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July 24, 2007 Northeast, Md. - For someone who did not begin playing basketball until he was 15 years old, Cecil College's Jareem Dowling has sure made up for lost time over the last 10 years. As a player, Dowling was an all-star forward at Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington, Del. who played for a final four team at Cecil and went to NCAA Division I University of Maryland Eastern Shore on a full scholarship. Since turning his attention to coaching in 2005, he has been equally if not more successful on the sidelines than he was on the court. In his first two years as an assistant coach to Bill Lewit at Cecil College, the Seahawks won a national championship in 2006 and returned to the tournament as the top-ranked team the following season. Dowling's accomplishments and contributions have been noticed by many, including the people in his native Virgin Islands who have selected him to be the head coach of their 17 and under team, which will compete in the Central Basket Tournament from Aug. 1 to Aug. 5 in Puerto Rico. "It's beyond my imagination to be part of something of this magnitude to help represent my homeland," said Dowling. "It's just outstanding and I owe it all to Coach Lewit because he has allowed me to grow so much as a coach. It's a learning process and I am learning from one of the best guys in the nation at any level." A two-week training camp is being held from July 14 to July 29 on Dowling's home island of St. Croix in which he and the other four coaches are conducting tryouts and will choose the best 12 players from the three U.S. Virgin Islands to make the team. In addition to host Puerto Rico, the squad will compete against the Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Costa Rica and Trinidad.
"Jareem is poised and ready for the next challenge of taking on a team of this caliber," said Lewit. "His enthusiasm will be contagious to the other coaches, and the young players who will feed of his youthful energy." Even though he has spent the vast majority of his time in the United States since coming here in 1997, Dowling has maintained close ties with everybody back home. He regularly directs people from the Virgin Islands to camps where their players can be seen by American colleges. Dowling attended this year's NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Final Four in Atlanta, where he sat in on a meeting with Usie Richards, president of the Virgin Islands Basketball Federation and a Virgin Islands senator, and his brother Ronnie Richards. Dowling had previously conversed with the Richards' brothers over the phone and they were impressed with how he carried himself in person. After asking him if he would be interested in coaching the team, they intensified the selection process. "I was shocked and thought this wasn't really happening," said Dowling. "They continued to call me and do more research. I thought it was going to blow over, but they offered me the job and bought my plane ticket." Growing up in St. Croix, Dowling loved playing baseball and was a member of traveling all-star teams. He looked to continue to excel on the diamond until a change of plans occurred prior to enrolling at St. Croix Central High School. "My grades were kind of bad and my mom said I couldn't play baseball anymore," said Dowling. "She didn't say I couldn't play basketball so I started doing that. As time went on, I just fell in love with basketball and forgot about baseball." Dowling quickly adapted to his new sport but still wasn't making the grade in the classroom. His eighth-grade basketball coach Marvin Johnson introduced him to Rosalind Toulson, a judge and justice of the peace for New Castle County, Del. Toulson was involved with bringing foreign exchange students to Delaware and approached Dowling's mother with a proposal for him to come to the United States. She initially didn't accept the offer but soon realized it was time for a change as her son's grades continued to slide. "As far as academics and being able to reach your maximum potential, you are very limited in the Virgin Islands," said Dowling. "It isn't because people don't care. We just don't have the resources. When I came up here and saw all of the opportunities, it gave me the hunger to succeed." Dowling played three years at Howard and was named honorable mention all-state for a team that was consistently highly ranked in Delaware. Lewit saw him score 19 points in a 2000 all-star game during his senior season and approached him about coming to Cecil. "Cecil was challenging at first but when the coaches showed me there was so much extra help, such as tutoring, I took advantage of it and excelled after that." Dowling averaged 8.7 points and 6.6 rebounds in 63 games for a program that was a national semifinalist in his sophomore year. His 394 rebounds have him in an eighth-place tie in the team's record book. Dowling graduated from Cecil in 2003 with an associate's degree in general studies and transferred to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where he started to think about becoming a coach. Shortly after receiving his bachelor's degree in sociology in 2005, he rejoined the Seahawks as a member of the coaching staff. "Jareem has done everything he has been asked to do and more and is always anxious to see what else he can do to help better the program," said Lewit. "His apprenticeship over the last two years will have his Virgin Islands team where it needs to be when it begins competition." In addition to his position as an assistant coach at Cecil, Dowling also works at the college as a registration technician and at the switchboard and call center. He is very grateful for being able to take a month off and has been assured that his jobs will still be there when he returns in mid-August.
"I give special thanks to the enrollment and student services department for understanding and allowing me to do this," said Dowling. "I owe them so much, because without their consent, it wouldn't be possible."
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