From writing the number "21" on their arm, to draping her jersey over an empty seat, the Jammin' Legends are making sure Carly Stowell is remembered
Carly Stowell was a point guard on the rise. A 5-foot-9 package of enthusiasm and talent -- on the court, with the band or in the classroom -- and the 14-year-old was just about to hit the national scene.
A freshman point guard from Kent, Wash., Stowell led her high school team -- the Kentlake Falcons -- to the state tournament in March 2007 and then headed to North Carolina in April, where her name was being passed around the coaching circles as a promising young talent. She had talked to her strength and conditioning coach, Mike Caplan, about a camp at Notre Dame in July.
This summer would have been Stowell's prime July recruiting period, likely packed with unofficial college visits and basketball tournaments. Instead, it is filled with memories, reunions and working toward a new goal.
It has been two years, three months and eight days since Carly Stowell died in Raleigh, N.C., the night before she and her teammates were to play in the Deep South Classic, a spring evaluation event.
Stowell was doing her homework in the team hotel when she turned to her mother, Elena, collapsed and died from acute cardiac arrhythmia.
Her team, the Emerald City Legends 15U squad, played the tournament in her honor. Then, as they returned home to Washington and life without Carly, Stowell's family, teammates and friends knew they could not let Carly or her memory be forgotten. Even after her death, she has been the bonding force between her teammates.
"That's our main focus all the time and our main cause," Kylie Huerta said.
Huerta is one of four who are still together, having moved from the Emerald City Legends program after the summer of 2007 to be part of a new team -- the Jammin' Legends. Morganne Comstock, Dakota Sisco and Riley Butler are also on the new team that is part of a new, larger organization: The Carly Stowell Foundation for Education in Athletic and Music Performance.
The growing foundation currently includes 11 basketball teams, two volleyball teams, a lacrosse team, a music program with jazz improv and a marching band that performs in parades.
"Fundamentally, it's just people that see the mission of what we're trying to do -- bring both music and athletics to kids who really want to just learn how to be better. People just jump in and get involved," said Quentin Sisco, Dakota's father and the president of the foundation's board of directors.
Perhaps the foundation's largest goal is to eventually have a center in Kent, Wash., where it can house all the athletics and music programs under one roof, perhaps even with the ability to host tournaments like the one in which Carly Stowell was planning to play when she died.
"What's really amazing is we'll go to tournaments like this and people will ask, 'What is that?' [about the '21' written on the players' shoulders] And all we'll do is say 'Carly Stowell' and people know," Sisco said. "Regardless of where their team is from, they remember that."
The team name, Jammin' Legends -- complete with a saxophone-styled "J" in the jersey's logo and Carly's number (21) on a basketball that dots the "I" -- came to Chuck Stowell, her dad, in a dream. Carly played just about every instrument and was as talented with the jazz band led by her father, Kentlake's music director, as she was on the court.
Chuck Stowell now coaches one of the boys' Jammin' basketball teams on which one of his sons plays, while Elena Stowell, a former Washington State volleyball player, coaches in the volleyball program.
At Kentlake, where she shared the court again with Comstock, Sisco and Butler, the team memorializes her by draping her jersey over a chair for every game, home or away. Her jersey is also hung in the Falcons' home gym.
A Carly Stowell Winter Classic is hosted at Kentlake each year, and coach Scott Simmons is among the many who won't let Stowell's name be forgotten.
"This year, since it's her senior year, we're going to focus on her big-time," Comstock said. "The captains, Dakota, Riley and I, are finding a way to honor her memory a lot."
Everyone who has been touched by Stowell has different ways to honor her memory, including marking "21" on their shoulders for games, wearing a bracelet with a "21" patch on it or just supporting the foundation and its goal to never forget Carly.
In remembering her, people have found friends and support among those who loved her or have carried on her memory. Caplan, who moved to Chicago around the time Stowell died, was reunited with team parents recently when he came to see the team at the Summer Showcase in Chicago. The parents of girls who were already friends have become even closer through Stowell's death and the birth of the foundation and Jammin' Legends.
"We know that it takes all of us to raise our kids," Sisco said. "We can't do it alone and it's one of the things that we're trying to create."
The reunions and shared time together are good for the souls of those who knew Stowell best. The parents and the girls recognize that sharing memories and telling stories not only heals their hearts, but carries on her memory to other people who may not know much about the budding star.
"One thing you guys don't know and that's always bugged me was I've read a few of these articles, and they always say it was Carly's life dream to play in college and all that," said Caplan, talking to a couple parents. "Two days before she died she told me her life's dream and that wasn't it. It was to get her braces off. That came from her mouth. All she wanted was to get those braces off."
Braces or not, Caplan, who called Carly his little sister, was pleased to see what the team has become in their quest to honor their former point guard.
"I'm not a kid; I've been around the block. I know life goes on," Caplan said. "But it's good to see they remember her."
