Rowen takes a very active role with the team.
When the Bulldogs are doing warm-ups, Arizpe will stand and blow his whistle for the first group to go. Then the second. Then, Rowen will walk onto the track for his turn.
“He’ll say, ‘Coach!’ and he wants the whistle,” Arizpe said, showing how Rowen will put his hands up to his mouth like he is holding a whistle. “He wants the same thing as everybody else. So, I’ll blow the whistle. I get in trouble when I don’t have the whistle.”
Last season on March 10, Arizpe was able to set up Rowen to run in one of the local track meets, his first race.
“It’s fun,” Rowen said. “[I like to] run.”
With the support of his teammates, and even opposing teams.
“We had all of our kids run next to him,” Arizpe said. “He finished and got a medal. That was awesome.”
Karen added: “It wasn’t just our kids. It was kids from the other schools that were running with him too.”
With three years of being in the track program and last year competing in a race, Rowen qualified to receive his athletic letterman jacket.
On August 30, the jackets that had been fitted for in May finally arrived at the school. Arizpe admitted that he had had nightmares if Rowen had actually gone and been fitted for his jacket in May. As he went through the boxes, Arizpe's fears were put to rest as there was Rowen’s jacket.
Arizpe wanted to make this a special moment.
He went to the seniors on the team and handed them Rowen’s jacket out of his backpack, where he had been hiding it.
With cameras rolling, the team gathered around Rowen and presented him his own jacket. His last name – Hall – stitched onto the back, just like his brother and sister who had gotten theirs years prior.
Rowen hugged the jacket with the biggest smile, and he simply said, “Thank you.”
“I was glad I was working from home when Jaime sent me the video, because I sat there and bawled like a baby,” Karen said as she held back emotions. “It’s exciting because when Rowen was born with down syndrome, we didn’t know what to expect. It’s been so much fun watching him grow, be accepted and be loved by so many people.
“He was very excited when he got home with it.”
Arizpe added: “It was something that you’ll remember for a coaching career.”
The video of Rowen getting presented his letterman jacket got viewed nearly 10,000 times on the La Porte XC/Track twitter account. Karen shared it on a national website for parents with children that have down syndrome.
She received nearly 500 responses to the video, many filled with hope.
“They are looking forward to the possibilities for their kids,” Karen said. “I think that’s what’s important about this. And to hopefully see other coaches embrace the idea and be comfortable with this.”
Someone once asked Karen, “Aren’t you afraid for him to walk out to athletics?”
The answer?
No.
“When people see him at the track meet and around the halls, they know him,” Arizpe said. “The kids have a sense in their soul that at La Porte we embrace everybody. Whoever is going to come into our locker room, whatever skill level, we’re going to build and cultivate the person to be a part of our community and our programs.”
Karen added: “It says a lot for our school and for our district. It’s the expectation, really, that students will be included.”
Rowen is already a star as he walks the halls of La Porte High for his senior year, but now even more so after the social media buzz around his video.
And you can expect to watch him blaze down the track come the spring, wearing the La Porte colors again. And, while he’s waiting on his race, wearing his letterman jacket.
“You’ll see him on the track this upcoming season,” Arizpe said. “We’ll get him some races. He is a social media superstar, so if I reach out to some other coaches, we can get him on that track circuit. We can make fun with that this year and make it special for him.”
Oh, if you were wondering – Rowen loves his letterman jacket.
“I was surprised,” he said. “It fits good.”
Bradley C. Collier (VYPE)
