Campo Verde star donates blood, food

A packed gym. Students on their feet the entire match. Tears of joy spilling after capturing state.

This is the one-year anniversary of Gilbert Campo Verde’s first boys volleyball state championship. And senior star outside hitter Jesse Lowder believes this could have been a repeat title.

“I think we had a chance to be better,” said Lowder, who had a shot at being the state’s Player of the Year this season. “We were going to need to work harder than last year’s team.”

The Coyotes only lost three starters from last season’s team that lost only two matches all season and defeated Marana Mountain View in straight sets for the title.

“It’s tough because I’ve been with my teammates the past couple of days, and we were going, ‘This would have been the state semifinals, this would have been the state championship,’ ” Lowder said. “We didn’t get our senior night. I wanted to go through stuff we’ve done, have a good time with people I’ve been playing with.”

For the most part, Lowder has used the coronavirus pandemic shutdown to give back. He has donated blood, donated food to those in need.

“Our whole family likes to serve,” said Lowder, who is graduating in the top five percent of his class. “We’ve done service projects.

“My mom and I were like, ‘What can we do?’ I didn’t want to just stay in the house and do nothing.”

This does not surprise coach Brian Hiapo about his best player.

“Some may get angry,” Hiapo said. “Others may self-pity. Others may isolate and many fight off some depression.

“What did this unselfish, superstar center and leader do? He squared his shoulders and set his mind on serving others. Donating blood, small service projects, helping neighbors, delivering cookies to shut ins, and even babysitting for a friend who needed a break from the confinement. Did he wallow in self-pity? No. He chose instead to focus on other and dedicate two years of his life to serving the needy people in South Africa.”

Lowder is getting ready for a twoyear church mission starting in August in Durban, South Africa, after which he hopes to find a college where he can continue his volleyball career.

“The virus and fear have not won,” Hiapo said. “This young man in a testament to the greatness of a rising generation. Jesse and those like him bring hope to the world and its future.”

Lowder didn’t realize how surreal spring would be while on spring break, visiting Southern Virginia on a volleyball recruiting trip in March when news broke that the NBA was postponing its season over a player’s positive coronavirus test.

“I thought it was going to be temporary,” Lowder said. “I was on a visit to Southern Virginia when it blew up. I was going, ‘Hopefully this doesn’t spread to Arizona and the season gets canceled. School was canceled. Then the rest of the school year. The AIA canceled all spring events. I was like, ‘Did that really happen?’ It was just taken away.”

Lowder was in his fourth year as a varsity starter, his second as a team captain.

“Though the best all-around player on his team, he played unselfishly and captained his team to unite with one goal – win state,” Hiapo said.

“‘State before stats,’ was his rally cry. Campo Verde won state in 2019 and was on track for good chance of doing it again in 2020. He was an all-region player as a sophomore. As a junior, he sacrificed his first rotation front left position -- the coveted position for outside hitters -- so a senior could be highlighted and because Coach wanted his passing to ensure the best start to every game.

“Though he had great stats in 2019, he was happy to sacrifice all-region and all-state status for his teammates and for the state title. This year he again sacrificed the front left position, he helped build up other hitters, so the team had more weapons. He was not set the most but still had the most kills.”

Playing against the best in the state, Lowder’s hitting percentage was .471, which ranked third in the nation for outside hitters the first couple of weeks of the season.