Although not fully participating in the program until 2004 Matthew Sowers made his presence known in the gym by befriending his older brothers teammates long before. He would shoot around during time-outs and pregame warm-ups. In fact these memories also make us remember the “Matty Sowers Ear Dribble”, or the fact that most of the time he wasn’t even wearing shoes. Now it’s simple to pick on the “ear dribble” or the way he dribbled so hard but the last laugh would ultimately belong to Matthew. This ability to handle the ball may have started with a different Sowers (Hall of Famer Cam Sowers) but would finish with an unprecedented 21 All-Star Game appearances. Needles to say not even “B” Cassidy can top that one. This fiery guard most remembered for his Division1 play made it well known that size wasn’t the main factor in the ability to rebound. To this day he is known as arguably the best rebounding guard Division1 has ever seen and he topped this with his dedication to defense winning 5 best defensive player awards, 4 consecutive (JJE-17, JJE-18, JJE-19, JJE-20 and SJE-36). His individual achievements also include: Division 2 Larry Bird Award winner during JJE-15, Appointed Journeyman marketing assistant in 2005 being the sole creator of the BlueCollar Logo, Co-MVP of the 4th Annual Alumni Game in April of 2006, D2 Most Valuable Player JJE-19, Holds the current Junior record for most consecutive games played without a miss with 138 games as of 7/26/08, received Coach of the Session during JJ-033 coaching D1 NC Blue to a championship victory, and has received POG honors 36 times. At the point of induction Matthew will be, #1 All-Time in games played, #4 in point system points, #3 in career assists, tied for #1 in career steals, #4 in 3pt field goals made and #4 in 2pt field goals made. Now this amazing list of statistical achievements is also followed by an impressive list of character based achievements as well. Matthew was a driving factor behind some of our first labor-intensive community service projects such as Portsmouth Avenue clean up. He was also the first athlete to sit in on development committee to help form the BlueCollar Program and was appointed captain of our first BlueCollar Team. Matthew also sat on the marketing committee to help design apparel and pro-shop sales items while on the roster as a D1 player. Matty’s passion for the game is only superseded by the way he supported his teammates, often heard yelling “Yeah buddy!” to those that played on his team or served on his team roster. His body of work while a member of the organization was great and will not soon be forgotten.

A great player, a true character, Please join us in congratulating Matthew Sowers, a true Journeyman.