Steve Lowe joined the University of Portland women’s basketball staff as assistant coach in May of 2014. Originally from Richland, Wash., Lowe worked under UP head coach Cheryl Sorenson for three years (2004-08) at Bellevue Community College and he succeeded Sorenson on the Eastern Washington staff when she left for Portland in 2011.
Lowe spent three seasons (2011-14) at Eastern Washington where he helped guide the Eagles to a WNIT berth and a combined 51 wins in three years. In 2012-13, EWU won a school-record 14 Big Sky Conference games en route to finishing third in the league standings. The Eagles concluded that year with their second WNIT bid in program history after winning 19 games for just the fourth time in school history.
Under Lowe’s watch, the Eagles landed a conference MVP honor, two first-team all-conference selections and a Big Sky Freshman of the Year. Seven EWU players total earned all-conference recognition under Lowe, while 15 players were named to the Big Sky All-Academic Team. The Eagles were ranked 25th in the WBCA Top 25 Academic Honor Roll in 2012 before tying for 14th in 2013.
Prior to his stint in Cheney, Wash., Lowe spent three years as an assistant coach for the women’s basketball program at Cameron University in Lawton, Okla. Lowe helped the Aggies double their win total, he coached five All-Lone Star Conference selections, and he had two different recruits honored as LSC Newcomers of the Year. Like the Eagles, the Aggies were also solid in the classroom. During Lowe’s three years on the staff, the team grade point average improved from a 2.5 to 3.4.
Lowe’s first collegiate coaching experience came at Bellevue where he and Sorenson took the team from a 4-22 mark during their first season to a remarkable 26-5 record in 2007. He helped lead the squad to a second-place finish in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) in 2007 and the team claimed a pair of North Division regular-season titles. After Sorenson’s departure from BCC, Lowe took over as head coach of the Bulldogs for one season before heading to Cameron.
While at Bellevue, Lowe coached five all-region first-team selections, one second-team honoree, four All-NWAACC Tournament players and four academic all-stars.
Before teaming up with Sorenson at BCC, Lowe was the head girls’ basketball coach at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, Wash. He also spent more than seven years in the classroom as a special education teacher in the Lake Washington, Issaquah and Richland school districts.
Lowe is a 2001 graduate of Central Washington University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in special education. He went on to earn a master’s in technological education from Walden University in Minneapolis, Minn.
He is married to Brianne Lowe and they have two daughters, Harper and Kiernan and a son, Gunnar.