Feature Story

Robbie Cowgill: Basketball graduate

A year later, former WSU basketball player Robbie W. Cowgill walks along the Glenn Terrell Mall yet again, but this time for a different reason. After graduating from WSU in May 2008 with a degree in business management, Cowgill joined staff with the global organization Campus Crusade for Christ. His current role on campus includes meeting with students and athletes and telling them about how they can have a personal relationship with God through Christ and grow in that relationship. Cowgill decided to apply for staff after experiencing God change his life through his time in Pullman and wanted to see the same thing happen for others.

Cowgill isn’t the only one who has changed over the past few years in Pullman. The former Cougar basketball player has seen many athletes, coaches and support staff trust Christ within the last three or four years and a group of Christians has begun meeting and leading within the department, both generally and spiritually. Cowgill said he’s seen lives transformed through being in a community.

The decision to join staff rather than joining the work force wasn’t easy, though. Cowgill’s mother was supportive of Robbie working for a Christian organization but was concerned that he wouldn’t be making the kind of money he could be making with his business degree. According to Cowgill, his mother wanted to make sure he’d be financially stable and taken care of.

The transition back to campus also wasn’t easy. “I was a little self-conscious being back here and walking around campus. People ask what I’m doing. I assumed there was an expectation that I would have moved on to ‘bigger and better things,’” Cowgill recalls.

Since being back in Pullman, Cowgill has done more than just working for Campus Crusade for Christ; He has had an opportunity to continue practicing with the basketball team on occasion and hang out with his old teammates, coaches and support staff.

“That’s the great thing about being back here. Some of my best friends are here. I’m surrounded by the family I had in college,” Cowgill replies to a question about his interaction with current players and coaches.When asked about their relationship, senior communication major Taylor C. Rochestie said, “I think that mainly our relationship has stayed the same. The kind of person Robbie is … he’s always going to be himself: authentic Robbie. Still joking around about movies, what he’s doing, and awkward moments. I look up to him with a spiritual aspect too - someone to talk to and go to with questions.”

According to Cowgill, he was allowed to be around the court as much as he wanted to be and ended up practicing once or twice a week with the team during the season.

“I hope it helped them some but it was more fun for me to be out there playing,” Cowgill said.

For Cowgill, not being a member of the team anymore has been bittersweet. He said not having to worry about your body and health as well as the pressure of upcoming games has been a relief, and being able to play basketball thorough other venues has allowed him to keep playing. He does miss the relationships with his teammates and the fun they would have in the locker room and during practices and games.

Though he misses the team and had never expected he’d be in this place, Cowgill said he enjoys being back on campus and being able to maintain his relationships and build new ones.