TEMPLETON — Templeton assistant coach Sam Lowe has battled through the unthinkable and he's persevered through everything that has come his way. His journey makes
him special, not just as a coach but as a husband, father, and human.
In 2006, assistant coach Lowe landed in Templeton, but little did he know how much his life would change 10 years later.
At 12-years-old, coach Lowe was diagnosed with type one diabetes. In 2016, he was diagnosed with kidney failure stage five and he was put on dialysis.
"Dialysis is very taxing, Sam has always been a tenacious person... It started to mess with his mental state," his wife Jeanne Lowe added.
While on dialysis, he was placed on a transplant list for a pancreas and kidney, and in the meantime, he had a stroke so the battle continued to get harder.
"He was able to push through every moment. When you're on dialysis, it's not day-to-day, it's moment-to-moment. He never gave up," Jeanne said. The perseverance paid off because two years later, Sam's life was changed forever once again but this time for the better.
"Somehow by the grace of God I had a donor, I don't know her name but she is from northern California and gave me the gift of life... Now I make the most of it - I want to give that back to the young men I coach and my community," Sam said.
After 10 years away from Templeton for Eagles head coach Don Crow, he returned as head coach in 2019. The first thing on his mind was getting Sam back on the staff as an assistant coach and that's exactly what coach Crow did. "I think the coaching accelerated his recovery, in fact, I'm sure it did because he wanted to be with the kids so bad, our kids love him," coach Crow said.
"It's really incredible that he went through all of that and he's still making such a big impact in the community on young guys like me," former Eagles play Jaron Blank said.
"The amount of support I received from the community - and my wife, without my wife and someone like that in my corner, I wouldn't be here... Never give up, everything that happens in your life is there for a reason. Learn from it and keep going forward," Sam said.
Sam Lowe will continue to impact, inspire and shed light across the Templeton community not just as a coach, but also as a person.
