Cassidy Rowe looking to make history through Kentucky Miss Basketball

Shelby Valley High School has been around for over three decades now following a 1990 merger, but the school has yet to produce a Kentucky Miss Basketball winner.

That might be about to change.

Cassidy Rowe has broken the program’s all-time assist record, set the single-season record for assists during her senior year, scored over 1,500 points, and hit over 250 3-pointers. She’ll head off to the University of Kentucky — the school she’s been committed to since she was in eighth grade — with a 4.0-plus GPA and an associate’s degree following graduation this spring. The city of Pikeville, where Shelby Valley HS is located, is home to roughly 7,000 people. Her rise to success has been no accident.

For Rowe to work her way into this position took an incredible amount of determination — especially after fighting back from two ACL injuries during her freshman and sophomore seasons, followed by a rib injury as a junior. Now, with a stellar senior season under her belt, the 5-foot-5 point guard has one more benchmark to hit before she can close the book on an incredible high school career. Rowe is considered one of the frontrunners for Kentucky Miss Basketball, which began the voting process last week and will continue until this Friday.

Of the 18 high school girls across the state nominated for the award, Rowe is one of two committed to playing for head coach Kyra Elzy and Kentucky Women’s Basketball next year. Her future UK teammate, Anderson County’s Amiya Jenkins, is also considered a frontrunner for Miss Basketball, and there’s a good chance the decision comes down to these two Wildcats. In another fun anecdote to this race, Rowe and Jenkins will room together when they arrive at Kentucky.

But Rowe has a special case for the individual honor: A Kentucky girl born in the mountains who committed to the state’s favorite school before overcoming two significant knee injuries. Her story writes itself in a sense, but her on-court resume justifies her candidacy in every way. Particularly in her senior season, the finally healthy point guard has become the face of eastern KY girl’s basketball.

“Her attitude, she’s got a great attitude. You can just tell what a good leader she is on the floor,” Chrysti Noble, who has been the head coach of Rockcastle County Girl’s Basketball for over 30 years now, told KSR about Rowe. “I would always see her giving her teammates (high-)fives, helping them up, I just think it shows how much hard work she’s put in knowing what injuries she’s overcome. She would be the epitome of what Miss Basketball should stand for. She came from a little town, a little school, and has faced adversity and overcome those things to be where she is right now. She’s an exact example of what hard work takes.”

Rowe dropped 36 points on 16-24 shooting against Noble’s Rockcastle squad earlier this season, leading Shelby Valley to a 57-51 win. But Noble said she didn’t even realize Rowe scored that much. It was the way she got the rest of her team involved that stood out to Noble.

“She was very unselfish. She got the ball to the open person,” Noble added.

Passing, shooting, and basketball IQ are what stands out first when you watch Rowe on the court. She has unlimited range from beyond the arc, taking and making NBA-level 3-pointers on a game-by-game basis. Her passing vision combined with basketball smarts are even more impressive, though — you’d be hard-pressed to find a better overall passer in the entire state. But when you watch her play a few times, the little things that make her worthy of playing Power 5 basketball begin to shine.

Rowe has taken a gutsy 42 charges as a senior. She’s a gym rat and coach’s kid, which has built a foundation of a tireless work ethic. She embraces every challenge with the only thought in her mind being that she’ll overcome it.

You can’t come out stronger from two ACL injuries without that mindset.

“That’s who she is. We’re gonna have to kick her out of the gym,” UK head coach Kyra Elzy told KSR of Rowe’s impressive work ethic. “I always tell her work hard but work smart. She’s driven. She is a coach’s kid, she wants to learn, she wants to be the best that she can be. I’ll text her and she’ll be like sorry coach I missed you I was in the gym I was trying to get 500 made 3s up or she’s in the gym every night or she’s outside dribbling the ball doing ball handling drills or she’s watching film, she just works. She has that blue-collar mentality and you need that to be successful.”

