and the provincial championship game in Grade 12. She played for Canada at the FIBA U-17 world championships and won the silver medal with British Columbia, along with current UVic Vikes Cassandra Goodis and Claremont-grad Jessica Renfrew, at the 2009 Canada Summer Games.
The Island’s representation in NCAA Pac-12 women’s basketball will continue next season when Grade 12 Oak Bay star and Canadian Olympic team prospect Lauren Yearwood joins the Oregon Ducks as a freshman in the fall.
UNI NOTES: Elise Wyatt of Victoria, daughter of Canadian rugby great and two-time World Cup player Mark Wyatt and former UVic and national team track athlete Karen Rainey, is a soccer standout who scored 11 goals this season to lead DePaul (16-1-4 and ranked as high as No. 7) into the NCAA tournament. She has been named to the Scholar All-America third team . . . Some great Island rowers have gone through the University of Washington Huskies program — including Brentwood College-grad and Olympic silver-medallist Dave Calder and Stelly’s-grad and Rio 2016 medal-threat Patricia Obee — with the latest being Claremont-grad and Huskies junior Allie Delarge.
