Sports

Science’s two-sport stud Lowen takes his act to Wesleyan

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It was never hard to find Teddy Lowen during the school year.

In the fall, he was the tall goalkeeper in the net for Bronx Science’s highly successful boys soccer team. And when fall turned to winter, Lowen would take his skills inside, helping lead the Wolverines’ boys basketball team to its best season in recent memory.

Even now, with school out and his Science diploma in hand, sports don’t stop for Lowen. He just recently returned from New England where he helped guide his “football” team, Manhattan Soccer Club Villa, to a strong finish in the national Under-19 tournament.

“I was just up in Boston for the nationals with my club team and we made it to the semis before we lost,” said Lowen, who played on the team with his Bronx Science teammate, Zach Seigelstein. “It was a very good run.”

Between soccer practices and games, basketball practices and games, and the rigorous academic workload Bronx Science is known for, Lowen spent more than his fair share of time at the prestigious school. And now that it’s all over, he wonders where those last four years have gone.

“It definitely flew by,” Lowen said, “but I had a great experience at Bronx Science.”

Lowen has many fond memories from his athletic career at Science. One of his finest actually came in a postseason soccer loss during his junior season in the Public School Athletic League.

“We were facing Martin Luther King, which is one of the best programs there is, a perennial powerhouse in soccer in the city,” Lowen said. “No one was even expecting us to stay with them, and we almost beat them. It was a very close game and it was the best team we had in years and it was in the quarterfinals, and we only lost 2-1. That was a great experience for me, a great experience for the whole team.”

But perhaps the accomplishments of his basketball team this past season serve as an even better memory considering the program’s past track record.

“For basketball, it had to be this season,” Lowen said. “Basically taking the team to one of our best records in years, with 14 wins, and it was the first division championship we had won in years.”

Sports was a very important part of Lowen’s high school experience.

“Playing on the two teams exposed me to a lot of different people,” Lowen said. “And by not just focusing on one sport — by branching out and meeting a bunch of new people — that was really important to me. I had such a blast on both teams. We all became close-knit with everybody, and it was just an incredible experience.”

With high school now behind him, Lowen will head a little north as he joins his older sibling in Connecticut.

“I’m going to Wesleyan University in Middletown,” Lowen said. 

“My sister, Katie (another Bronx Science graduate, by the way), goes there. But I was also talking to the soccer coach and the basketball coach there, and they made it pretty clear that it was possible I could play both sports at the Division III level. So I thought that would be a really great experience to continue my academic and athletic career. It was a really, really good fit. It was always one of my top choices.”

While he waits for late August to roll around to begin his college years, Lowen still can’t sit still. Well, he’s sitting a little as he serves as a lifeguard at a public pool near his home in Stuyvesant Town on the Lower East Side. And while he is not certain what he plans to major in — “I’m thinking very preliminarily about economics and business,” he said — Lowen does know he will miss what he had the last four years at Bronx Science.

“It’s definitely a little bittersweet because I made so many great friends and had so many great experiences that it’s going to be really hard to walk away from something like that,” Lowen said. “But Science was incredible with all we accomplished. With soccer, there were four straight Bronx Division championships. I was really proud of what I accomplished and what the teams that I was on accomplished. I’m definitely proud of that. 

“But it is bittersweet because I enjoyed it so much, I don’t want to leave.”

Teddy Lowen, basketball, soccer, Bronx Science, Sean Brennan

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