It’s every athletes dream to continue to playing for as long as they can. Today on national signing day, high school athletes signed their letters of intent to play at the college level.
Shawano Community High School senior Elliott Lowney is going to be catching passes for a few more years, as the Hawks wide receiver heads to Bemidji state University in Minnesota to play Division 2 football.
“I’ve had uncles and my dad played in college — it’s always been my dream,” Lowney said.
This season, the senior would end up getting hurt in week one just minutes into the game.
“I thought my season was over and then I ended up having surgery three days later and after five weeks, I played four games and managed to get all-state recognition.
His return gave the Hawks a much needed boost. In their last two regular season games and one in the playoffs, he amassed 483 receiving yards and hauled in five touchdowns.
“To come back and really perform at an all-state level — he brought up his level of play, it brought our level of play up as a team and we needed to win our last to games to qualify for the playoffs for the third consecutive year,” Hawks head coach Alan Tomow said about Lowney helping the team reach the playoffs.
As a captain, Lowney helped out the younger receivers on his squad. He was a team first guy who was going to help Shawano in anyway he could — injured or healthy. He would beat the coaches to the gym in morning and when the big moment came, such as in their second to last regular season game against Seymour, he wanted the ball.
“We were at midfield and it was third-and-seven and we’re wondering what we’re going to call and he he said, ‘hey let’s run jet and slant backside,'" the Hawks head coach said. "I said, “can you pick it up?” he says, ‘I’ll score.” And he did, he scored a touchdown on the play and he stretched (the lead to) two scores.”
Despite being injured for most of the season, he finished his career as the Hawks all-time leading receiver with 2,875 yards and No.10 all-time in the state of Wisconsin.
“To set those goals and be open about them, it says a lot about him and how much he’s willing to work and what he’s willing to do to work and go get those goals and he checked off every box this year,” Tomow said.
Next year, he will be redshirting for Bemidji state and Lowney had one last thing to say before the interview was over.
“Roll beavers.”
