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VYPE Sunday Feature: Rowen’s Letterman
Rowen takes a very active role with the team.
When the Bulldogs are doing warm-ups, Arizpe will stand and blow his whistle for the first group to go. Then the second. Then, Rowen will walk onto the track for his turn.
“He’ll say, ‘Coach!’ and he wants the whistle,” Arizpe said, showing how Rowen will put his hands up to his mouth like he is holding a whistle. “He wants the same thing as everybody else. So, I’ll blow the whistle. I get in trouble when I don’t have the whistle.”
Last season on March 10, Arizpe was able to set up Rowen to run in one of the local track meets, his first race.
“It’s fun,” Rowen said. “[I like to] run.”
With the support of his teammates, and even opposing teams.
“We had all of our kids run next to him,” Arizpe said. “He finished and got a medal. That was awesome.”
Karen added: “It wasn’t just our kids. It was kids from the other schools that were running with him too.”
With three years of being in the track program and last year competing in a race, Rowen qualified to receive his athletic letterman jacket.
On August 30, the jackets that had been fitted for in May finally arrived at the school. Arizpe admitted that he had had nightmares if Rowen had actually gone and been fitted for his jacket in May. As he went through the boxes, Arizpe's fears were put to rest as there was Rowen’s jacket.
Arizpe wanted to make this a special moment.
He went to the seniors on the team and handed them Rowen’s jacket out of his backpack, where he had been hiding it.
With cameras rolling, the team gathered around Rowen and presented him his own jacket. His last name – Hall – stitched onto the back, just like his brother and sister who had gotten theirs years prior.
Rowen hugged the jacket with the biggest smile, and he simply said, “Thank you.”
“I was glad I was working from home when Jaime sent me the video, because I sat there and bawled like a baby,” Karen said as she held back emotions. “It’s exciting because when Rowen was born with down syndrome, we didn’t know what to expect. It’s been so much fun watching him grow, be accepted and be loved by so many people.
“He was very excited when he got home with it.”
Arizpe added: “It was something that you’ll remember for a coaching career.”
The video of Rowen getting presented his letterman jacket got viewed nearly 10,000 times on the La Porte XC/Track twitter account. Karen shared it on a national website for parents with children that have down syndrome.
She received nearly 500 responses to the video, many filled with hope.
“They are looking forward to the possibilities for their kids,” Karen said. “I think that’s what’s important about this. And to hopefully see other coaches embrace the idea and be comfortable with this.”
Someone once asked Karen, “Aren’t you afraid for him to walk out to athletics?”
The answer?
No.
“When people see him at the track meet and around the halls, they know him,” Arizpe said. “The kids have a sense in their soul that at La Porte we embrace everybody. Whoever is going to come into our locker room, whatever skill level, we’re going to build and cultivate the person to be a part of our community and our programs.”
Karen added: “It says a lot for our school and for our district. It’s the expectation, really, that students will be included.”
Rowen is already a star as he walks the halls of La Porte High for his senior year, but now even more so after the social media buzz around his video.
And you can expect to watch him blaze down the track come the spring, wearing the La Porte colors again. And, while he’s waiting on his race, wearing his letterman jacket.
“You’ll see him on the track this upcoming season,” Arizpe said. “We’ll get him some races. He is a social media superstar, so if I reach out to some other coaches, we can get him on that track circuit. We can make fun with that this year and make it special for him.”
Oh, if you were wondering – Rowen loves his letterman jacket.
“I was surprised,” he said. “It fits good.”
La Porte senior Naomi Green.
La Porte's Green finds home on course
"They told us we couldn't play basketball until we ran two cross country meets," Green said. "I didn't really like running, but I did it for basketball. I placed second overall in my first meet. Going out there, I didn't find myself getting tired and I went faster and faster.
"From then on, I was like, OK, I guess I'm pretty good at this. Why not stick with it?"
And just like that, little did she know, Green had set course for a future on the course.
Now Green, a four-year letterman, is the captain of a La Porte girls cross country team that has won 10 consecutive district championships. She has ambitions of running in college and having her tuition paid for, and she will accomplish those because of how fast she is.
Green, a student council historian who wants to be a world history professor, has personal records of 5-minutes, 24.14-seconds in the 1600-meter run, 12-minutes, 02.0-seconds in the 3200-meter run, and 19-minutes, 15-seconds in the 5000-meter run. She placed third last week at the Region III cross country preview in Huntsville.
"I was raised into dance and basketball so heavily," said Green, whose mother was a runner at La Porte and whose father was a football player. "I never looked at running as an outlet. I knew my mom did that, but I had just always figured that was her thing and I was different. When it shifted and it ended up being running, it was a shock to me. But I feel I've made the best out of it."
Green spoke more with VYPE.
La Porte senior Naomi Green.Courtesy of Naomi Green
VYPE: At what point did you decide just to focus on running?
GREEN: I played basketball up until the summer before my ninth-grade year. I was in dance, on the drill team, my freshman year and I ran my first cross country season practicing with the boys team because there was no room for me in the girls class because I was in dance at the time. I would practice with the girls after school and, of course, race meets with them, but during school I was training with the boys. I placed second at district my freshman year, and from there I was like, hey, maybe I really do have a shot at this. After that year, I shifted to running. It was something I was serious about and realized I wanted to go to school for, so I stopped dancing, moved into the girls cross country period.
VYPE: Did practicing with the boys team do anything for you as far as helping you as a runner?
GREEN: Boys are naturally pretty fast and have a lot more stamina than women. Training with them and being with their amazing coach (then-La Porte head boys cross country and track and field coach Zach Johnson, now at Clear Lake), who took me under his wing, was big. He didn't train me like a boy, but he pushed me like one. I wasn't running the same distances, but he motivated me to catch some of the boys and I'd keep working hard until I caught up with them.
VYPE: What did you learn from qualifying for the state meet last year, and what did you take away that you can build on for this season?
GREEN: Sometimes you've just got to get out. Jump in the deep end and see where the cards fall. With that being my first time, we had practiced all year to go as a team. When my team didn't quite make it, but I made it individually, it was hard to stand on that line before the gun went off. It's hard to do that alone. You've got to know mentally that even though your teammates aren't on that line with you, they're still with you. Just go.
VYPE: The girls team is on a 10-year run of district titles. What is it about Coach (Carolina) Rodriguez's style or culture that has enabled that consistent success?
GREEN: It's her determination. She takes whatever girls she has and pushes them to their fullest potential. She makes us understand that we can do more and are stronger than we think we are. Whether we're a sprinter, hurdler, jumper, distance runner, she'll take you and mold you into who you want to be. It builds life characteristics.
VYPE: What have you learned personally under Coach Rodriguez and what has she done for you and your running career?
GREEN: I've met a lot of coaches from high schools, and I don't think they care as much for their student-athletes as a person as Coach Rodriguez does. They care for them for running and athletics, but Coach tries hard to connect with you on a personal level. She makes sure your grades are up and not having any issues at home, and if you are, she makes sure you know you can come talk to her. She tries her best to make you feel as comfortable as possible.