Rowe, Maxey join Mid-Atlantic Christian University basketball program

GREENVILLE — The TEACH girls basketball team may be the little sister of Beaufort County high school athletics, flying well under-the-radar, but Thursday evening at Eastern Pines Church of Christ in Greenville, Whitney Rowe and Olivia Maxey put the pen to paper and signed their letters of intent to join the Mid-Atlantic Christian University basketball program.

“I’ve gone to Christian schools forever it seems,” Maxey said. “TEACH is just kind of one big family and I look at MACU and it reminds me of the same thing.”

In front of family and friends, Rowe and Maxey committed to MACU and became the first pair of players from the same high school to join the Mustangs women’s’ basketball squad.

As co-captains, Rowe and Maxey led TEACH to back-to-back National Association of Christian Athletes National Tournament appearances, as well as a North Carolina Christian Athletic Association State Championship in 2013.

Rowe led the Trailblazers with 16 points per game, finishing her high school career with over 1000 career points. She was also named to the NACA All-American team her junior and senior year.

Maxey led her team with 10.5 rebounds per game and earned defensive MVP accolades from he TEACH coaching staff.

“I just really liked the Christian environment,” Rowe said. “I wanted to go somewhere where the atmosphere would be positive and uplifting. That’s why I decided to go to MACU.”

The evening offered solace for what’s been a difficult month for Rowe and the TEACH program. On May 4, Greg Rowe, Whitney’s father and the mind behind the Trailblazers’ undersized but implausibly successful girls basketball team, passed away, leaving a community heartbroken and in shock.

Rowe and Maxey attribute their success at the high school level to their lively, energetic and caring head coach.

“Dad – our coach – always told us the right thing to do,” Rowe said. “His practices always made everybody better.”

The pair will head to Elizabeth City this fall looking to contribute to a Mustangs team that finished 1-21 last season.