Future for Cassidy Rowe looks like this: Basketball, Marriage and PT School
UK junior is choosing to follow her heart as a student, athlete and fiancée
By Forrest Tucker and Ryan Clark
ABC 36 News Now and CHS
The nickname came early in the season.
In a gritty, pre-conference victory last fall, UK’s women’s basketball coach Kenny Brooks singled out one player for her performance — and he even gave her a moniker.
“I’m really proud,” Brooks said. “They way she’s handled everything, it has been tremendous.”
The player was Cassidy Rowe. The nickname? “Kentucky’s Favorite Child.”
Turns out it went over well — and it perfectly described Rowe’s story.
“I embrace it,” she said. “Just being a home state girl, Kentucky means everything for me. I want to raise my family here.”
Born to be Blue
Cassidy is a girl from the mountains — born to be blue in a small town. And wherever she goes, home is on her mind.
“I’ve grown to really like Lexington,” said Rowe, who is now in her junior season playing basketball at UK and just wrapped up a degree in kinesiology. “I always used to laugh and say that this felt like the big city to me being from Virgie, where everybody knows everybody. It was a big adjustment. There’s no parking. There’s traffic.”
So, she adapted to the changes. After averaging 2.6 points in 17 minutes per game as a sophomore, she has developed into a backup point guard this year for the Wildcats, learning behind All-America candidate Georgia Amoore. She has grown into her independence, but she is very relieved to have kept one thing from her hometown.
“I have heard that (Lexington) has not taken my accent away,” she laughed. “My friends said that I was going to lose my twang!”
For the record, she has not lost that twang. Nor has she lost her small-town, big-time, work ethic. As an all-academic performer, she knows how hard it is to balance books and basketball.
“When I got to college, I learned a lot about time management,” she said. “It’s about scheduling — when I’m going to complete certain assignments, when is my free time. I have to plan ahead, and I have to stay ahead of schedule, because things can pop up in athletics like meetings and extra film sessions. So, it’s very important to stay on top of your work.”
But she’s also persevered. In high school, her time as a Wildcat was in serious doubt as she approached the second half of her high school career.
When Rowe suffered back-to-back ACL injuries, it looked as if her future career as a Wildcat was in jeopardy.
“I had that dream growing up and a lot of people said that was impossible,” she said. “To be that example for them — that means everything. I also have that sense of pride that I did make it, and I love proving people wrong. I can’t even describe what it meant to take my first steps on this campus.”
A Trade for All White
Now, she has achieved athletically and academically. And in a few months, Rowe will trade her all blue uniform for a whole lot of white. Cassidy and Connor, her fiancée, will tie the knot in Tennessee after the basketball season ends.
“I’m ready to get my life started with him,” said Rowe, her engagement ring shining on her left hand. “I have a countdown at my apartment.”
A jam-packed basketball schedule (the women will find out their NCAA future with the official selection show at 8 p.m., Sunday, March 16, on ESPN) means Cassidy can’t taste cake for the big day, but she writes roughly once a week in her wedding planner.
“Anytime I have free time I look through it,” she said. “Figure out bridesmaids’ dresses and music. It’s got a lot of pages.”
The story of how the future couple met is even sweeter than their wedding day dessert.
“We grew up in the same hometown,” she said. “We actually never connected until college. At the end of my freshman year, he reached out. It’s been great ever since. I always told myself that I wanted to finish playing basketball before I got married, but when I met him everything kind of changed.”
Back to Her Roots
Solid Blue fans shouldn’t worry about Rowe returning to the court for Kentucky. She’s not going anywhere for her senior season.
“I want to finish out my dream of playing college basketball,” she said. “Lexington is special. UK is special. I feel that pride every time that I put on the UK uniform. It’s more than yourself and it’s indescribable.”
Besides basketball, there’s another goal Cassidy is shooting for — she recently was accepted to the College of Health Sciences’ Physical Therapy program. She’ll begin in the fall.
“I dealt with a lot of injuries that required PT, and I figured out that’s what I wanted to do,” she said. “I tore my ACL as a freshman, and again as a sophomore, and I pretty much lived in the physical therapy clinic that year. I was working every single day, and I just fell in love with the profession. Physical therapists help the athletes make their dreams come true and get back on the field or court. But it’s not just athletes, they help normal people live their lives every day.
“That’s what my physical therapist did for me,” she continued, “and that’s what I want to do for other people.”
And when Cassidy graduates, ready to help people in need, she knows exactly where she wants to do that, too.
“My goal is to bring different resources to my hometown so any kids who want to play at a high level can do that,” Rowe said. “If you’re not from there you wouldn’t understand why it’s so special for me. It’s where I want to raise my family.”
Still, she knows there are some things her hometown just doesn’t have.
“I realize that there are a lot of resources that are lacking in terms of physical therapy in my hometown, and that’s a big thing for me,” she said. “I want to bring those resources back to Eastern Kentucky. When I was rehabbing my second ACL tear, I was invited to a program that took place in Dayton, Ohio, and when I went to the facility, they just had so many things that I had never seen before. The anti-gravity treadmill and blood flow restriction therapy — just so many things that I was not introduced to in Eastern Kentucky. And that program really helped me.”
So as of right now, Kentucky’s favorite child doesn’t know exactly how she’s going to help her home.
But that’s okay — she has time. And before anything else, she’s got a wedding to plan.