This video sums up what @cassidyballer5 is all about. You just have to know this young lady. pic.twitter.com/o4DxF4UXfa

— Lonnie Rowe (@coachrowe20) February 21, 2022

Rowe played just five games as a freshman, 18 as a sophomore, and 19 as a junior. It wasn’t until the end of the 2020-21 season that she finally began to return to 100 percent. As a senior, she’s already played 28 games and leads her team in scoring at 16.8 points per game. She shoots 45 percent from the field, 39.1 percent from distance on nearly six attempts per outing, and 76 percent from the free-throw line. Go ahead and tack on 3.9 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game on top of ranking second on the team in blocked shots, too. At times, she’s even played at the bottom of Shelby Valley’s zone defense.

Her high school head coach Lonnie Rowe, who doubles as her father/biggest supporter, has witnessed her progress firsthand. Only once, though, did the two have a serious conversation about basketball as her future. It was shortly after her second ACL tear. He wanted to know if this was going to be too much on her, both mentally and physically.

“I discussed with her when she got hurt the second time. The discussion lasted about 15 seconds,” Lonnie Rowe told KSR. “I said would you like to step away from basketball and she sort of snapped back at me, she said ‘I’m playing basketball. I don’t want to hear another word.‘”

And she never did, either. Mainly because her dad wanted to keep coaching his daughter while he still could. He took the Shelby Valley job under the stipulation that once Cassidy graduates, he rides out in the sunset with her. With the first round of the 59th District Tournament set for Tuesday night, that is still the plan. The goal is to put the cherry on top at Rupp Arena in the upcoming Sweet 16.

Rowe would be lying though if she didn’t say there was some concern after the second knee injury. She knew she would be able to play basketball again, but would she ever return to peak form? Would the injuries hamper her development? The answer to that last question has been a resounding “no”. Now, she’s a legitimate candidate for Kentucky Miss Basketball.

“There’s always doubt. At that point, during the injuries, I don’t think Miss Basketball was even on my mind,” Cassidy Rowe told KSR. “I think just playing basketball in general was what was on my mind just because I was like will I ever become my old self, will I ever gain my speed back? Baby steps, as I was gaining my speed back, I was like you know I might actually have a chance at this. At the time through the injuries, it didn’t really cross my mind because I was more worried about just coming back to play basketball in general.”

The University of Kentucky has brought several Miss KY Basketball winners into the program over the years. Legendary names such as Maci Morris, A’dia Mathies, and Makayla Epps all won the award before thriving at the college level while wearing the blue and white. Rowe has a terrific chance at following in their footsteps.

“I definitely think with all the adversity she’s had to battle through throughout the years and for her to be as phenomenal as she is and her ability to get double-doubles and even triple-doubles every single night,” Mandy Layne, the head coach of Russell County High School girl’s basketball, told KSR. “I definitely think she would be a very deserving recipient of the award and then she could go on and represent our state at the University of Kentucky.”

Speaking of representing the state of Kentucky, what she’s done so far in high school and what she could do at UK is not lost on her. Her name is commonplace in the eastern portion of the state, whether she knows it or not. Fans have a tendency to get behind someone they see as one of their own. Rowe embodies what it means to represent Kentucky, but it’s how she does so with such class and maturity that separates her from the rest of the candidates.

“What Cassidy has been through, and what she stands for, and the love she has for the state of Kentucky and UK Women’s Basketball, I just think she would be a great representative of not only her community but also the entire state,” Lonnie Rowe added. “We had a guy come up to us, one of the last (Kentucky WBB) games we were at, he was a veteran and he was talking to us and he said ‘is your name Cassidy?’ And she says ‘yes’. And he says ‘so you’re the little girl from eastern Kentucky that’s coming down here next here?’ And she said ‘yes sir’. And his response sorta shocked me, he said ‘young lady you have no idea the following you have already before you step on campus… Just about every game we’re discussing what Cassidy would do in this situation.’“

Those types of stories certainly put some added pressure on Cassidy, but she seems to embrace it. When you’ve already battled through the level of adversity that she’s had to as a high schooler, the weight of the world doesn’t seem so heavy.