Star guard Aaron Rowe will play this season for Father Tolton basketball, school says
Through the first half of the high school basketball season, Father Tolton basketball is tasked with a tough schedule that includes Helias, Chaminade and Webster Groves.
The Trailblazers will miss be missing one of the best players in the state of Missouri through that stretch.
However, Aaron Rowe, a four-star prospect according to multiple recruiting services, will be able to play this season, the school told the Tribune on Friday.
“We are excited for Aaron to be apart of our school community again," Tolton athletics said in a statement to the Tribune. "Following MSHSAA policies, we anticipate him being eligible to play beginning on (Jan. 10).”
Rowe spent last season with the Link Academy in Branson, where he won a 2023 national high school championship before transferring back home to Columbia this summer. He played his freshman season with Tolton, helping lead the Trailblazers to a second-place finish in the 2022 MSHAA Class 4 Championships.
After its loss to Webster Groves on Dec. 1, Tolton coach Jeremy Osborne said he expected Rowe to eventually take the floor. Rowe dressed out for the game but did not play.
“Aaron will be here,” Osborne said. “He’s dealing with some things right now, but he’ll be here.”
The MSHSAA transfer policy applies to players transferring from one MSHSAA-sponsored program to another. However, Link is not a MSHSAA-sponsored school.
According to the MSHSAA rule book, athletes who transfer from one school to another for athletic reasons will be ineligible for 365 days. However, there are exceptions.
Rowe is the nation's No. 18 player in ESPN’s Class of 2025 recruiting database. In 247Sports; rankings, he is No. 20 and the No. 2 player in Missouri behind Jasper Johnson of Link Academy. A 6-foot point guard, Rowe currently holds offers from Auburn, George Mason, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Missouri State, Pepperdine, St. Louis, Tennessee and Texas.
Rowe told Joe Tipton of On3sports that he would take an official visit to Missouri on Dec. 3, when the Tigers took on Wichita State.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Aaron Rowe: 4-star recruit expected to play for Father Tolton in January
