{"id":33391,"date":"2023-06-15T21:12:36","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T03:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rowland-named-best-female-hs-athlete-in-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:09:16","slug":"rowland-named-best-female-hs-athlete-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rowland-named-best-female-hs-athlete-in-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Rowland named best female HS athlete in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mason
Mason Rowland of Durango High School soars to the basket while playing Ca\u00f1on City High School on March 2 during the Class 5A quarterfinals at the Denver Coliseum. Rowland recently earned the Steinmark Award, which is presented to the top female and male high school athlete in the state. (Michael Ciaglo special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mason Rowland was a force every time she stepped on the basketball court, soccer field or volleyball court during her time as a Durango Demon. The state took notice, and the Durango High School graduate recently earned one more award to cap off her high school career. Rowland scored the most prestigious award for a high school senior student-athlete in Colorado: the Steinmark Award.<\/p>\n

The award is given to the best female and male student athletes in the state. It\u2019s presented by the Colorado High School Coaches Association and selected by a committee of athletic directors, coaches and former Steinmark Award winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was extremely happy and grateful to be given the award,\u201d Rowland said. \u201cIt was shocking. I had done the work for it and even being considered was an honor. (Winning) was a good feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowland was a three-sport star for the Demons. In basketball, she earned All-State honorable Mentions as a freshman and sophomore, Second Team honors as a junior and then First Team honors as a senior.<\/p>\n

\"Mason
Mason Rowland of Durango High School smiles before a soccer match this spring. Rowland recently earned the Steinmark Award, which is presented to the top female and male high school athlete in the state. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In soccer, Rowland earned First Team All-State honors as both a junior and a senior.<\/p>\n

In volleyball, she earned a pair of All-State Honorable Mention honors.<\/p>\n

This volleyball season, however, broke her L2 vertebrae in her back diving for a ball and missed most of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came up definitely hurting and knew something was wrong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the eight sets she played before getting injured, Rowland had 53 assists, 10 kills, 22 digs, two aces and a block. Rowland also continued to help the team out when she couldn\u2019t play.<\/p>\n

\"Mason
Mason Rowland of Durango High School digs the ball during her junior season. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI tried to stay involved and be a leader on the sidelines and help my teammates anyway I could,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Demons finished 19-8 overall. The team won the 4A\/5A Southwestern League with a 7-1 mark and won a regional title to advance to the Class 4A state championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to watch from the sidelines at times,\u201d she said while also crediting her teammates. \u201cThey dealt with so much adversity and they handled it so well.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three months on the sidelines, Rowland admitted \u201cthere were some doubts\u201d about returning to action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took some things for granted, but after I got hurt I treated every game and every practice like it was my last and I put in all of the effort I could,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She recovered from the injury in time for basketball season, however, and led the Demons all the way to Class 5A state semifinals.<\/p>\n

The Demons finished 23-3 overall in basketball, won a 6A\/5A SWL title and three state playoff games before falling to the eventual state champion, Roosevelt of Johnstown, in the Final Four.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking it to the Elite Eight and Final Four was a surreal experience to play at the Denver Coliseum,\u201d she said. \u201cThe connection within the team was strong, and that helped on and off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowland averaged 17.9 points per game this winter, shooting 49% from the field and 76% from the free-throw line. Rowland also averaged 5.2 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 1.8 assists per game. In total, she scored 466 points, grabbed 135 rebounds, had 92 steals, 48 assists and seven blocks \u2013 all team highs. Making the stats more impressive is the fact many opponents double-teamed Rowland to try and contain her.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a kid like Mason; you don\u2019t get to coach kids like that often in a career,\u201d said DHS head coach Tim Fitzpatrick after the season. \u201cShe\u2019s the best basketball player I\u2019ve ever coached. She did so much for us. Every team (in the playoffs) eventually went Box-and-1 on her and Roosevelt double teamed her the whole game, and she still averaged over 20 points \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowland also scored 507 points as a junior, 225 in her COVID-shortened sophomore year and 214 as a freshman, leading DHS in scoring all four years to finish with 1,412 points in a Demon jersey.<\/p>\n

On the soccer field, Rowland played as a midfielder and still led the team in scoring with 23 goals, averaging 1.6 per match. She assisted another seven goals. With the strength of her throw ins, teams were also forced to defend her throws like they were corner kicks.<\/p>\n

Rowland was also an integral piece of the team\u2019s semifinal run as a junior, when DHS went 16-3 and barely lost to the eventual state champ, Northfield, 1-0.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team, we have been playing together since sixth grade so we\u2019ve all grown up together,\u201d she said. \u201cThe ability to finish how we started was definitely a good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowland will play college basketball for Colorado Mesa University.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always enjoyed team sports, and I think basketball is the biggest team sport; you can\u2019t do it on your own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019ll help at a camp at Mesa and get to stay in the dorms this month and then head to Grand Junction full time in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs sad as I am to lose the other sports, I think it will benefit me to focus on one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in Durango, the community is so supportive,\u201d Rowland said. \u201cEveryone wants you to reach your goals. My coaches encouraged me to pursue what I love. They have given me a passion for sports and the town and helped me in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steinmark Award honors Freddie Steinmark, who excelled in football, basketball and baseball while attending Wheat Ridge High School in the early 1960s. Steinmark also was an outstanding student and was active in several school and community oriented endeavors before attending the University of Texas, where he helped the Longhorns to the national football title in 1969. Steinmark died from cancer in 1971 at age 22.<\/p>\n

Joseph Capra of Denver South was named best male athlete, earning recognition alongside Rowland. Capra played lacrosse, hockey and football in high school. He will play football for the Colorado School of Mines.<\/p>\n

\"Mason
Mason Rowland of Durango High School goes low as Jamie Suazo of Pueblo West High School collides with her during the second round of the Class 5A state tournament at DHS. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three-sport star wins the Steinmark Award<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,592,28,845,345],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-durango-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-soccer","tag-volleyball"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82179,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33391\/revisions\/82179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33391"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}