Osseo senior living the hoop dream, signs with Gonzaga

By Cory Weaver, of Osseo High School

Osseo Senior High’s Sam Dower Jr. is living the life of a future Division I college basketball player.

He is considered one of the best basketball players in the state, even the country. Until signing last fall with Gonzaga, he got messages on his cell phone from head coaches like the University of Maryland’s Gary Williams and University of California, Berkeley’s Mike Montgomery.

Dower ranks third in the metro in scoring, averaging 25.1 points and just more than five blocks per game.

Rivals.com ranks Dower as one of the top 150 players for the class of 2009, which makes him a heavily recruited prospect.

After being nominated for the McDonalds All-American Team, he was also selected as 1 of the 15 nominees for the Minnesota Mr. Basketball Award, making him an obstacle for opposing teams.

“It’s a lot of fun playing against a guy like Dower because I know I will be seeing him on SportsCenter in the next couple years,” said Maple Grove basketball player Josh Pedretti.

“With a guy like him, it takes a lot of double- and even triple-teaming to stop him,” Pedretti said.

As impressive as his numbers are, they only tell part of Dower’s story.

“Sam is a quiet leader who leads by example … He is one who works hard and shows leadership that way,” Osseo Head Coach Tim Theisen said.

His talent didn’t spring up overnight. “I had to work really hard since I was in fifth grade because I wasn’t always talented,” Dower said.

Dower began to learn the game of basketball at a very young age when his father, Samuel Dower Sr., bought him a basketball hoop for the driveway.

“I used to play on it all the time,” Dower said. “That was all I did was play on that hoop with family and friends.”

Dower gives a lot of credit to his success to his coaches, past and present.

“My (Amateur Athletic Union) coach Marquise Watts and Tim Theisen really helped me develop into a more talented player and athlete,” Dower said.

According to Theisen, Osseo’s head coach, they have slowly brought Sam through their system. As a ninth grader, Sam played for the sophomore team, and in tenth grade, he played junior varsity.

The following year he came off the bench for the varsity team and was the second leading scorer. “He did everything we asked of him, and more,” Theisen said.

Not too shabby for a high school junior. This year, Dower has started every game this season and leads the team in scoring, rebounding, and blocking shots. “He is as dominant a player that Osseo has ever had,” Theisen said.

Dower plays a very aggressive, yet poised, style of basketball. He is always a threat to score in the paint and on the baseline, but he can also pop out and shoot the 3-point shot when needed.

On the defensive side of the court, Dower is very mobile for a big man – he’s 6’9”. Dower is not afraid to steal the ball from the person he is defending, like many big men are.

Dower said he is honored so many people took notice of his game and that he was recruited to play college ball, but the whole experience was overwhelming at times, like when he started getting around five calls a day from recruiters.

“It started to wear me down a lot, so I narrowed my choices down to a top five, and that took a lot of weight off my shoulders,” he said.

Dower doesn’t have to worry about his phone ringing off the hook anymore, because he signed to play basketball at the University of Gonzaga this past September.

While he had many other scholarship offers, including the University of Minnesota, Marquette University, the University of California, Berkeley and George Mason University, Dower believed Gonzaga would be the best fit for him.

“I think I made the right choice in choosing Gonzaga because they play the style of basketball I play, which is big men can shoot inside and out,” Dower said.

Dower said he realizes that college is a whole different style of play and everyone is going to be as good or better than he is and that he is looking forward to the challenge and can’t wait to get better.

Although it won’t be too long until Dower is suited up in Bulldog red and blue, he says he will continue to work hard this summer for his first college season.

“I’m preparing by doing everything I can in high school basketball and I’ll be doing individual workouts this summer,” he said.

Much to the delight of future head coach Mark Few.

“He’s athletic, he’s working on putting on weight and he will fit in real well at Gonzaga,” Few said in a press release.

Although he has already committed to Gonzaga, Sam has not lost sight of his current task at hand — high school.

“Just because you are a D-1 recruit doesn’t mean you aren’t human like everyone else so I just stay humble and continue to finish my job, which is school,” Dower said.