BROTHERS IN ARMS : Mesa, Patrick Henry Are Both Counting on QBs Named Lowrey

Lance Lowrey, the Mesa College quarterback, looked at another recent publication and matter-of-factly pointed out, “Hey look, they spelled my name wrong again.”

Indeed they had. The name is Lowrey--not Lowery or Lowry, as it often has been spelled.

During Lance’s two years as the starting quarterback at Patrick Henry High, his surname was repeatedly misspelled by a number of publications--including this one. But it also was misspelled on the Patriots’ roster.

Then along came younger brother Luke, who was called up from the junior varsity in the third week of last season and guided Patrick Henry to six victories in a 7-4 playoff season. The trend of spelling errors continued.

And with the junior college and high school seasons just a couple of weeks away, the Lowreys are back once again to haunt sports writers--and, of course, opposing defenses, which is why their names appear in print in the first place.

Lance, a sophomore, is readying himself to take a place in the lore of Mesa College, which has produced four junior college All-American quarterbacks over the past 15 years, including Steve Fairchild and Matt Kofler.

Luke, a junior, is doing the same at Patrick Henry, also the alma mater of Fairchild and Kofler.

While Luke may break the string by not playing quarterback for Mesa--he says baseball is his best and favorite sport--all four of them also went to the same elementary school--St. Therese--and grew up in the same neighborhood--San Carlos.

Fairchild is now a coach at New Mexico; Kofler is entering his fourth year as Lance’s quarterback coach.

Said Kofler, who was a No. 2 draft choice of the Buffalo Bills out of San Diego State and played four years in the NFL: “(Lance) has the tools to go on in this game. But that’s entirely up to him. He’s a very serious young man. Behind that easy-going front, there’s a serious, dedicated worker.

“He’s not a rah-rah type. He’s the kind of young man that leads by example . . . The other guys seem to know he’s out here to work, and they take their cue from him.”

And Luke? “Luke’s a fireplug. He’s a scrapper,” Kofler said.

Kofler confessed that he does not know much about Luke’s quarterbacking ability, since he was just a ninth-grader playing on the junior varsity when Kofler coached at Patrick Henry. But Patriot Coach Chris Miller knows both Lowreys well.

Miller, who played center under Don Coryell for both San Diego State and the St. Louis Cardinals before coaching at Morse, Kearny, Crawford, SDSU and San Diego City, said, “Lance is probably the best (high school) quarterback I’ve had the privilege to coach . . . But with his brother, I might have to take those words back.

“From body style to personality, they are two very different people. The one thing they do have is confidence. They’ve both got tremendous confidence. But you take that away, and they’re very different.”

The brothers readily agree.

“I don’t think we’re anything alike, as far as throwing,” Luke said. “He’s so good. I can only try to be as good as him.”

Aptly named, Lance is sleek, more of a natural drop back passer. He strides gracefully into the deep pocket and holds the ball up around his chin before releasing tight spirals.

Luke is a hustler. He scrambles around and brings the ball from below his hip pocket, like a second baseman on a routine grounder, before firing down field.

At 6-feet-3, 195 pounds, Lance is also much bigger than Luke, who claims to be 5-11 (“He must have had his elevator shoes on again,” Miller said) and 165 pounds. But each possesses the intangibles--football savvy and field awareness--needed to be a successful quarterback.

During Lance’s senior year (Miller’s first), he guided the Patriots to their first playoff game in four years after they had gone 0-10 the year before.

He was on his way to a fine season at Mesa last year before suffering a shoulder injury. In three full games and cameo roles in two others, he threw for nearly 800 yards and seven touchdowns, although he also was intercepted 10 times. Mesa stumbled to a 3-7 record.

This season, Mesa’s Coach Len Smorin said, “The degree of success we have will depend more on him than anybody.”

After an injury to starter Matt Mealiffe in the second week last season, Miller decided to bring up Luke from the junior varsity.

In his first game against Kearny, Luke threw two interceptions in the first half. But he came back strong in the second, leading his team to a 24-10 victory and finishing with 136 yards passing while completing seven of 10 attempts. He went on to finish 13th in the county in passing averaging (142.3 yards per game) while completing 53% (59 of 112) of his passes and throwing for eight touchdowns.

“We had our best season in five years. We were 7-4 (including a 12-10 loss to Southwest in the first round of the playoffs),” Miller said. “He was the QB that won six of those games. He had a great supporting cast last year. This year we’re a much younger team. We graduated 36 seniors last year.

“We’ve even told him, we’ve put a lot more weight on his shoulders, and we need him to produce.”

But, Miller added, “I’m very confident with Luke in there. And I’m sure the Mesa coaches are very confident with Lance.”