By Jason Lamb
After a strong sophomore year, Kickapoo basketball star Zaide Lowery is ready for a junior year breakout on both the football field and basketball court.
“I think this year will be big for me for basketball and football,” Lowery said.
The 6-foot-5 junior will be the Chiefs go-to wide receiver this fall while he holds multiple Division I offers on the basketball court.
“Right now I have a couple of D1 offers for basketball, and I just feel like our team this year for football is just going to elevate and help me throughout the year,” Lowery said.
Lowery was a sophomore on Kickapoo’s state championship basketball team this past March. He was a role player on a dominant team loaded with Division I talent. He spent his summer starring on the AAU circuit showcasing his talent for countless college coaches.
Missouri State was the first to offer a Division 1 scholarship followed by Marquette and Kansas State.
Now his focus switches to the football field, which is a decision that has the full support of Kickapoo boys basketball coach Mitch McHenry.
“Coach McHenry was a two-sport athlete. He played quarterback at Evangel. He is on our sideline on Friday nights,” Kickapoo head football coach Nate Thomas said.
Lowery isn’t the only basketball player out for football either.
“Getting Zaide and Samias (Pickett) and we picked up Matt Jones this year, so we have kind of cracked that code of getting those basketball guys out,” Thomas said.
Lowery’s basketball skills translate pretty well to the football field.
“Mostly rebounding. We can throw high-point balls to me and I can go up and get them,” Lowery said.
“He brings a very tall, long and athletic basketball mentality out there on the edge that he is just able to go up and catch a lot of balls,” Thomas said in a pre-season preview.
“I’ve been coaching receivers and around receivers a long time, and he has some of the biggest hands I have ever seen on a young man,” Thomas said.
The basketball offers are already rolling in for the rising junior, but a big fall on the gridiron could see football offers come in as well.
“I had a couple calls yesterday from a couple schools interested in him at wide receiver,” Thomas said.
“He said that Mizzou called him and was talking to him,” Lowery said.
Kickapoo will head to Ozark for a jamboree with Nixa and Ozark this Friday before opening the season on Aug. 27 at Camdenton.
