THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 11, 1996 TAG: 9609110638
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: 119 lines
That wasn't the spotlight shining on Virginia defensive back Joe Rowe Saturday night when he returned a kickoff 82 yards and a blocked punt 4 yards for touchdowns in the season-opening victory over Central Michigan.
``God is shining his light on me right now,'' the polite, soft-spoken Rowe said.
``Sometimes you don't know what the reason is, but I know everything happens for a reason.
For the better part of his life, Rowe, 21, has struggled to understand the bad things happening to him. He may never understand, but he knows that sometimes God works in mysterious ways.
Rowe was born in East Elmhurst, N.Y. His mother died when he was 3. He lost his father when he was 13.
He was raised by his grandmother, Mrs. Marlene Freeman, who moved from New York to Emporia, where Rowe was a multisport star and honor roll student at Greensville County High School.
The cold, cruel darkness crept back into Rowe's life a little more than a year ago as he prepared to begin his third season of varsity football at Virginia.
He got word that his 18-year-old cousin in New York, who was like a brother to him, had been killed. The pain was so deep that he still shakes his head and begs off when asked the circumstances of the death.
Soon after his cousin's death, Rowe lost both his great grandmother and great grandfather.
Suddenly, school no longer mattered to him. He stopped studying. He ignored assignments. He missed a lot of classes.
``I was feeling sorry for myself,'' Rowe said. ``I lost interest in things. They didn't seem as important as they once were.''
Rowe was suspended from school in January shortly after Virginia returned to Charlottesville from a victory over Georgia in the Peach Bowl.
``I did not expect him back this season,'' coach George Welsh said. ``I did not hear from him all spring, and he was not included in our plans for this season.''
Most Virginia students placed on academic suspension have to sit out a year before they are readmitted. Welsh also had seen some players with personal problems or academic woes put the university in their rearview mirrors and never come back.
In Rowe's case, though, Welsh must have had a feeling. He kept Rowe's scholarship available, just in case.
Still, Welsh was wonderfully surprised two days before preseason camp began to find Rowe standing in his office and saying he had been readmitted to school and was ready to play football again.
``I had no idea, but I knew we needed him since we were trying to replace three starters in the defensive backfield,'' Welsh said.
``Besides that, Joe Rowe always had been a great kid and a hard worker.''
But how did Rowe short-circuit normal school procedure and make it back after sitting out only one semester?
Rowe credits Steven Plog, a dean in the School of Arts and Science, for helping him get his life back in order.
``He (Plog) didn't make any promises, but he told me if I would get a job in Charlottesville and stay in touch with him that he would see what he could do,'' Rowe said.
Plog, who became involved as a member of the appeals process, said he saw Rowe as someone who really wanted to be successful, and that others at the university spoke well of him.
``He was not someone who was off totally in the wrong direction,'' Plog said.
``When we suspend someone, it is not a punitive measure. We want the person to take time to step back and reflect on things that should be important to him.''
Rowe said he realize his mistake as soon as he was notified that he had been suspended.
``It really hit me when my scholarship was taken from me and I was told I couldn't go to class,'' he said. ``I had let a lot of people down. My grandmother, the people here, and myself.''
Rowe shared an apartment with two other players, Duane Ashman and Darrell Medley.
``I watched them get up and go to class, and to spring practice,'' Rowe said. I would get up and go to work, and I knew I should be going to classes and practice with them.
`` The whole semester that I sat out, I saw the things I had given up.''
Rowe got a job stocking inventory at The Gap, a clothing store in a Charlottesville mall.
``I realized quickly I didn't want to do that the rest of my life,'' Rowe said. ``I wanted to go back to school and get my degree.''
Rowe stayed in touch with Plog, who became convinced that Rowe had learned his lesson without sitting out an entire year.
``His priority was getting a degree and that's what it should be,'' Plog said.
Rowe said getting kicked out of school helped him to mature.
``I only need 13 hours to graduate. I know what I am here for, and I am taking care of business,'' he said.
The suspension also caused Rowe to take football more seriously.
``All the time I had been here, I hadn't been as focused as I should have been,'' he said.
Because he missed spring training, he volunteered to stay after practice in preseason to work on fundamentals with the new class of freshmen.
``He is a better football player. I noticed a difference right away,'' Welsh said. ``He'd always played hard and helped us in the roles he played, but he is just a lot better now.''
Rowe began preseason camp on the third team. Two days before the opener against Central Michigan, Welsh told him that he would start.
The 82-yard kickoff return not only was the first touchdown of Rowe's career, but the first time he had touched the ball offensively in a game.
A short while later, his second ``touch'' resulted in another touchdown when Anthony Poindexter blocked a punt and Rowe picked up the ball and ran into the end zone.
The defensive team awarded Rowe the game ball.
``The biggest difference between now and when I got kicked out of school is that I used to feel sorry for myself because of all the adversity I had experienced,'' Rowe said.
``Now I am determined to work harder because I have been through a lot. It is true that adversity can make you stronger.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
DAVID L. GREENE
U.Va. defensive back Joe Rowe, readmitted to school this summer,
returned a kickoff 82 yards and a blocked punt 4 yards for
touchdowns Saturday against Central Michigan. by CNB